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.

Simple. I like grocery shopping! Also, I don't trust someone else to pick my fruit and veg and if something is out of stock I want to be able to choose what the substitute is. My 2 yo boy love it too! He keeps the old biddies entertained chomping on a cucumber while I wheel him around the store.

YABU to not understand - it's pretty simple. Some people actually like going to the supermarket, they like chatting and wandering and browsing and making life hell for those of us who just want to get in and out.

This is why it's good to have online shopping - those of us who just want to make there be food in the cupboards can make it happen the day before while sitting on the sofa. People who want to do it themselves can do that.

I love going to the supermarket. I just pick the times when it is quietest.

I would rather pick the stuff I want, so I dont get short dated items or bruised items.

I can look what is yellow label reduced.

I see new things and try those rather than stick to only what I know.

And it is exercise that gets me out of the house, as I work from home, so I would become a hermit if I didnt go shopping!

I like going to the supermarket as it's the only time I get to go out of the house!

I really enjoy food shopping, that's the main reason I don't do mine online! I like to pick the best cuts of meat, rifle through the reduced section, get the longest dated food, that kind of thing.

yanbu

the supermarket is one of the largest causes of angst I've ever encountered. I'm right fucking sick of the British public at the moment with their rudeness and barging and pushing - and I'm usually a 'look how much good there is in the world' sort of person.

I get all my shopping delivered unless I'm driving past a supermarket and fancy going in to just check what the offers are.

And last week I walked out in the huff from the self service checkout after it failed to recognise the only 3 items I wanted - the guy came over the first 2 times, the third he had disappeared. And there had only been one second between the first/second second/third item. So he literally wandered off before the third SAME item would go through.

Oh and the last time I tried to do an Internet shop i was still sat there two hours later and nearly threw my laptop through the window

OP I am with you, I started online shopping a few months ago when my bored toddler started making shopping a nightmare. It has been a revelation, it's so much easier and cheaper and best of all I don't have to get wound up by all the other shoppers :)

i don't understand why you don't understand, it's not exactly hard to understand is it.

end of

I wonder if supermarket shopping will go the way of spending hours buying fresh food everyday that people used to do in the days before the fridge freezer?

I'm surrounded by supermarkets but I discovered ocado this year and it's ace because:

• delivery pass is £3.99 a month and min spend is £40. But I remember before I signed up for that you could get shopping delivered for a quid if you were prepared to take a really late slot.
• a weekly shop takes 10 mins. I value my time and I can't do tesco/ morrisons in less than an hour due to the size of the shops.
• they have been late once in the last year and substitute/ have missing items maybe one shop in four. And it's never on basic items such as bread or milk.
• the list of stuff is separated into date order so you can easily see what you need to eat and when. Dates are usually good but this is brilliant cos you can stick it to the fridge and then scoff food in order of date!
• they carry the shopping into the house and put it in the kitchen and it comes in colour coded bags so is easy to put away.
• never had a problem with being sent duff fruit and veg.
• I personally don't find it any more expensive than other shop particularly as round here the only place that does decent yellow sticker reductions is m and s.

Suppose it's personal experience at the end of the day. But I love having a choice :)

Because I'm a SAHM and it gets me out of the house.
I often go when DD2 is at ballet or gym so petrol has already been used and I may as well do some thing.
Often I take DH or DD1 and we chat an choose together.
I'm a country girl, big shops will always have a certain novelty.
If I did it on line, it would always be me who did it, me who meal planed and me who cooked it. If DH or DD1 have ideas they have been known to help make them.
But most of all DH and the DDs come shopping because they would not do something fun together. DH would vanish into his study and the girls would veg on their computers or watch Bloody CBBC

I like supermarket shopping but I love online shopping and am now a total convert - however I've tried a few and they're really not all the same. Tesco, for example, are the only one who sent me short-dated food (and actually food that was already off) plus fresh veg/fruit I would never in a million years have picked myself. And weird substitutions.

I agree with handbagCrab - Ocado is tons better and sends me fresh stuff I would choose. And delivery can be really cheap. TBH as I am now 31 weeks I can't be arsed with trawling round a supermarket and doubt that'll be any different once the baby's here.

Each to their own though. I agree with the OP that if people are complaining about supermarket shopping, so long as they have internet access, they can avoid a lot of their pet peeves by shopping online.

Let's add to the list of easy-to-understand reasons why people would do a "Big shop" in person - some people find shopping online difficult.

(I don't, I find it very easy, but I can understand why someone might).

I keep meaning to set up on-line shopping but because I would still want to shop for my own meat and veg I've never got around to bothering.

