“I ordered my online shopping way back in October…”

[Worried1305]

Seeing this on a lot of threads right now - “I was the first person to book my online shop back in October, so how dare they not show up today with my wine / stuffing / potatoes / etc”.

AIBU to think people don’t understand how online food shopping works?!

Placing your order early like October does not make a difference all it does is give you a slot not the items, your items get picked on the day your delivery/collection is so ordering in October does nothing really, Christmas slots and normal slots throughout the year are exactly the same the only difference is the amount of orders that pickers have to do. Your best bet of getting what you want is getting your delivery / collection as early in the day as possible like 6.30am to 7am this means your items will have been picked around 5am before customers are in the store and the shelf's are full as no customers has been in yet

Me too, have ordered for years and never had an issue.
Only ordered about 70 pounds worth. Went and no sugar baked gammon.
Told me there was some at the other branch on the shelf if I wanted to go and buy it. Feel they should have gone and collected some to fulfil orders that were likely placed months ago.

It’s so very obvious this is how it would work for retailers that pick stock from the stores- how on earth could they guarantee having enough eg pigs in planets in stock for all the orders plus anyone who wants to pop into the shop to purchase? If 100 people happen to come in and buy theirs ten mins before your order is picked then clearly they’re at risk of being out of stock. As others have said, you are guaranteeing the slot not the items.

Mine came and they delivered it before I was even up and the person Im staying with brought it in, sat it on the sofa, left it all sit out and I had to throw it all out.
🤬

My m and s order had half the items out of stock ! First time it’s happened

What?? @RantyAnty

Why did it come early? How early? Why did they take it in but not put it away? How long was it sat out for it to all need throwing away?

So many questions

Our Morrisons order arrived bang on time and was complete apart from some cheese which they subbed. My only issue is the desserts I ordered are dated Boxing Day, we are going to have to be really greedy!

I'd had an Asda slot for yesterday booked for a month. I cancelled it on Thursday evening as I was unexpectedly going to be out. Booked Iceland for tonight instead. Everything arrived except that a thick sliced bloomer was substituted with a medium sliced one.

I'm waiting for the mouldy turkey threads...

It was supposed to come between 9am and 11am.
It was delivered at 5.30am!
It was a relative and she's up at 4.30am so she brought it in and set the bags in the sofa in the hot lounge room. She has the heat set to 25 in the winter.

I got up at 9.30 so it sat in the hot lounge room for 4 hours!

It had clear labels perishables refrigerate immediately.

I asked why she didn't put it away and of course the same stupid answer everyone gives, "I didn't know it needed to be refrigerated."

Do people actually think the fresh milk, meat and fresh veg etc has been kept in a 'holding bay' just for them since October? I'm pretty sure they would be dissatisfied if that was the case.

Why does other people’s approach to Christmas food shopping annoy you so?

@Bellyblueboy I'm not the one who is disappointed. I shop almost entirely online for Christmas and I've got everything I need. My tips:

1. Instead of one large order, try two smaller orders from two different supermarkets.
2. Order for few days in advance and for in the morning so you have the best chance of things being in stock and have time to pick-up anything that's missing.
3. Accept that popular items may be substituted eg cheese, crackers, Christmas themed snacks, or anything with cinnamon you wont get for love nor money at the last minute before Christmas.
4. Don't get frustrated at the workers - it's hectic for them at this time of year and it's not their fault you're disappointed.

The reason why people reserve Christmas slots is the reserve the delivery time, not the food. Most people simply put one item in the basket to get the delivery slot then complete their order the day before it is due. At that time, out of stock items are more likely to be accurate so you can order your own alternative.

I think it would be impossible to actually fulfil an order in November when Christmas slots were booked and store your items somewhere until then. Imagine the size of the warehouse needed with fridges and freezer space as well!

Some supermarkets make up orders by walking around an actual store to select things off the shelves, others have remote warehouses for pickers to go round and make up the orders. But the basically are the same, if an item is not on the shelf when the actual picker goes to get it because too many other people had bought it then a substitution might be made if you indicated that you would accept substitutions.

