Bloody Ocado!!

[TeddyIsaHe]

I had just about forgiven them for the lockdown catastrophe where I couldn’t get a delivery for months despite being a long time smart pass holder, delivery every week or 2, usually a reasonable amount etc etc.

They have cancelled my fecking order 2 hours before delivery because of a ‘surge’ in demand. I want my Colin fgs!!

I’m sure ours said in a couple of weeks they would - as many as you can fit in a bag - now that’s a challenge!

Ours said at the end of the September when he came on Saturday - hurrah. We have about 400!

I have only used Ocado for bulky/specific item shops in recent years and bought everything else from Lidl/local shops. But I loathe M&S. Our nearest actual shop is an M&S Food Hall and it’s awful. I’m not their client base. I want cook’s ingredients. I don’t want convenience food. So I won’t be shopping with Ocado now, although I’ll miss some of their own ranges, which is a shame.

Hmm first M&S Ocado order today - no missing items or subs which is the first time since lockdown!

I've actually no experience really of M&S food other than for sandwiches etc so I hope it's not disappointing.

The point about cooks ingredients - I did used to love the Waitrose cooks ingredients range, but there are other branded or Ocado options I think for them?

Going to reserve judgement and give it a chance as I've consistently had a better experience with Ocado over any other online delivery

Ah, I rarely buy cook’s stuff from Ocado as I can get most things locally. But never from M&S! There’s very little indeed I can ever get from them, other than usually having free range or organic chicken in stock.

There's only about three or four items I can't get from Ocado/m&s now. I will miss them. The flip side is, there are about twenty m&s things I can now get.

It's just funny looking at what Ocado/m&s identify as being m&s iconic items (tab is not there today but was there a few weeks ago). Half the list was variations of percy pig. And then the 3 for £7 range.

Tbh, I could tell you my fave products from any store, they all have some good qualities!

There's a proper big M&S food hall locally and their fresh food is good. Their bakery better than the waitrose.

I don't use waitrose cooks ingredients. I go to the chinese, indian and middle eastern shops locally. That's the only in store groceries shopping I do. But I have to say Ocado does have a much nicer selection on East Asian ingredients than Waitrose. The mirin I got is actually a real Japanese brand, and the tofu actually comes in a plastic box and sits in water, not that 'juice carton' crap you get from the other supermarket.

I will be leaving Ocado... lots out of stock and really useless substitutions. Plus changing cut off for orders by a day with zero notice. Not impressed.

Yes, I wouldn't go to any supermarket automatically for any ingredients that are remotely unusual. Occasionally you'll find them, and ranges are expanding, but I wouldn't expect to find them there. I prefer to get my meat and fish from local shops, and buy most of my fruit and veg locally too. I'm lucky to have those resources nearby and the time to shop. We prioritise food shopping at weekends because we enjoy buying, cooking and eating food! Ocado was for loo roll, cleaning products, bits and pieces we like and can't easily get elsewhere (not Waitrose stuff -French/Swedish brands) and then some random Waitrose stuff. Some weeks we do a full shop there for convenience and it's fine, and we buy plenty of Ocado stuff which is good.

In my local M&S (sizeable) food hall I can't buy, say, basic baking ingredients beyond self raising flour. That's the difference I find. They have fresh basics, they have the pre-prepared food, but very little else. Suits some people, but not us.

I cook pretty much from scratch and other than some Waitrose Korean stuff everything else still seems to be available on Ocado Not necessarily M&S but another brand/make at least.

I spend £100-150 a week and I'd said that only about £20-30 of it max is now M&S stuff - mostly some fruit and veg where Ocado or their other brands are not really good enough quality in my experience. I'm fine with that.

I think the cheese selection is not amazing but maybe that will improve (the big new M&S foodhall near me has an amazing cheese selection so they do do some of it).

And Waitrose has plenty of ready meals instore so I think the snobbery about that is a bit disingenuous. There is also no shortage of flour/baking ingredients as far as I can see at a variety of price points.

I have no skin in the game and will probably still do the odd Waitrose shop (just as I occasionally did an M&S shop) but I don't think it's changed that much!

I never said you couldn't buy that stuff from Ocado! I said I didn't rate M&S because I can't get most stuff I want to buy from it in person - meaning that M&S weren't an attraction for me via Ocado. I don't buy ready meals from anyone, but my local M&S has a small amount of non pre-prepared stuff, so I can't get much there. My local Waitrose has far more fresh stuff alongside its ready meals. I actually do most of my in-person supermarket shopping in Lidl.

I'm not snobby about ready meals. I just don't really like them, but if others want to buy them, that's fine by me. It makes zero difference to my life. But it does mean I'm not going to want to shop somewhere that sells a lot of stuff I won't want to buy.

Our nearby M&S food hall has just expanded its range of baking ingredients and added some organic lines, like white bread flour.

I'm sore that they seem to have discontinued their jars of stock concentrate, though. They were lovely and contained relatively little added stuff. I've not found a replacement chicken stock that I like without paying through the nose for a tiny amount of actual stock. The kallo stuff is revolting.

This is my last one 😔

@PickAChew

Our nearby M&S food hall has just expanded its range of baking ingredients and added some organic lines, like white bread flour.

I'm sore that they seem to have discontinued their jars of stock concentrate, though. They were lovely and contained relatively little added stuff. I've not found a replacement chicken stock that I like without paying through the nose for a tiny amount of actual stock. The kallo stuff is revolting.

This is my last one 😔

@PickAChew - if you want to make Ocado aware, you can complete this online form to request that they "add" the product (even though we kinda know that m&S may have discontinued....)

Here is the link:

www.ocado.com/webshop/productRequestEdit.do

Huge Ocado fan here.

Tried Waitrose but didn’t like it, bread rolls missing were there really no others in the shop and short date items however...

Waitrose have sent me 6 vouchers. £14 off a £70 in store shop or £14 off a online shop. I could be tempted back for a few shops

Waitrose you had you chance and blew it. I’m sticking with Ocado

Ordering, packing and delivery fine. Surprisingly found it difficult to spend the £100 minimum for my vouchers. Can you guess who’s having lobster for tea on Saturday 😂

The dates though are absolutely shocking. 2 items with BB dates of the delivery itself and 6 for the next day. I know BB is a guide but this fruit and veg already looks manky as I’m taking it out of the bags.

When I’ve ordered from Waitrose in the past near dates were discounted but not this time. Personally I wouldn’t choose discounted near date food so not happy being charged full price for it

Not impressed

Cheers for the product request link! I'm fine with kallo veg and beef but their chicken is just weird and ruins a perfectly good dish.

And the dates are always my bugbear with waitrose delivery. I may end up making the £100 with wine.