Things it would be brilliant for would include juices, multi-pack crisps, kitchen towels, bulk-buy baby wipes, toilet rolls, toiletries, tinned stuff, dried pasta, jars of sauces, tea and coffee, cereals. Things I need to look at and check dates of would include all chilled stuff, bread products, deli meat and fruit and veg. So really I can't see and reason to do it at the moment. I usually shop while dd3 is at an activity so no biggie really.

I've always liked supermarket shopping. If I go abroad, I love to go to the supermarket to see the different brands/things on offer. It's something I remember from being a little girl, we used to travel across the border (I am not English) to buy "special goods" for holidays and it was very exciting.

I expect it will change but ds loves it too, I pick things up and he puts them in the trolley "in, mummy, in!" and "orange mummy, big orange mummy!". It doesn't take that long and he doesn't tantrum/get bored. I've never fallen out with anyone in the supermarket (touch wood) and we don't go at particularly busy times so rarely have to queue. It's really not that difficult. Online shopping seems like a chore to me and would be just another thing I do on the computer. I'd prefer the real experience and I think it probably keeps people in jobs, too.

I like it (it helps structure my day on a weekend when dp is working)

Aldi dont deliver- my shop costs £50 there and £98 everywhere else

dd1 is 2.5 and loves it, dd2 is 3 mths and sleeps during it.

I like letting dd1 choose things (it makes her more likley to eat them)

teaches dd1 how to queue/ pay and behave in public

it put my off online shopping when a friend order her whole xmas shopping with dates like 24th december, the food wouln't have lasted as long. I tend to check dates on things like milk bread ect to get the best dates.

also i take my children, because how would they learn to shop if they are never taken.

I like going to the supermarket
I like the reduced section
I actually enjoy going out of the house and not doing everything online

Aldi don't deliver - like skinny my shop is half the price there than anywhere else.
I refuse to pay to fucking ridiculous delivery charge if I were to shop online
DS likes riding in the trolley and help
I like getting out for some fresh air
I like chatting to the checkout operative, it's nice
I like to browse

I think YABU to not understand why some people don't mind going to the supermarket.

Our trip to Aldi takes about 40 minutes all in.

We stick to the list. Very strictly.

Our children behave, don't ask for crap and help us.

I do buy most of my clothes and presents online though as I hate town shopping.

I do both.

I go the butcher/baker/greengrocer (or Waitrose or Sainsburys) depending which is more convenient for fresh food which I like to be able to see. You cannot order meat on line imo - you have to see it to know if it will eat well and looks good value. I also top up at those shops.

About every four to six weeks I do a massive Asda on-line shop for bottled water, squash, tins, persil, loo roll, bin liners, toiletries, oven chips, frozen peas, ketchup, cereal, oil, etc.. I am lucky to have plenty of storage space.

For me the above makes it manageable - I really cannot cope anymore with a trolley that is heaving and then have to lug it in and out of the trolley and car. Asda is cheaper for much of the stuff that can be stored and I prefer the fresh meat/fish/ etc. from Waitrose, butchers, sainos, etc.

I tend to buy fresh food every two/three days now because that's what suits as the dc are big enough not to have to be dragged around with me. Failing that I send to DS out to buy what I have forgotten

from what I am learning on this thread the minimum order would make it too expensive for me anyway if I want to shop often enough for the fruit and veg not to rot in the bin

never seem to meet anyone unpleasant down the COOP anyway

The other thing is on-line isn't that great in an emergency. I have been "laid up" since Friday and yet had to nip to Waitrose because the cupboard was bare and you can't get a delivery slot over the w/e at short notice!

Honeypablo - that's a very good point. I'm not saying I NEVER go to supermarkets, I do - I do a Friday top-up shop at the little Tesco petrol station and occasionally pop into Sainsbury's to buy the odd thing or two. Sometimes the dds are with me and if so I teach them supermarket etiquette.

Seems like plenty of people on here like supermarket shopping then! Clearly it's not you lot getting parking space/trolley rage!

As for choice available....I actually find too MUCH choice in the bigger supermarkets. I don't want to be faced with a whole aisle of cereals, it's just too much. Just my view anyway.

I'm another one who loves the date order receipt you get with Ocado. I put it on my fridge door and eat things in date order.

I thank the baby jebus for delivery. And really don't get people like my MiL who still insist on going to the supermarket, taking all morning, whinging about it then laying about prostrate with exhaustion afterwards.

We do one big one every week and get bits and bobs as and when we need but like dancergirl says I can't bear wasting 2 hours of my precious non-work time with DD fannying about in a supermarket.

Also we bought a 1 year delivery pass which means delivery costs evened out over a whole year come to about £1 per delivery. Works for us.

Ocado promise 'at least xxx days' on their products so don't get this: 'they send you crap with only 24 hours to go' business.

That said, I got sent a 2-litre thing of milk which was already out of date and was very cross - I got a refund and a bottle of wine as an apology. A supermarket wouldn't have bothered