People 'reserving' delivery slots

[turquoise50]

I've recently discovered that apparently lots of people are 'reserving' supermarket delivery slots by just putting a bottle or two of booze which they don't really want into their trolley to take it over £40, and leaving it there for weeks! Then when they're ready to order their actual shopping they edit it and take it out.

Thus just strikes me as dishonest and really very selfish when everyone knows that delivery slots are still in very high demand. I tried to book on Saturday and the earliest slot I could get was Monday 27th. Last week there was a two-week wait and I had to order from my second-choice supermarket instead, where the wait was only a week.

I presume people are doing it the minute their order is delivered, to hold their regular spot for next time. Whereas I tend to be more reactive in my shopping habits, besides keeping a rolling list in my notes.

I feel a bit shocked, but at the same time realise that if I (pre-lockdown) would, say, order on a Thursday for delivery on a Sunday, because that happens to be my preferred day, it's effectively the same thing. But there wasn't a shortage of slots then, going to the shops was no big deal, and I was ordering stuff I actually wanted.

YANBU - it's selfish and sneaky and people shouldn't hog slots; in fact the shops should crack down on it by making it so that slots can only be held for up to a week, and/or make the trolley limit a minimum number of items, not a minimum amount of money. (I know some shops did this for a while but not sure if still continuing.)

YABU - it's really no different from ordering your full shop a few days in advance and editing it several times before delivery as you run out of different things.

(As a side question - when these people forget to update their order and 'accidentally' get a delivery of nothing but a £40 bottle of whisky that they don't even like, should I feel a certain amount of schadenfreude, or be even more annoyed by the totally wasted delivery slot? Or a bit of both? )

So when people actually order something they really want there isn't any because it's all sitting in the baskets of folk who don't want it.

I don’t think it works like that because I’ve put things in my basket say, 2 weeks before my order is due to be delivered and they’re in stock. But when I go to edit my order 2 days before my delivery is due, some of the items in my basket show as out of stock. So clearly they don’t keep the items for you.

@Viviennemary

So when people actually order something they really want there isn't any because it's all sitting in the baskets of folk who don't want it.

That's not how it works.

What you get depends on what is on the shelves when the picker goes to pick, not when you put your order in.

Well that's something I suppose

@Funguy

This cannot happen on Sainsbury's as if it isn't paid for by a certain time the basket is emptied again.Also you cannot reserve for 'weeks'. You can't! Slots are usually offered a week in advance. You must be talking about bloody Ocado. The most unhelpful delivery service in the Universe, the only one which did not allow 'at risk' to be prioritised and lied to me again and again.

All of the supermarkets ask you to give your card details to hold your spot but they don't charge until delivery day. It's like online shopping- they charge your card when they dispatch the product. People check out with a bottle of vodka in their basket but they go back and edit it with their real order Supermarkets don't care if you order £100 of alcohol or £100 of fruit and veg. I suspect that there are orders that are 100% alcohol as it's heavy so might be a palaver right get in the car. Sainsbury’s do free delivery if you spend £100 midweek so why not get them bring it to your door?

So when people actually order something they really want there isn't any because it's all sitting in the baskets of folk who don't want it.
No
Someone at the supermarket goes round with a trolley and shops for you a few hours before delivery then it's loaded onto the van.
Some of the posts that mention basket are talking about online basket not the actual one

I'm not an expert on Ocado but it's a warehouse rather than shop and I think your order is provisionally reserved until the order deadline but this is something I read so happy to be corrected here.

Yes Ocado works slightly differently to most supermarkets (but some are moving over to the Ocado model - Morrison’s are now delivering from a warehouse in my area fir instance).

Say I put a bottle of bleach in my trolley when I booked the slot and then two days before my order is due also asks for a bottle of the same bleach - it is possible that there isn’t any left for her as all the bottles have already been “put” I other peoples trollies. I will get the bleach I ordered but it will show as “out of stock” for any further bottles. It is rare to get substitutions on the day of delivery that way and if something is unavailable on day of delivery it will be because an expected delivery has gone wrong or there’s been a chiller breakdown not because other people have bought it all.

I’ve been doing exactly this for more than ten years. It’s the way I shop. I have mobility issues and no local shops so I’ve always relied on deliveries and have always paid for reserved slots. I have to check out the slot by a certain date to keep it but don’t always have time to do my actual shop, so I add last weeks items to the basket then edit nearer the time.

I didn’t realise I’d been commit such a heinous crime for so long.

I always book with 2 bottles of southern comfort. One day I thought I'd delayed the order but it didn't go through so the delivery guy just turned up with a bottle in each hand :)

Thanks BuggerOff - think this is my Mastermind subject

@BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou

I'm not an expert on Ocado but it's a warehouse rather than shop and I think your order is provisionally reserved until the order deadline but this is something I read so happy to be corrected here.

Yes Ocado works slightly differently to most supermarkets (but some are moving over to the Ocado model - Morrison’s are now delivering from a warehouse in my area fir instance).

