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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be confused by this supermarket behaviour

94 replies

SecretWineBox · 19/09/2015 22:20

Why do people get taxis back from supermarkets with a big weekly shop, when the supermarket delivers for a couple of quid?

I really don't get this - there is even a special taxi phone near the exit. Surely this can't be cost effective?

Also, why on earth do people wander round the shop with increasingly bored/irritated children to do said weekly shop, when said shop delivers?

I see people combining both of the above, is this some form of masochism?

I get it all delivered - drop in occasionally to get the odd thing.

Why? This has been bugging me for ages....

OP posts:
margeys · 19/09/2015 23:49

Yes I wonder that about children. I remember when it was realised that children growing up in children's homes with catering staff, were not learning how to shop for food, budget and cook.

TheHouseOnTheLane · 19/09/2015 23:49

Some people love the supermarket. Older people who don't get out much....and me....because I just do! I get cabs because I can't drive and the bus is too hard with bags. Also I can see all the offers better.

sproketmx · 19/09/2015 23:50

Because you go and get the things you need yourself, pick your own substitutes and not everyone has computers or Internet. My wee gran does it. She couldn't work her way round a website if you gave her a personal shopper

margeys · 20/09/2015 00:03

Just looked and Sainsbury's still charge a minimum of £7 to deliver to my house. It isn't that far.

ouryve · 20/09/2015 00:37

Can't you get a delivery pass, margeys's? The sainsbobs that actually delivers to us is about 18 miles away! (we have a few branches closer)

ephemeralfairy · 20/09/2015 00:41

Really thought this was going to be a 'wrongly placed conveyor belt divider' thread.

Sazzle41 · 20/09/2015 00:45

Ocado click & collect rocks - its free,you pick up at station. Either when you get in or at weekend, (4mins walk away for me). In 3 months had one substitution lemon/ herb chicken not plain chicken, which was way nicer. Better quality than Tesco, cheaper for own brand w. powder, cereal, meat, milk, bread, coffee (no Sainsbury here but they also do click/collect a station away).

I'm mystified when I watch people dragging a huge miserable /fed up looking family round with them the odd time I go in now. My BFF has 3 kids under 5 and alternates which one goes in with her. DP looks after other 2. For her own sanity she prefers get out of house than get delivered when at home alone all day w. kids otherwise. She did shop with DP plus kids once - and never again.

BlueMoonRising · 20/09/2015 00:46

There is only one supermarket that delivers to mine, and invariably they send fresh goods on or very close to the date. Every single time.

I don't use a taxi, but it would be cheaper to get a delivery than to drive, considering how far I am from the store. But I'd rather pick my own dates than leave it to them.

SilverBirchWithout · 20/09/2015 00:49

Nearly 6 million adults (11%) in the the UK have never used the Internet.

Fuckitfay · 20/09/2015 00:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

margeys · 20/09/2015 00:59

ouryve - Yes I could if I wanted to shop online. But i would want to try it first. I don't actually like doing big shops. I prefer popping in a few times a week to a variety of places, to buy what I need.

mumchkin · 20/09/2015 01:00

Probably for the elderly. My elderly aunt is disabled and does this once a week. She doesn't have internet and actually looks forward to the social contact that a trip to the supermarket brings.

kali110 · 20/09/2015 01:05

They may have disabilities so need a taxi?
Maybe they would like to leave the house and actually look around the shops for things they would like to eat rather than just buying off the internet.
Also some shops you have to spend over a certain amount anyway.

kali110 · 20/09/2015 01:12

My aunt does it, she is not old.
I do it and i am early 30's!
I have hidden disabilities.
Yes i sometimes i do enjoy going to the shop as i spend so much of my life at home in bed.
I would be one of the annoying people looking at ingredients as there are some things i cannot eat.
Some people do have allergies?
Maybe you should try online shopping all the time.
It maybe less annoying for you. Grin
margeys tesco now has £10 minimum order.

TheHouseOnTheLane · 20/09/2015 02:13

I do it and I'm not old...I can't drive and like choosing my own stuff. I always get it wrong when I order online...the weights confuse me...and you miss out on some of the offers too. I like browsing the cosmetics and homewares too.

ALassUnparalleled · 20/09/2015 02:16

They're the seventh level of hell...

