To think that online food shopping has really gone downhill?

[OhHeyItsSaturday]

I've recently had loads of problems with online food shopping, from a range of different supermarkets.

Main problems seem to be things like fruit being mouldy and/or on its use by date, meat all being on its use by date when delivered with no mention of this by the store, frozen items being defrosted, and meat not being packed separately to other foods and then being leaky and getting 'meat juice' all over fruit, bread and other fresh items.

I have just had to reject almost an entire food shop this afternoon from a major supermarket as the whole pallet of cold food looked as though it had been sitting in a trolley in the store for hours before being put in the cold truck storage, as it was all full of condensation. Two packs of chicken had been put in a container with all other fresh food and one of the packs had a crack in it so there was juice and blood all over everything else. There was also about an inch of water in the bottom of the container which had made everything else sodden. Broccoli sent was mouldy. And the frozen items were all totally defrosted.

Has anyone else found loads of problems with online food shopping these days? And before anyone says 'go and shop yourself then', I will be doing this in future!

Had lots of problems with Morrison’s recently, so many substitutions!!

All the summer fruit I’ve had this year has been poor - peaches, nectarines, strawberries. They go mouldy almost immediately and aren’t sweet and juicy enough. More expensive than last year as well.

Despite my moan about Ocado above, Berryworld strawberries this week were perfect, really lovely

On another thread loads of posters are gleeful about ditching their masks, not fully realising the implications and knock on effect on shopping and other services.

I agree @RampantIvy, and until self isolation rules are eased for double jabbed people it will get worse (not that I necessarily even think that is a good idea, cases are high here). My milk delivery didn’t arrive this morning due to staff shortages and it took me three times to get through to them, a total of an hour and a half on hold, so I’m assuming they have a lot of call centre staff off as well. Going to the pharmacy later with mask on!

I don't order for delivery or buy in the shop / deliver late from iceland because both our local ones put the items in crates by the huge front windows and are in no hurry to get them through into the chiller/freezer in the back before delivery.

From what I understand they keep them there until the window is full and then wheel through (usually an hour). Always gives me the creeps, especially in this weather. The chilled must be going off at an alarming rate

In my local Co-op everyone was wearing a mask apart from 2 staff members who are exempt & 2 teenage girls (who I heard say 'we don't need masks anymore'
But to be fair everyone (even the maskless were sticking to the self distancing rules/guidelines which is refreshing & good to see that people are not being too complacent.

Interesting I have discovered buildings which are called shops in town centres and on the edges of towns, many with car parking spaces available.

These allow you to go in and select what you want choosing the best examples that are on offer. You then pay for them and can walk out from the shops with them and eat them straught away - no having to wait in for a delivery. Maybe worth a try?

My ds went to fetch an order from Waitrose today. The beef joint in wine was out of stock and they had substituted it with beef madras!

Who thinks curry is a substitute for roast beef?

Don't be so sarcastic teass
People use online food shopping delivery for a reason e.g ease/lack of time/no transport/disabilities, illness or infirmities
Or just because they can

It’s been mad at work today. Was supposed to clock off at 8:45am eventually clocked out at 4:25pm. Assume it’s because so many people are isolating locally.

The fresh fillers at work are all isolating along with some of the till staff leaving the store very understaffed. People have been working their holiday weeks to help out.

Deliveries are late getting to store because of driver shortages.

Today I’m hot and tired and achy and tomorrow I have to do it all again with an added shift of delivering to the elderly and/or vulnerable.

Have sympathy for retail staff please we are doing our very best

I don’t have a car @teass and a delivery pass (£60 a year) is cheaper than getting the bus to the supermarket (£4 per return journey).

Thank you @swampytiggaa

@swampytiggaa well your employers are making a fortune from the pandemic so I hope they're paying better than minimum wage.
Thank you.

Why is there a shortage of lorry drivers?

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-57587253.amp

“ He says there is an issue with recruitment, with many European drivers having "gone back home" due to Brexit.”

