Entire online food delivery cancelled.

[Vagessence]

For fuck sake. My whole ocado shop for today has been cancelled. Generally speaking it's tricky for us to get to the shops but by some rare stroke of luck my partner had to bring the car home this weekend (usually kept at his parents many miles away). Thankfully we'll be able to drive to the shops but what about those who can't? People in self isolation or those who have to rely on online shops for other reasons? Slots aren't available until next week, midweek at the earliest!

I've been telling myself to stay calm, only buy what we need, don't add to the problem of shops being out of stock. But now I'm panicking it's really hard to stick to that. I'm now not sure if I'll be able to hold back from panic buying now. We have barely any food in the house and usually we only get enough to last us a week but I think I'll have to stock up on two weeks worth now. We might end up not even being able to get anything today due to shelves being bare.

It's not surprising unfortunately, you have regular customers pre booking slots, people who have developed symptoms and are unexpectedly isolating, people returning from affected countries who didn't have the chance to plan ahead, those who are keeping children off school etc and self imposed isolating, people who don't want to go to a supermarket in case. I would say the elderly and vulnerable, but that's probably not the case with the minimum spend and having to have an online account etc. I am sure they are doing all they can, but they can only work with what they have got and what they can reasonably put in place. The local shop here doesn't do home delivery, but they are paying for taxis for those like the elderly and disabled who wouldn't be able to get their shopping home, which I think is great.

Ordering online is no different to shopping in a store with regards supplies and how much stock they have

Mine is due tomorrow, getting worried now. I haven't been able to buy cat litter for two weeks - last week it was missing from my Ocado delivery and then the Amazon Fresh delivery I booked instead didn't turn up at all (driver went to the wrong house I presume as no one knocked on my door and it was marked as unable to be delivered). I can eat whatever I have (porridge, freezer stables etc.) but what am I supposed to do without cat litter and cat food? I don't drive and can't carry much back on the bus.

Those saying online deliveries should be reserved for the elderly and vulnerable - how would they know who is in this category? Everyone's circumstances are different too, it's not that clear cut. My next door neighbour is in her 70s but has three children who live locally and visit her regularly. I'm in my 30s and have no family and would be very stuck if I got ill and couldn't get online deliveries. I've worked with lots of people in the past who have invisible disabilities and are alone and vulnerable, but again how would they prove that to the online supermarkets?

Again, from Australia

The supermarkets open for an hour in the morning to OAPS, so they can get supplies before the masses descend on the stores.

As online deliveries have stopped the only way to get groceries is to go in after the OAPS. According to my family member, there was nothing left by the evening to pick up groceries after work.

viccat. Do you have a garden, or any green space you could “borrow” soil from for your cats tray?

Flaxmeadow Ocado has NO stores, all their deliveries come from warehouses.

Anyone self-isolating or otherwise unable to get to the shop and can't get online delivery check out mutual aid groups to see if there is anyone local who can go to the shop for you. There's lots of them being set up now.

my parents are in their mid 80s and one of them is disabled. They couldn't get a delivery and I don't live close. There are going to be many others like them. I agree with what many others are saying - those of us who can (even if it is more difficult) should go to the shops leaving delivery for those who need it. We all managed before online delivery was possible, and can go back to it later when this is no longer necessary.

Think companies should prioritise long term customers who pay yearly upfront (like us). Been with Asda paying this way for the last 3 years.

Pissed off that I’m fighting for slots with Johnny come lately all of a sudden & will be emailing them to say so.

Ah, the grand spirit of pulling together that will see us through .

Do share their response to your pissed off email.

@Xenia that is an excellent idea, utilising staff from shops likely to be hit with drastically falling sales into those struggling with under capacity.

I wonder if there are other areas that would benefit from this approach? A lot of people must be feeling very insecure in their roles right now.

I noticed that Iceland also are opening early for OAPs. I did think, however, that most elderly people aren’t good at getting up and out first thing.

My Ocado for today was also cancelled

It's an embuggerance for various reasons mainly DH having the car at a different location for work all this week - would have been easy had they been able to tell us yesterday.

But I can cope.

I hoe however that Ocado will, if it does not already, have a way to flag vulnerable (medically or over 70) customers, so that their deliveries are prioritised every effort made to avoid theirs being the Ines that are cancelled

I can't see anything on Ocado's Twitter page about issues with deliveries today - hopefully they've resolved it now? Is anyone due a delivery later today?

My regular monthly shop from Ocado is coming in two days time - no panic buying, just what I'd usually purchase for the month ahead. I'm worried it won't arrive now!

AuntieStella - I agree with you. And also really like the word embuggerance!

Apologies, haven't RTFT as I'm in the Ocado queue and need to keep checking that browser window.

Has anyone heard direct from Ocado what the actual issue is?

I got mine from Asda this morning but with 22 substitutes & 6 unavailable! The driver told me it was manic in store and they are running out of stock!

Another thought. Perhaps they’ve (Ocado) cancelled because its not economically viable to deliver umpteen crates of food. If they previously delivered 25 drops on one van and now they can only manage half of that due to volume, they’ll pull the service.

I noticed that Iceland also are opening early for OAPs. I did think, however, that most elderly people aren’t good at getting up and out first thing.

And in most areas, OAP bus passes aren't valid before 9.30a.m. (It would be good if bus companies could extend the hours of use for a while to allow older people to use their pass to take advantage of supermarket OAP-specific early openings.)

Were they good subs @JurassicShay?

I am meant to have Ocado delivery this afternoon, normally get an email to say what final cost is in the morning and i haven't had one so am wondering if mine has been cancelled.

My mum had a Tesco delivery the other day and the driver said that it was crazy, his previous delivery was 14 crates full of food. ONE order!

He said that the vans are only able to cope with 1/3 of the deliveries that they should be doing, purely because of the size of individual orders.

@viccat Can you post on your local Facebook page asking for help?

You can also ask if your area has a local chapter of covidmutualaid.org/

@viccat. Have you tried Zooplus?

his previous delivery was 14 crates full of food. ONE order

I'm struggling to see how anyone needs that much. It's really selfish, no wonder orders are being cancelled and shelves are bare.

I always use the Ocado app so don't remember my password, have been trying all morning to reset it but you can't even get onto the bloody site. I've paid £10 a month for years for priority deliveries so am a bit 🤨

Bad form to just cancel on you. I hope to get a slot when I finally get on.