Waitrose and M&S aren't.

I've never done online shopping. The time spent at a computer picking things and then having to wait in for delivery seems to me far more of a waste of time than going to a supermarket.

And if I didn't go I might miss new lovely things at Waitrose and M&S.

cowbiscuits · 20/09/2015 02:39

Because they want to? DMiL is disabled and does mostly online shopping, but she really appreciates the odd trip out to a real shop- in bad weather or if her pain is bad she can be stuck at home for weeks. And that trip to the supermarket may be a welcome break from the same four walls for some people.

Bogeyface · 20/09/2015 02:42

When I was without a car I did it (with severe SPD) because after several fuck ups, I didnt trust the staff to make sensible substitutions and the dates on food where always shit.

Going myself meant that if the cauliflowers were looking a bit ropey I would get other veg and not the overpriced organic cauli instead. I wouldnt get the chicken that was so close to its use by that it was so high it was flying. And because the store that does the deliveries for my address is different from the store that is closesr geographically, the prices where often lower at my local one.

Oh and for a while, payday was a fluid concept to H's employers (I was PG and not working at the time) so I couldnt confidently place an order for pay day as there may not have been the money in the bank to cover it.

And thats not taking account of the fact that many people dont have the internet at home, so browsing Ocado once a week is not an option.......

Hmm and a Biscuit for good measure

WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant · 20/09/2015 09:52

Mostly I have seen "little old ladies" who won't even go as technical as a bank card use a taxi.

And I go with toddler dd as it is good fun. She likes to put shopping in the trolley. She is walking around, learning names of things. Colours, sizes, shapes. Interacting with other people.

She is 2. She walked into a shop the other day and bought herself a hat.

It was a charity shop, I stood in the doorway.

I would rather be in the shop, walking around, choosing my shopping than trying to look at stuff online, with helpful fingers pressing my screen. Then having to wait hours for a delivery, see if they missed anything, got things wrong...

No thanks. I prefer the real shop. But I don't object to others using online if it works for them.

hampsterdam · 20/09/2015 10:01

I used to do this. Bus or walk to supermarket with my baby ds and taxi back. I didn't have Internet access at home so there's 1 massive hurdle.
Also didn't have much money so all meals would be planned so everything got used with very little waste, I wouldn't have wanted substitutions.
Dates aswel, probably my favourite thing about super markets Is finding the one at the back with a 2 week shelf life when they're trying to flog the ones at the front with only 2 days left in it. Started checking dates after getting home in my taxi and realising that the tortilla wraps went out of date that very same day, threw my whole weeks plan out of the window.
Also I work different hours every week and am othwise very busy, would hate to be waiting in for an afternoon for shopping that's the wrong thing and about to start growing mould.

Fluffyears · 20/09/2015 10:21

I don't trust online shopping to get good use by dates or a nice bit of meat. I'm quite picky about how much fat etc is on the meat I pick. I always go to the supermarket and have only shopped online a few times. Luckily we drive so it's not too difficult.

lljkk · 20/09/2015 10:43

I hate online shopping, too.
I thought what a lot of people did was walk or bus to supermarket, and taxi home. If they've been doing it 30 yrs, they won't change habits now.

A few yrs ago a lot of people (like 12% of all adults) still didn't have bank accounts, and couldn't get one, don't know how true that is, didn't govt do something to make sure everyone could get a bank account.

sproketmx · 20/09/2015 10:55

Doesn't matter if they did lljk. Some people particularly old people will never trust the banks. My grandparents who raised me didn't, I don't and I know a lot of people who don't. I dont have a bank account either and I have friends who only have one to be paid into then withdraw the full amount as soon as it's in.

OneBreathAfterAnother · 20/09/2015 11:00

I online shop most of the time but I've got a taxi before. Sometimes I feel like going to the supermarket (no kids and I don't mind them, they aren't hell to me!) and sometimes it's somewhere to do something that feels useful and gets me out of the house.

Definitely not a ditherer though, i speed shop.

gobbynorthernbird · 20/09/2015 11:02

As the OP doesn't buy meat or veg from a supermarket, I can see how they wouldn't feel the need to check quality etc in person. However, a lot of us don't have that luxury.

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