To not understand why so many people still insist on going to the supermarket?

[Dancergirl]

Having just read yet another supermarket angst thread (involvoing trollies), it made me wonder why so many people still do their food shop in this way...? Most of the online services are fantastic these days and so much easier. The benefits:

1. Shop online from home at any time that suits you
2. Many of the instore offers are available online
3. You tend not to impulse buy so spend less
4. You don't have to deal with dragging children round the supermarket - you could spend this time doing something FUN
5. You don't have to deal with nagging for sweets/rides/comics etc
6. You save petrol money
7. Someone else packs your shopping and BRINGS IT IN FOR YOU!

Honestly, what's not to like?

Yes I know the 'I like to choose my own fruit and veg/fresh stuff' argument. I like to too but not that much lol

And yes sometimes there are occasional problems with timing or items being substituted but in my experience these times are far and few between and the benefits GREATLY outweigh these.

Meh. I have done both. I do online when my DH is working 7 days a week,to save me taking 4 children to Tesco. But most weeks I'd much rather have £5 worth of extra food than pay a man to bring it to me.

Plus I get service guilt,and end up carrying the whole bloody lot in from the van myself.

I agree with the family outing thing, can't understand it myself, leave a parent at home with the Dc's or at the park & whizz round in a blissful couple of hours peace...even supermarkets can be a pleasure at times!!

A mix of both is best for me. Online for heavy/storecupboard stuff that you always need & then a shorter sprint round to get fresh or reduced bargains.
eg ASDA is great for reduced bread (10p loaves) to fill up the freezer with.

That said ALDI is cheap because they don't deliver or have loads of crappy staff. Their bread is good too!

I can't afford to shop in one store and so go to about 5 for different things to get a good deal. My monthly shop totals £100 and this is only possible by shopping around. 3/5 of those shops don't deliver. We use the market and local independent retailers too. The shops are all close. DD loves it and is well behaved.

Good enough?

1. Supermarket deliveries have a minimum order. We only have a small freezer and prefer to buy fresh most of the time. So that would mean having to make at least 2 min order deliveries a week.

1. Because I like to use different shops. Supermarket for stocking up, greengrocers often for veg (fresher and cheaper), M&S for posh meals. Again this doesn't fit in with the minimum order thing.

1. Because you have to order on line 24 hours in advance and have to commit to a certain time slot, which is not always convenient. Particularly when they're late.

1. I tend to be out and about and passing different supermarkets for my work so I usually nip in and get whatever we're short of.

1. The feckers usually make daft substitutions or send you stuff going out of date (disclaimer: Ocado seem to be good though).

Conclusion: I use both as both are convenient for different things.

Another thought- how are your childrten going to learn supermarket ettiquette if you never take them? Things like letting someone with 2 things go in front of you, or putting the 'next customer' thingie down, or having your money ready to pay instead of having to wait until the person has checked all their pockets, or learning how to pack so that you don't hold up the queue.
I really don't see online shopping replacing real shopping for everything.

I forgot about paying for it. Who wants to pay 4 quid for something you can do for free thats nearly an hours wage for me

some people don't trust online supermarket shopping, there has been issues where a major supermarket such as tesco or asda will take a ghost payment then take it again and you are left with no money and no shopping and no way to resolve it.

Also there are a surprising amount of people who DONT have the internet for whatever reason. They might be elderly, broke and unable to afford a computer or the internet sao their only option is to go to shopping.

The save petrol money bit, thats a daft thing to say. You still have to pay for delivery don't you

I LIKE going shopping. (I choose a quieter time of day) and I love browsing round asda (have discount there its great!) and it gets me out and about, something that I struggle doing lately

YANBU

But I suspect I agree because we actually had really good service from our local Tesco delivery (bar one time). If I had Lady's experience then I would probably not see the benefits so much.

It's also a godsend if, like us, you don't have a car. We saved a ton of money because the cheapest things tend to be in big and/or heavy packages, which we couldn't get too much of when we had to carry everything ourselves.

Morrisons don't deliver. I leave the kids at home.

I usually enjoy supermarket shopping. I check the bargains counter too for 'use by today' stuff and shop around - green grocers for fruit and veg, tins and pulses from cheapy shops like Home Bargains, stuff from different shops depending on the special offers that week. Think I must use about 3 supermarkets regularly plus small local shops.

On the other hand, I hate clothes shopping with a passion

yabu because the last time I tried to do an online shop it took me about an hour to find everything I wanted and then the site crashed as I was about to make payment

yanbu in trying to avoid supermarkets though, like other posters I also much prefer the local farm shop, the quality of the meat and veg is in a different league to the supermarkets and i actually don't think it is that much dearer, plus as there isn't all the stuff there that you would find in a supermarket I actually do end up spending less as I just buy what I need.

Avoiding impulse buying is the biggest plus for me

LadyintheRadiator the 'have you forgotten' on the screen is not the same. It doesn't smell . I can resist a picture of a cooked chicken or a lamb curry but its another story when i'm there and i can smell it.

