To think Ocado are on their way out?

[AlternativePerspective]

They treated many of their customers shockingly during the pandemic. Broke the app and haven’t brought it back, and I have been told there is no timeframe as to when it will be brought back, they roll out a boiler template that it’s gradually going to be rolled out to a small selection of customers to ensure it works.

This is the only online only supermarket, and they’re the one who have failed the most spectacularly.

M&S are supposed to be online with them from Monday but with no app for many people shopping with them won’t be an easy thing to do so they won’t bother. Added to which M&S are looking to cut their costs anyway.

I speculated to my DP the other day that I will be surprised if Ocado are still around in a year’s time.

It’s a shame. They used to be a flagship online shop, now they’re the worst online supermarket.

I will still use Ocado - they are very good. I will miss the Waitrose products so will sometimes top up with Waitrose.

I don’t like M&S food. I don’t eat ready meals, so for me it holds no attraction.

Their app is working

I think they prioritised their customers who were consistent.

During the restrictions the app shut down and slots were being take up at an unusual rate.

They stopped allowing people to book slots. We received an email three weeks into lockdown (luckily I had ocado reserved booked in every Saturday) and notified us that we had priority booking.

We’ve shopped with ocado for over 3 years and have had a shop delivered every week with an average spend of £200s

I have a friend who used ocado but also shopped around all supermarkets online. So her spend with ocado was inconsistent and the minimum spend . She wasn’t a priority customer.

I don’t think they’ll disappear any time soon.

I’m disappointed they will no longer sell Waitrose products, however their product range is so vast it’s easier to shop with them. Though we will probably end up shopping at Waitrose for a smaller shop given the fact that we always hated m and a good. Their food always looks amazing but lacks flavour!

Waitrose was our nearest supermarket, I don’t like change!!!!

M&S food*

Apologies, I've committed the cardinal sin of not RTFT, so I may be repeating what PP has said.

I work in food product development and I believe the Ocado move from Waitrose to M&S will run smoothly. M&S technologists, product developers and buyers have been working for many months with their suppliers to ensure a seamless transition.

Much work has gone on behind the scenes to ensure the current Ocado range is matched as closely as possible - where a gap has been identified, suppliers have been tasked with developing a product to fill that gap.

Ocado is at the forefront of M&S and their suppliers' minds - I can guarantee over this weekend there will be factories up and down the country doing launch runs of new M&S lines (some of which will be exclusive to Ocado) to ensure that the Ocado launch is a success.

we just added essentials on to our shop for them. Having our shopping delivered freed us up to do a weekly shop for other elderly relatives and friends too.

During the early lockdown madness it might have been easier if your parents' address was on your account. Lots of people, including me, alternated deliveries between two addresses. (My parent had an account but wasn't a SmartPass holder so couldn't get deliveries for a few weeks.)

Now things are getting back to normal I imagine many adult children are scrambling to get their parents signed up before the winter lockdown ...

The app wouldn’t bother me. What did annoy me was despite being an existing customer and shielding it was the only place I couldn’t get a delivery slot from!

We've used Ocado every week for a couple of years now, and could get deliveries in lockdown after the first 2 weeks or so. Still don't have access to the app though.

M & S sells a lot more than just ready meals! You can do a full food shop in their own stores... Fewer other brands, obviously, than other supermarkets...

I was impressed that all the switchover products from my regular Waitrose items look to be the same price or less.

Ocado are doing better than ever. They're not going anywhere!

It's renewal time for our yearly Smart Pass and it's gone up by £25 on last year! On that basis I declined to renew, but the problem is that I can't see how much delivery fees might be if we just pay for deliveries as and when. I've been a Smart Pass holder for years and years and they didn't even try to keep my business, so they're clearly not going under! (And we still can't use the app).

What I hadn't realised is for what it is worth is that Ocado is a tech company and not an on line supermarket, and the Waitrose delivery had been a 'test' so they could refine how it works etc and then they will go to sell the product all over the world. It was only at this moment I realised that of course that was why they were so happy to make a loss in the early days, but obviously it is doing well now and will continue to expand across the continent I imagine - indeed the tech side of it is far more interesting and profitable to them than anything else (ie organic potatoes for instance)

So for us it is about to choice of produce, food and delivery service, for them it is about refining their technical capabilities.

We are in fact guinea pigs for their tech product, and I am not complaining as it has worked well for us, but interesting to see where it leads...

I have a question that I hope someone can answer for me.

During lockdown I was ordering food for ourselves and our daughter, who is a single mother with 2 primary aged children. We can now get 2 deliveries a week and I've added her address to my account and we each get one delivery a week. She's in a bubble with us and we are trying to keep away from shops as much as possible.

The problem is that she has to come to our house to do her order. She can log in on her phone at her house, but it says that they don't deliver to her area. They do. I can use 4g on my phone at her house and it works perfectly. I imagine this is algorithm issue, but it's a real pain. Anyone had this problem and any ideas how to solve it?

I didn't realise the app was back. I just checked and can use it. I love Ocado and have used them for years. We alternate weekly between Ocado and Waitrose. I was on the shielding list which has made it easier . Hardly ever have substitutes apart from the panic buying phase when all supermarkets were having problems. Not cheap but we have budgeted accordingly. We are really looking forward to the M&S availability as we live several miles from them and will make life easier

I must check whether my daughter uses an internet link or the app to log in. That may make a difference.

Ocado have a waiting list of a million people so I don't think they'll be going out of business in the near future. I've been a Smart Pass customer for over a decade and got priority delivery during lockdown.

I'm not enthusiastic about the change to M&S, especially as my first like-for-like shop looks more expensive But I'll give it a chance.

Knittingaddict If she logs into your account and chooses your address I can't see why it would check whether they deliver to her address or not. That check was done when you added her address. I shop for my dad from my account, to be delivered to his address, every week.

Sorry, chooses her address.

M&S are more expensive and more limited in its range.

I’m absolutely not switching to M&S for a regular shop as it just doesn’t cover the products I want.

Lockdown will massively help Ocado business. Whether it will do as well post-Covid with M&S as it did with Waitrose remains to be seen.

they have brought back the app, they sorted themselves out really quickly under the pandemic.
I rarely get substitutions.
They have been great!

Another problem (apart from defrosted frozen food arriving) is the delivery price is not clear. I booked a slot for £2 delivery and put the required £40 of shopping in my basket. My booking confirmation changed the delivery to £5.99 delivery. When I questioned this, I was told the £2 delivery was only if I spent £75.
Not clear at all and slightly questionable tactics.

We have been getting all our shopping through them, quite a wide range of stuff including toiletries. We were shielding,so didn't go to a shop for 4 months or so and had to be very organised,but it worked out.

We had a month or so when we had difficulty getting a slot.

The fruit and veg has lasted very well through the week,which is important if you are getting all your food once a week!

We did try Morrisons, Tesco, Asda and I think Sainsbury's at weekly intervals for abit but got lots of substitutions and it ended up quite expensive - I would order stuff on offer and then get other stuff that wasn't discounted, of a somewhat random nature.

I have had some problems with Waitrose on line in the past but might try them again.

We are going into lockdown winter still signed up for Ocado and will see what happens

they have brought back the app

Not for everyone yet.

I've had the app back for nearly a month now. Next day slots. No subs. No complaints really except not sure what Waitrose stuff I might miss from Monday...I'll have to check my regulars..

As with numerous PP, all we get for the app is this - despite having been smart pass customers for years and having had priority slots throughout.

Posting it as it seems it needs to be on every page for there to be a chance the “The ApP iS BaCk” crew to realise it’s not for everyone.