Say I put a bottle of bleach in my trolley when I booked the slot and then two days before my order is due also asks for a bottle of the same bleach - it is possible that there isn’t any left for her as all the bottles have already been “put” I other peoples trollies. I will get the bleach I ordered but it will show as “out of stock” for any further bottles. It is rare to get substitutions on the day of delivery that way and if something is unavailable on day of delivery it will be because an expected delivery has gone wrong or there’s been a chiller breakdown not because other people have bought it all.

My Morrison's are doing the opposite and have just changed from the warehouse model

@Funguy

This cannot happen on Sainsbury's as if it isn't paid for by a certain time the basket is emptied again.Also you cannot reserve for 'weeks'. You can't! Slots are usually offered a week in advance. You must be talking about bloody Ocado. The most unhelpful delivery service in the Universe, the only one which did not allow 'at risk' to be prioritised and lied to me again and again.

You can. I've been doing it for years. I have a delivery coming this Saturday 25th and the only thing in my basket is a bottle of champagne. I booked it last Saturday 18th. On Friday I will edit the basket, deleting the champagne and putting in what shopping I do need, and then do my final checkout. When Sainsbury's pick my shopping on Sat morning that's when they take my money from my account.

How amazing, 8 pages discussing something which the majority of us have been doing for years. I reserve my slot with a £25 bottle of Drambuie which most weeks gets deleted as I place my real order the previous day to delivery. I get an occasional Waitrose order, they won't let you check out with less than their minimum order of £60, so that's 3 bottles of Drambuie.

I haven't had drambuie for years @Crankley! I may make it my reservation bottle of choice next time then conveniently forget to delete it!

BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou Waitrose does the same as the deliveries are from fulfilment centre, i.e. Coulsdon and not the local branch. They earmark what’s in my checked out trolley for me but when I try to change the order something I had previously chose have to be chucked out because they out of stock - they treat my amending order as new. If I cancel the changes and leave the order as it was with the supposedly out of order items they always get delivered. Hope that makes sense!

@DrinkFeckArseGirks I’m glad Ocado don’t do that! I add things to my order frequently! I’ve never had anything removed once I’d already checked it out once. I have had incidences where I can’t add MORE of something but never where they’ve removed something already there.....

The thing is that some supermarkets don't have a minimum basket to reserve a slot, but I still put alcohol in hah.

@Rosebel

It's really irratating when people do this. There is not a, single delivery or click and collect for 3 weeks at the local supermarket. My husband can go shopping but as we have a very young premature baby and a child with asthma (my husband is also asthmatic) it would be much better if he didn't have to do this. I want to move to these places that have loads of delivery spaces as everyone I have spoken to, and I have family all over the UK, says they are still like gold dust.

Rosebell. I'm checking tesco right now. In my area there are slots for Sat/Sun of this week. Sunday for the next week and the two weeks after that are wide open with slots every day.

@cologne4711

Pre-covid it was sensible and planning ahead (though you didn't actually need to do it other than at Christmas, as you could always get a slot).

At the moment it is selfish and unnecessary if you are preventing those who need slots from getting them.

You are not preventing others from getting a slot any more than if you added the slots weekly. You are still only taking one slot per week.

I think all the people complaining have misunderstood what this is about.

@Purpleartichoke

Our local store doesn’t allow this. Once you start building a cart, you have 4 hours to complete it or you lose the slot. No edits allowed. It’s a very different approach which isn’t perfect, but it does keep people from being greedy and keeps slots open.

but that slot you just took now prevents someone else having it. Are you not ashamed? lol

I’ve forgotten to amend the order before having two bottles of gin delivered on a Sunday morning. That was embarrassing.

Ok so let's turn this around. If you knew that you would go physically shopping every week on a certain day but had to book to go to that shop in advance and had the option and the ability to book up to a month in advance would you do it? Or would you log on to book your physical slot the day before in the hope that no one else has booked?

If you ate at your fave restaurant one day a week and knew due to covid you have to book would you book in advance or just hope for the best the day before?

It is not selfish, it is not silly it is logical

@Viviennemary

Glad to see that Sainsbury's has a sensible approach to this. It's a wonder the others have space to accommodate all the cancelled bottles of gin.

The supermarkets don't order in the items in your basket. They all have items that are out of stock on the day which surely demonstrates that?

@Funguy

This cannot happen on Sainsbury's as if it isn't paid for by a certain time the basket is emptied again.Also you cannot reserve for 'weeks'. You can't! Slots are usually offered a week in advance. You must be talking about bloody Ocado. The most unhelpful delivery service in the Universe, the only one which did not allow 'at risk' to be prioritised and lied to me again and again.

@Funguy

Ironically Ocado have been emailing and texting me about free slots recently! Months too late.

I suspect lots of customers left them and might also do so when they switch to M&S food.

I with you OP, I never actually realised people do this and always wondered how / why all the slots were gone. Doesn't make me want to do it though. Have found available slots on Iceland who seem to have a very fair system, so sticking with them, Sainsbury also seems quite fair.

*I'm