And passing the bakery is a torture for me.

I dont drive so the delivery fee is cheaper than a cab home would be.

I get my main bits online but still pop instore for bits and bobs and to look at the reduced section.

I really dont understand why anyone with children doesnt do it online [providing they have internet connection]

Someone said about keeping people in jobs by going instore, home delivery also keeps people in jobs, the delivery drivers and the pickers and packers too.

Even when using Ocado, which was fantastic, I still used to go into the supermarket because:

the range wasn't the same- there were things stocked at my local supermarket I couldn't get on Ocado;

you can't get the reduced end of day specials online and this can save you lots, as others have mentioned; and

to do an Ocado shop I had to buy a minimum of £75 of stuff (I believe this varies from area to area) which i don't necessarily need each week.

I now shop a lot more at Asda, and I would never get their stuff delivered. It is harder to find fruit and vegetables in good condition which last even when selecting it myself in my local branch, and I wouldn't risk getting a week's worth of stuff picked by someone else which is in even poorer condition. Ocado was brilliant for delivering great condition fruit and vegetables, but talking to others locally, my local Asda is not.

Meh, I enjoy doing the weekly shop. I do it after work on a wednesday and it takes me just over an hour if I do aldi then tesco. It's on my way home, adds maybe an extra 2 miles out of my way so about 35p rather than £4 in delivery charges.

i like to pick my meat, fruit and veg (often get meat at butchers) and they always always send meat and veg that is close to sell by date, veg i am not bothered about but meat i am and dairy products

also i like shopping ad getting ideas on what to cook and ds loves going to the supermarket always has though it does take longer with him. he does not like other shops

Each to their own and all that, but I've recently started doing the shop on Internet and am now kicking myself we didn't do it earlier. I am quite happy without going around the store.

I do online shopping for all the bulky stuff, but I buy fresh stuff every week, I'm not going to pay for delivery 4 times a month.

Plus I like to pick my own meat and fruit and veg and if you shop online you miss out on the reduced section which is where I always head to first. I got 5 packs of king prawns for 10p each last week!!!

Dancergirl - totally agree with you. We have no car and do pretty much all our shopping for everything online now.

We do go to M&S for very occasional deli, fruit and veg supplies if we are passing and the occassional special product if we are passing but we don't do 'shopping trips'.

Really, our children are age 9 and 11 and have hardly ever been in a supermarket. In fact we shop online with them for clothes and everything else if possible. Its how our children think about shopping. They get to browse on their own on the internet. We discuss it, they show us and we buy and get it delivered.

Yesterday, I did happen to go to the shops briefly and the number of bored tearful toddlers and hassled mothers was an object lesson in why not to take children to shops.

Also forgot, Morrison's don't deliver and dp has dissy card. We do use Asda sometimes too.

Have to add though I wouldn't do an internet shop myself, I do like that other people do it as the sites are very handy for price checking everything and deciding where to buy various things, based on which supermarkets we're driving near anyway and where things are cheapest.

Those who mentioned the delivery charge, try to switch between supermarkets to have it free.

Then at least you can bulk buy the heavy and boring stuff when on offer (washing powder, toilet rolls, shampoo, olive oil, jars, cleaning stuff) and go in store for the fresh ones only.

I really don't enjoy online food shopping. I find it incredibly boring and never know what I want, whereas in store I see random things that I like. Say there's a new biscuit for example, it'd be hard to miss the supermarket display, but online unless you went to the biscuit page, you wouldn't have seen it.
I don't like the mad substitutes they send,, I want what I ordered!
Delivery charge is far more than the petrol cost.
It's a trip out for me and DS! He even has his own plastic trolley that we take sometimes, he loves it. And he's not a pesterer as he knows it doesn't work on me.
I can get the chilled stuff with longer dates, not have 3 meals worth that all has to be eaten within a day.
I can choose my own nice fruit and veg, not the manky leftover ones that no one else wanted.
I can go when I like, not tied to waiting in for a delivery slot, which us inconvenient even if they are on time, which is rare.
I like chatting to people we meet, as does DS. Don't get that sat at home in front of a screen.

So there. I'm not anti online shopping at all, I've done all my Christmas shopping without setting foot in town, which I love, but for food I will always go to the store.

Lidl don't deliver and they are cheaper than those who deliver.

I walk there so also cheaper than £5 delivery.

You can chose not to have fruit and veg that is already rotten.

You can chose not to have most of your shop going out of date on day of delivery.

You don't get stupid substitutions.

Plenty of reasons.

I don't understand why my retired PIL insist on shopping on a saturday then complain about how busy it is.

I'll only online shop with Ocado because it all comes from the warehouse, so all and sundry haven't poked it! DH likes to go up and down every aisle, drives me bonkers. Write a list buy what's on it. Why he can't grasp this i don't know! :o