To wish people wouldn't keep going on about Ocado?

[EricNorthmansmistress]

How wonderful if you can afford it, but seriously, mysupermarket.com says my typical weekly shop would be £17 more with Ocado! That's £68 a month! That's just not feasible for most people.

mysupermarket.com don't represent Ocado fairly because they don't show Waitrose Essential which is their own brand range - so of course it will come up more expensive.

I love Ocado - and this week they refunded me the price of a whole lump of free range gammon because they sent me too small a piece by accident.
Things are so so rarely broken or spilt or go off, and if they do you just log on and request a refund, which goes back into your bank in just a couple of days.

And the food is yummy.

I don't find Ocado a great deal dearer, esp when you use the value or essentials and every day ranges.

I have yet to be convinced by mysupermaket.com. It seems to differ vastly. i can enter my norma Ocado shops into it and it will often make tesco as being a fair but dearer. But enter another shop in via say tesco = and then esco comes out cheaper.

YABVU, Ocado is wonderful

Only reason we don't use them is because We live literally 2 mins from a sainbos and a waitrose so go there ourselves

And I LOVE waitrose essential range! Is marvellous!

And their meat! Only supermarket I will buy meat from tbh

And their own brand luxury fresh custard is amazing

And their staff are wonderful!

And helpful

And don't mind a screaming 1y old in their shop, screaming because she dropped her carrot sticks on the floor and is hungry and I have no more, and a member of staff goes and gets their pre-pack "snack" carrot sticks, opens them and gives her a couple.

Honestly I love Waitrose!

I do my shop at mysupermarket.com and I find my ocado shop is the same as it would be in Tesco and sainsburys
the key is to use Waitrose own brands then you tie in with Tesco and sainsbursy *and often cheaper.. and like said before their produce is much bettter quality.

Absolutely wouldnt change back.

im another Ocado devotee....(ta Belle)!!

And even Ocado plastic BAGS are better!

tbf it does cost me a little more. but its worth it - the meat and fish is beautiful, the fruit and veg lasts more than a day. i dont end up binning stuff because its gone off before i had chance to use it.

I love Waitrose and Ocado. And as others have pointed out, their food is so fresh and such good quality that you don't waste any of it.

Am only a recent convert in the last couple of months but I also heart ocado and I have also tried all of the others first.

Was particulary unimpressed with Asda as half of the stuff I ordered was out of stock and lots of items went off the next day (i.e. 4 pints of milk!) was offered £5 in compensation and they refused to budge from that. Don't like Tesco because I think they treat their suppliers appallingly and are real bullies. Sainsburys are so so but since moving to Ocado dont think I can ever move back. I love the product range, on time, no substitutes, long expiry dates. I also don't trust the price comparison sites there are so many ifs and buts and you cant match every product exactly. Also Waitrose have a match Tesco price promise and Asda used to do things in funny sizes (6 pack instead of regualr 4 packs) to get around this. Not sure they still do it.

I am over 40 weeks pregnant and I can honestly say that they have been an absolute god send in the last month or so when I just cannot face going to supermarket in this heat and being so heavily pregnant. Lovely drivers too. x

the only reason ocado keep getting praise heaped upon them is because they have a brilliant model for internet shopping.

i have tried all of them ( apart from asda). there is no comparison- no rubbish substitutions- they always turn up on time without fail- brilliant customer service. they have 1 hour slots, they delvier early and late. staff are unfailingly polite and cheerful and seem happy to work for them.

price-wise i buy practically everything as waitrose essential and meat such as mince and chicken breast. anything more substantial i get from the butchers- i do find their meat expensive. I have mine delivered on a monday and if i have time to pop to morrisons over the weekend and find a few bargains, i just take them off the order on the sunday night.

if you live in tesco land like we do- you have to have a strategy to avoid giving them your money due to lack of planning!!

and if you are fed up with people banging on about ocado, just dont start a thread about it!

Eric I think it depends on what you buy.
Now we don't even have Ocado here but we have Waitrose; Waitrose offers a service where you can search for dairy free , glluten free foods etc which means we don't have to buy specialist allergy foods and ends up saving us a good few £££.

ATM we're not using Waitrose just for a short bit as DH is due to get paid a decent % of his income at the end of September so this is our poor season and we have to just buy super cheap from grocers etc and make do (before anyone says oh boohoo it's NOT fun dragging 2 asd kids around the supermarkets OK? Just isn't)

Oh and the drivcers from W don't park up the road and refuse to come down as it's 'too narrow' even though they could easily fit (DH is an ex transport manager and bloody knows they could fit!) leaving me to drag 4 small boys, neitehr of whom can be left alone, down to get in the bags.

