calling waitrose/ocado fans

[bossykate]

i get the impression there are a number of waitrose addicts here!

ocado have just started delivering in my area and i thought i'd give them a go, since everyone usually raves about waitrose (my usual is sainsburys).

disappointments so far:

• no mature organic cheddar
• no little swimmers nappies
• no olay touch spf 15
• no fair trade bananas

ok, i don't give up that easily, so was hoping you could give me some recommendations. what have i been missing out on all this time?

thanks in advance

bossykate, I hate the way it soaks everything in it's path up and goes all puffy and dry - bleah! It really is like sawdust!

bk, we have finally joined the Ocado catchment zone (they are obviously taking suburban riff-raff these days, SE9 is usually the last to be signed up for anything remotely attractive ) and I am compelled to admit that the range of stuff on the website compared to what you can get at our "local" branch is quite a lot smaller in some areas: no organic beef mince, limited range of Yeo Valley yogs and no organic falafel, for starters. Also you cannot get their really excellent deli organic hummous. But we will definitely be giving Ocado a try and maybe stocking the freezer with non-available items on an occasional basis. I've raved on too many times about how Waitrose support local small farmers in their area (branch had yummy Kent Discovery apples this week) and they are also the supermarket chain with the smallest mark-up on all Fairtrade items (including bananas). I honestly think that in terms of ethical treatment of suppliers and staff and quality of all fresh and organic items Waitrose represents a chance for consumers to vote with their feet. I note Jules Oliver has been spotted shopping at your local branch, for example...
V sorry to hear you are a couscous widow. We could not manage without it in our house...
Let us know how you get on!

well, i'm now the proud possessor of ocado goods...

they turned up 10mins early for the slot - that's a black mark for me, i'm afraid, what if i hadn't got home yet?

the staff were well-turned out and helpful, carried the shopping through to the kitchen - seemed much less harrassed than the sainsburys guys usually do.

no substitutions - good.

the fruit and veg looks wonderful - perfect strawberries, for example.

dh and ds are away at the grandparents - so a ready meal for me last night. just the same oversalted rubbish you get from sainsburys! no difference there.

freebies - a bag of hoola hoops (most reluctantly i had to gobble these down as couldn't have precious ds eating such rubbish when he gets home! ) and the waitrose magazine - innovations? sensations? whatever...

have to say the jury is still out for me with this. seems from the responses here that the most devoted fans are the ones who visit the stores in person, rather than those who use ocado. will continue for another three weeks probation and see how we get on. it's really difficult to weigh up things like restricted product range against quality of service for me atm, so we'll see how we go.

over the last month, i've tried tesco and asda as well - for product range, sainsburys wins hands down (whether you get it or not is another matter!), for price it's asda (and they have a better range of organics and fair trade than tesco, ime).

marina, i take your point about their good reputation for dealing fairly with suppliers - but the fact i couldn't get the organic version of a basic product (and it seems you couldn't either - the mince?) and the fact i couldn't get fair trade bananas seems to belie that, imo, for ocado if not for waitrose stores.

one final thing, the waitrose magazine had loads of vouchers in it - all the supermarkets seem to do this of course. am in the only person who can never use these vouchers - they never have anything that i would usually buy and getting something extra just because it's x amount off is just spending rather than saving money, isn't it? or is that just me?

thanks to everyone for sharing your views, i appreciate it

BK if you hadn't been in they would have waited - I have got home more than once to find them waiting.

I went to Asda the other week and bought loads of organic veggies as they are so cheap in there. Sadly they didn't taste that great. Dh said (without knowing I had been to asda) that they tasted old.

thanks, sambom, that's useful to know. the most annoyed i've got with sainsburys was when they arrived nearly an hour early and i had to get ds out of the by bath to go and answer the door! with a look on my face that my the guy actually step back...

must preview!

s/be "made the guy step back"

I'm annoyed with Tescos at the moment, my mum had major surgery last year so not as spritely as she used to be and dad is constantly short of breath and only just manages to the bottom of the garden - are told by Tesco delivery man they have to leave the bags on the doorstep. So my poor mum has to lug the bags inside, or spend hours doing lots of small trips. Apparently a delivery man was bitten by a customer's dog so they aren't allowed in houses now.

helenmc- i'm afraid that delivery driver was being a lazy so and so! I'm a personnel manager for tesco and the drivers have not been told that they shouldn't enter customers houses. from which store did your mother order her shopping?