We get ours from Tesco and never had an issue with mouldy/out of date food. Sometimes we have the odd thing not delivered because out of stock but normally stuff that doesn’t really matter too much. Always been at the earlier time of time slot as well, had never ordered online before COVID but we have found it so much easier and have continued ordering maybe once or twice a month when convenient.

@Rinoachicken

Why is there a shortage of lorry drivers?

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-57587253.amp

“ He says there is an issue with recruitment, with many European drivers having "gone back home" due to Brexit.”

We have high unemployment figures in the UK. And, separately a housing affordability crisis and increased cost of living.

Pay better wages and offer decent working conditions. They won't struggle to recruit then.

[quote Debetswell]@swampytiggaa well your employers are making a fortune from the pandemic so I hope they're paying better than minimum wage.
Thank you.[/quote]
Actually they do thank you and when I work over my hours I get paid to the minute I clock out which is nice. On the downside my contract hours are 10 a week which is impossible to live on and when they decide we need to save money we all go to contract hours… so really we have to do the overtime when it’s there so we have some savings for when it’s not.

I've been getting click and collect Asda orders in central Scotland and have had no problems. I do click and collect and can always get a same day or next day slot (I've still got my shielding priority so might not be as easy when they end this in August).

Like a PP mentioned, the only thing I'm having problems with is Felix cat food and my cats are fussy little sods who only tolerate certain flavours so I've had to drive round loads of places looking for it.

No problems like this here at all (shropshire, sainsburys online mostly used)

We used to do all our heavy grocery shopping with Morrisons due to not having a car. However our store decided to stop picking in the warehouse a while ago, they now pick in store (warehouse picking was a big part of the reason we'd switched to Morrisons originally - better choice - we can already buy what's in the store). However, a lot of the items that are actually in the store, are not available on the online shop. No "basics" range. Hardly any of the Free From or special diets range. Very few fresh foods, & none without plastic packaging. No bakery bread, fresh meat or fish at all. We tried, a couple more times, but between what was available on the online store, & what I can/DD & DH want to eat, we couldn't actually make the minimum order amount. Unless we wanted to buy a 5kg pack of rice, massive multipack of loo roll or mega box of laundry detergent every week. So we stopped using it. We go to the farm shop/butchers/local market for more of our food now, & just go to the supermarket for what we can't get anywhere else. I buy pasta & various other things online from specialist retailers. Milk comes from the milkman.

Also, their "loyalty card" scheme is now utterly pointless. We used to get £40 ish in vouchers every year, which paid for our Christmas grocery shopping. We do not spend a lot (family of 3), so I imagine higher earning families with more kids would have had loads more vouchers. They abolished it a while ago & now you have to log into an app once a week & maybe get 10% off a couple of specific items, single use only.

I assumed it was Brexit-related.

How can people not understand what Covid-19 has done to logistics? It’s driving me crazy.

There are fewer people to pick and produce the items; there are fewer seafarers able to bring the items; there are delays at ports and fewer people to unload cargo; the containers are in the wrong place for shipments; there are fewer lorry drivers and then at the depots there are fewer people to unpack the items.

At every stage goods are being held up - and lots of food waste is being created cos it can’t get to the shops fresh. It’s amazing that it has gone okish so far.

I don't think it's Brexit, it's because so many people are off work because they've been pinged. It's devasted the supply lines. My local TK Maxx have most of their staff off, they told me 2 more go off and they'll have to close the store. I guess it's the same for factories, food plants, logistic cod, etc.

@ImSoMagical

I have just had a delivery as our household are all positive 🙄 from Tesco, I shop instore every week. Stopped home deliveries couple of years ago because of issues but obviously at the moment we're stuck. Items for home delivery were limited, fruit restricted, no bananas, couldn't order calpol for my dd, other stuff not available tho I know its instore. I've just messaged Tesco as I couldn't order prepacked pears at £1.60, got loose ones for £3.92 and they're soft and battered. So yes, I agree, it's shit!

If you are all issolating how do you know the products are in store?

I had two substitutes from Sainsbury yesterday which were acceptable and 4 items missing with no substitutes available.
These items were crisps, wipes, mayonnaise and chocolate. I was surprised that (considering some of the unusual subs I normally get) that there were no possible alternatives.