At least, that’s how I understand the system works but I could also have misunderstood.

I work for a big food production company.

People don't help themselves. If you actually complete your order in advance, the supermarket has the best chance of having the stock, as they have the orders and therefore know what to order from their suppliers. People reserving their slot with a bottle of champers, the completing it 12 hours before delivery, are still fighting with the same people who are yoinking stuff off the shelves in the supermarket.
Basic supply and demand tbf.

The part order from M&S from a PP I'd ne fuming about!

People just don’t realise I think. But even when you do know you only reserve the slot, it feels pointless if the shop only send half of it. We get 2, one a few days before (which had a few subs but all were fine) then one the day before. Just had my email confirmation, they’ve subbed a few things for stuff that isn’t similar and we don’t like, another few things just aren’t coming at all, so we’ve got a Christmas Eve slot just for about £10 worth of items. Seems a waste.

Just been informed by Ocado that a lot of the stuff I ordered back in October will not be coming. No M&S prawn cocktail, bloody chorizo pigs in blankets instead of normal ones. I can't stand chorizo. I am absolutely pissed off. Oh, and none of the fruit I ordered is coming.
I particularly went to Ocado because they are usually so reliable.
I am wondering if it is because it is a late delivery. When Ocado allowed me to get a delivery slot this was the only one I could get.

I picked my stuff up yesterday, between substitutes and unavailable it came to 30 items, which as you can imagine is a fair chunk of the shop.

Poor woman who was dealing with the order said she had started at 3am and would be there till everything was done, last year she worked a 17 hour shift on Christmas eve. It was a click and collect and it was clearly very understaffed and I felt really sorry for them, 2 women 6 full bays and cars parking behind. I suspect it was so busy though as everyone else had a long list of subs etc that they had to go through before packing the shopping.

I expect not to be able to get everything I had ordered, I did expect to be able to have the gammon I had ordered as our main and didn't get (no, I was not one of those who updated the basket shortly before the delivery slot). I have full sympathy for the workers doing it, but the supermarket seemed very ill prepared both in terms of stock and organisation. I've cancelled my next order and will go somewhere else.

I never do an order for christmas. Too risky.

I get up early on the 22nd and go first thing. Its quiet, plenty of stock, and I always get everything i need. Anything non perishable i buy well in advance.

We had a rotten turkey from M&S last year. It took the gloss off Christmas dinner, that's for sure. It seems a bit mean to be rubbing your hands at the prospect, at least you have a fighting chance to make up for missing items on an online delivery.

It's a normal slot. But during Christmas.
The supermarkets are trying very hard to sort out how to give people that ordered in October what they want.
At the moment.
Order all ambient stuff for delivery in November.
Fresh stuff, a slot early in the day.
It gets picked first.

Sainsbury's Tesco and ASDA online shopping is a minefield outside of Christmas for availability. I certainly would not rely on them for Christmas! Ocado are amazing for availability but I'd still expect issues on Christmas week.

I'm not sure how the supermarkets could prioritise online orders more than they do, typically it's picked no more than half a day before it's delivered. There would be nowhere to store it otherwise and everything would have crap dates. It's always hard to predict Christmas trade and demand. Because you cannot know how many people will walk in the shop and buy xyz before the order is picked and you absolutely cannot even guarantee your deliverys to store.

It's not uncommon for lorry's to break down or arrive later than they're supposed to.

Retail this time of year is a crazy, stressful place. Things can and do go wrong!

I had a mega Ocado order arrive yesterday with no substitutions at all. I very rarely have any issues with them.

This is why I always go for the earliest delivery I can as they then tend to have everything in. I get less substitution this way.

This is the first year I was able to book a Christmas slot - and ironically it has to be this year I have gut issues and can't eat any normal Christmas dinner so I had to empty most of that basket and just get boring stuff like rice and potatoes! 😂But yes, getting a slot is no guarantee of what food will actually be available.