Did anyone else get freebies from Ocado when they started advertising in your area?

Over a period of about a month I got a nice ocado apron, a matching oven mit (rather posh) and some gorgeous coffee. These were posted out to everyone I know in the area - more money than sense!

hello, i'm sure everyone has been waiting with bated breath for a progress update!

well, some weeks later, i have to confess we are converts. this is based solely on the quality of the food - unfortunately, we have had quite a number of substitutions and non-deliveries (e.g. tea - how could they not have tea???).

The fruit and veg are excellent - very good quality, great taste. Likewise the meat, as good as local, very expensive speciality suppliers - but much cheaper.

Prepared food, e.g. caesar salad, curries - much better than other supermarkets.

Also, I haven't found them more expensive than Sainsbury's. Perhaps that is because we buy quite a high proportion of organic, fair trade and eco friendly products. As Marina mentioned earlier on this thread, it may be that their mark-up on these items is less than other supermarkets.

I still think they should improve the selection or organic and fair trade products, but I think we will be continuing with this service for the moment - subject to the substitutions and non-delivery record.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their views

How are all the other Waitrose/Ocado virgins getting on?

aaargh! shopping didn't turn up last night! very apologetic call and offer of £50 (format unspecified, better not be vouchers) compensation sweetened the pill a lot (haven't had much by way of either apology or compensation when this has happened with sainsbury's), but still very inconvenient!

Message withdrawn

For me, Sainsburys is THE WORST. A few weeks ago I ordered dog food, which they failed to bring with the initial order. It took them 4 days to successfully redeliver (yet every day I called to hound them - no pun intended - they claimed they were going to deliver that very day). They offered no compensation whatsoever, nor any apology.

£50 compensation sounds lovely. I'm thinking of all the chocolate ice cream I could buy with that.....

OK, decided to try Ocado on the basis of this thread. Delivery man rang at 9pm to say that there had been a computer cock-up and he was not going to get to me before 11pm at the earliest. I cancelled and rescheduled, couldn't get a delivery slot until two days later. Groceries finally arrived, I have not repeated the experience though. This would be fine, except that just today (a month later) I noticed that they have debited me twice for the groceries! Waiting to see what their response is now....

hi florence, we are still using them, but i have to say i wouldn't rave about the service. they have made a number of cock-ups with our shopping. i am still impressed by the quality though.

I am a fan, but seem to end up making a weekly dash to Tesco anyway for things they just don't sell. This week folic acid and tights.

Is there a huge price difference between Tesco and Waitrose in reality? Have any of you done both and compared?

a friend did a comparison one week to check and found that the difference was more or less taken up by the £5 delivery charge that you don't have to pay with ocado.

Thanks Fisil. We might give it a go then. Getting fed up with Tesco and their lack of basics.

We've had a few substitutions, but none of them idiotic. I've been using them weekly for about two months now and in SE London they are certainly much better than the locally-sourced Tescos and Sainsburys services, which are hopeless. What I like about Ocado is that some plank in a central office is not making offensive generalisations about what people in SE London like to eat and drink.
Sorry to hear other people's experiences are so mixed regarding delivery times.
Lou33, I have shopped at Tesco's in the past and have a feeling they are cheaper for a family weekly shop. Recently though I have only ever done "top-up" shops at Tesco Metro in the City of London and that is certainly no cheaper than Waitrose on an item by item basis. We buy a lot of organic produce and Waitrose is usually also cheaper for this. They also mark up Fair Trade produce less than any other supermarket (a survey recently confirmed this).

Posts crossed fisil, that's a fair point. Although you do have to spend £75 with Ocado to qualify for the free delivery (as if any of us manage to spend less than that on the whole week's shopping...)