We do also find we have less waste with WAitrose (ds1 has eating disorders but for soem reason has less issues with WAitrose products; ASD thing no doubt). I don't do Asda online ever as our local seems to think a decent substitution is for eg a bar of chocolate for missingc ereal, and our Tesco has been avoided since the incident of the missing bags where they refused to bring them back out and I had to drive over; completely missing point IMO of home delivery

And you know, we have £X budget; that's affordabel wherver we spend it and no more so Waitrose in the offers section or A N Other shop in the main bit- is OK

YANBU

I live in Switzerland so cannot use Ocado so you should not talk about it so much. It is not fair.

Also, stop posting about penguin biscuits, and hobnobs, and fish and chips out of a newspaper (why was that bad, btw) and no more chatting about going to Tesco or Waitrose.

I used Ocado once and wasn't impressed. it was expensive and there was a ton of packaging around the fruit and veg (this was some time ago, so maybe it's changed).

I've been happy with Tesco - they always turn up in the first half hour of the delivery slot and wheel the boxes into my kitchen and help me unpack them. (so no excess bags)

But I may try Ocado again, just to see ...

I wouldn't get too attached though, because there's a very good chance they'll be out of business in a few years. Unfortunately for all their fab technology, they are unprofitable and their efforts to float now appear to be a bit doomed.

I'd never heard of Ocado till I joined Mumsnet! In Scotland though

When Tesco starts texting me who is delivering and in which van then I might use them again. My Ocado shop (15% off £77 for the week, family of 4) is coming later and I am keenly awaiting the text to tell me if it is Robin in the cabbage van or Kevin in the onion van. And they text you to remind you the last time you can make changes.

I my be alone here but I think Waitrose food is dreadful.We have a choice of Waitrose an M&S and a Tesco which is horrible.

Their ready made food is ghastly including humous,baked beans and fresh pasta sauces. The vegetables are over priced and taste/last no better than Morrisons.

As for meat I always do the trek to Morrisons as their meat is all British and the fish all fresh so I can freeze it at home if need be.

And Waitrose fresh bread...yuck...it's those part cooked things that they heat up, which means stale bread in the morning. At least some of the others actually make it all on site even if it is just fat and yeast!

Ocado do a good service if the delivery is wrong though whereas Tesco couldn't care less.

waitrose bread is not good (according to my mum), but I make my own so don't buy bread full-stop [smug]

ready meals, couldn't comment, I haven't bought a ready made pasta sauce in my life, that's what tins of tomatoes are for!

As a lot of people have commented, Ocado works out cheaper than Tesco, sainburys, even Asda, if you buy mainly fresh food and cook from scratch. Whenever I've put my ocado list into mysupermarket.com it ALWAYS comes out cheaper than Tesco, sometimes Sainburys and sometimes Asda. Also, the substitutions that those shops have make to match my list are not acceptable so I wouldn't shop with them on those grounds.

If you buy processed shit, branded goods, then Ocado is not the cheapest option for you. If you want good quality fruit and veg and meat that won't go off in a few hours then it is the best value.

I have ordered from waitrose a few times when I have had a little spare money - It is much better quality but is more expensive especially buying in larger quantities as they dont seem to have as many special offers etc as tesco.I think the prices for say two adults or for a small family would be manageable but for a larger family I think the price difference is more noticable. I have never had any real problems with tesco or sainsburys and only minor problems with asda so maybe I am just lucky

I order waitrose when I want treats, tesco when I need to buy food with waht money I have! (sainsburys when I am bored with tesco!)

Yes, Waitrose bread is dire.

Speaking of customer service, Waitrose goes so beyond the call of duty, it's unbelievable.
Last year, during the deep snow days, when our village was cut off from the rest of the world, Waitrose delivery man preformed miracles!
He dragged my £100plus shopping from the main road - faaaar away, up the steep hill and steps, to us in 5, yes, five separate journeys! He was beet red in face and hyperventilating, but insisted on carrying on, despite us faffing about with cups of tea and chairs for him to rest....

I make my own 'special' bread (eg a nice laof toa ccompany a salad) so only buyt branded sliced for sandwisches from Waitrose; but that is balanced out by their cakes (which I am led to beleive vary in standard but here are amazing) and the range of thngs sucha s fish (we ahve no local fishmoneger) we can get.

do you think the OP regrets starting this thread?

seriously, people love ocado because it provides a brilliant service. And that's actually worth paying for.

Yes it's not a problem for me anymore as I have given up bread! (and dh and ds will eat any bread, pretty much).

I think there are a lot of things people pay extra for because of the service. It is worth it.