Christmas grocery slot from Asda - what's the point?

[whyschoolwhy]

I have a click and collect order booked for tomorrow morning. In the past few days I've gone in to amend it a couple of times, and as I've gone to check out my amends, it's casually informed me that the following items are no longer available:

Turkey crown
Carrots
Nice cheese
Custard
Cream
Mince pies

What's the point of placing an online delivery if the most important items aren't going to be in stock? And also, if I hadn't gone in to amend the order, I'd be none the wiser!

I assume the big chains are not all like this, or no one would use them for Christmas grocery deliveries...

An online order doesn't reserve items for you and they can only send what your local supermarket has.

If you rely on this to get Christmas shopping on the 23rd December you're playing a risky game.

I got mine today and had everything I ordered in it. Was chatting to the driver and he said so far, so good people were getting their orders.

This misconception happens every year. When you order standard stuff from any of the big supermarkets, they aren’t put aside for you days in advance. The pickers pick them from the shelves the day your order is delivered, the same shelves everyone else shops from. That means stock levels will fluctuate, and the availability of stuff will change.

If you want to be guaranteed important stuff then you need to use the festive preorder stuff all the big chains do, where things are ordered just for you. They usually do a range of festive stuff like turkey etc that you have to order and commit to in advance and can’t change within two weeks of your order. Otherwise your order is just the same priority as any other shopper.

That said, my Tesco order only had two subs today and neither anything important, but I used the festive preorder for a couple of bits and the rest of us the stuff is from butcher. I wouldn’t rely on an off the shelf order for the bulk of my Christmas stuff.

If you’d left it rather than amending then you’d likely have got what you ordered. It’ll be back on the shelves by tomorrow morning

I just had my Sainsbury's delivery today. Everything I ordered amd no substitutes. Wonderful!

I used Asda one year for my click and collect- they were dire! Tesco in general are much better stocked where I live.

And yes this is also true. The stock levels are updated throughout day so it’s likely that out of stock stuff will be back in again by time your order is picked.

Everything except the turkey crown (unless frozen) should've been bought a week ago. It would all be absolutely fine for Christmas day. I do not understand leaving these things until so close to Christmas. The supermarkets are going flat out, doing everything they can and at this stage in the game, unavailability is common.

The only online supermarket that orders specially but within a normal online shop is Waitrose which has Turkey as entertaining items. There is also the M&S Christmas food to order and a few others do a separate one to their main online shopping. . Everything else, you have to take your chance.

It lets you order what's in stock, but if you are doing the order days in advance, then obviously the things everyone wants are going to be being purchased in store. They don't pick your order until the day, so they can only pick what's still left. They might restock it, or it might all be sold before they get to your order. I've already got the more popular bits so I don't miss out on them.

I don't think it's made very clear, any of it. If you go for a specific Christmas slot I think it's reasonable to expect that Christmas food will be available. Anyway, I went and bought the turkey crown elsewhere today, along with anything else I wouldn't want to miss out on for Christmas Day.

I’ve got a 11-12 slot on Christmas Eve ( Waitrose ) and if it doesn’t arrive then tough luck because we aren’t having it! Have pre ordered the meat from butchers though .
As previous posters have said you haven’t reserved anything as you can cancel your slot up until day before usually so they don’t stash anything up beforehand for it just to get wasted

Unfortunately ordering for a normal grocery slot even though you have been given a slot doesn't guarantee you will get what you order. They can only give you what they have in the shop. They don't hold back goods for people who have ordered them.
If you want to make sure you get what you order you have to order from somewhere that does Food to Order, where you can't cancel after a certain date, and sometimes have to pay a deposit like in Marks

Meh. Just brave it and go Christmas eve. You even get it for a fraction of the price. I've never understood ordering so much in advance. You still need to go to the shops for fresh stuff anyway, or some little extra. I used to place my order for click and collect and still had to go in the shop when picking it up anyway.

I think they are all like that to be honest, I would never rely on a xmas delivery shop so round and round the shops I go. I dont know if there is an ideal solution.

I stopped shopping at Asda last year because this happened on my click and collect order several times. That combined with the abysmal failure of the Rewards app meant that it just wasn’t worth giving them any more money. Never had any problems with Sainsbury’s and Nectar is great too.

If you leave things til the last minute then you run the risk that things will run out. Whether you're having a delivery or going in person.

Clear out a drawer in the freezer in October and start buying stuff in advance. Its not like the shops aren't full of Christmas stuff from August. I've had sausage meat, chipolatas, bacon etc frozen and chocolates and nuts in the cupboard for weeks! The veg comes from the weekly market (and most veg will keep at least a week if not more so no need to wait til the 23rd) and the turkey comes from the butchers (and that is actually reserved in advance).

All it takes is adding one or two Christmas things to your weekly shop in October, you'd be amazed how much stress it takes off.

Ocado are great for this type of thing as their inventory is much more reliable. Had my big ship today and only had 1 substitute which was just an alternative brand for the same product.

I've just got my Tesco delivery. Everything was there except a packet of paracetamol!
Some things, like the turkey, had to be ordered by 14th Dec and after that date you couldn't change them as they are pre ordered so there's no chance of missing out on those items. More ordinary stuff is a bit more risky but I have to say that our local Tesco seem to judge it pretty well - I haven't ever been missing anything really important at Christmas. If anything, it's better than at other times of the year.

All my Tesco order is coming apart from a couple of totally acceptable and minor substitutions. Wouldn’t order a turkey on it though - it’s not a special Xmas shop.

I last used Asda for the “big” Christmas shop about 3 years ago. Got it set up, used all the rewards vouchers I had accumulated and didn’t touch it for a few days beforehand. Woke up on the 23rd to an email saying 32 subs/not available, pretty much the whole shop. Now I use the rewards vouchers in early Dec for booze and cupboard treats and get the big shop
from Ocado, works a charm.

My tesco shopping comes from a hub, and stock reliability has greatly improved since it changed from the local store. I have pre-ordered the turkey, pudding and a couple of other bits, but let's see what arrives in the morning 😬🤞

I agree, OP. The big supermarkets make a big point of advertising when their Christmas delivery slots are going to open and then can’t deliver some of the most important parts of a traditional Christmas lunch. Complete waste of time. I mean, FFS, running out of mince pies. You’d think that’d be the last thing they’d be low on stock of a few days before bloody Christmas Dat!

Booking a Christmas slot just guarantees you a specific slot. It doesn't guarantee that anything you order will actually be available.

My tesco shop for veg and the other essentials came this morning all fine, £600 of stuff and all but the clotted cream came - no problem. Booked my shop when the slots opened in September I think, held it with mostly butter and cream 😂 I wonder if anyone else orders 10 packets of butter and 6 pints of cream! Yesterday I went in and added all the other stuff, nothing I needed was showing as out of stock.
Meat was ordered last week and collected from the butchers this afternoon.
Sorry op, your Asda experience sounds a bit shit really.