Online supermarket shop - good bad or indifferent?

[HalfCaff]

Have always resisted so far as I think I would spend more (oh yes, I believe I am such a shrewd shopper, avoiding the traps, having no brand loyalty, buying yellow label stuff, stocking up on my favourites when they're on offer and resisting them when at full price, making full use of BOGOFs etc) but am getting desperately short of time to go shopping! What has been your experience?

Asda fill your bags with crappy 'substitutes' (even if you specifically state 'no substitutes' ) - wouldn't use them again (although I am a keen Asda shopper when I actually go to the shops myself, which I rarely do now that I have a baby).

Ocado - brilliant. Often have good special offers on and will send you discount vouchers regularly - I never ever pay full price for my shop. It does work out more £££ than it would be to go to Asda and fight my way around the aisles, but not very much more and it is so bloody CIVILISED having your shopping delivered at exactly the agreed time by a polite driver. Would highly recommend Ocado, have never had a problem with them other than on one occasion I ordered two bottles of orange squash and only received one - we didn't notice til 2 days later but when we rang up they immediately refunded the missing one without any questions asked and were apologetic and polite.

I promise I am not an Ocado employee or shareholder - but good lordy, I sound like one don't I!!!

I can highly recommend Sainsburys - the drivers are helpful, shopping nearly always correct (one mistake in 6 months so pretty good going) and in good condition, and sensible subsitutes. The only niggle I have is that they use so many plastic bags - sometimes one for every single object! But they do take them back the next week for reuse. Delivery is £3.50 midweek if you spend £40 so I figure I save money with cutting out petrol costs and impulse buys.

sainsburys is fine. i order once a fortnight and if you spend over £100 delivery is free midweek. I have complained a few times about grotty fruit and veg and they either refund the cost or send a £5 voucher. if they are late they give you a £10 voucher. if you don't like the substitutes they take them away and refund them.

Couldnt live without it to be honest. It has made things so much easier. I now have the tesco app so did my food shopping whilst 'watching' dc swimming lessons yesterday.

Ocado absolutely brilliant and lovely drivers too. I had to go to Tescos (store not online) the other day (and used to go all the time) and just thought, never again, online with Ocado all the way now!

I tried it years ago and hated it.

They use too many bags to pack it in; I hate the waste (I only use my own canvas bags when I shop myself). It's not good enough to me if they let you recycle the bags (I don't believe that they are re-used, just recycled, not that re-use would satisfy me either, anyway).

The substitutes thing is a big issue; something is always subb'd and it's hard to choose several reasonable substitutes for everything. You end up with subs you don't like.

Countless stories about late deliveries, inconvenient slots, people running out of supplies before the shopping arrives and having to unexpectedly go up to the shops anyway.

The delivery charge is more than my travel costs to the store.

People seem to like it best if they would find it hard to get all that heavy stuff back (eg., non-drivers) , and if it's treated as supplemental -- never expected to be a complete weekly shop.

Hmm, thanks. When the dc were small I used to always try to go shopping on my own and I actually relished the child-free time, now I work 4 days and really struggle, and my dh works longer hours so I often end up taking one or two dc with me, which is not ideal (especially with both as they fight!) Of course I think it would be bliss now not to have to go, mainly wondering if I will spend loads more. We live less than a mile from Sainsburys so travel costs v low, in fact I even do small top-ups by pushbike (with big fat double panniers)now and then!

Come to think of it, I reckon I don't get on with online shopping because I am just too friggin' fussy. The details of how and when matter too much to me. :)

I online shop every week just due to time really. Sainsburys are best, Asda are pap squared. Stuff is badly packed, substitutes and out of stock stuff is also common. We sadly don't have Ocado but have heard it's excellent.

We have only Tesco here and I use them everyweek. Our branch is very good. No moans at all. If anything is not right then I have always been happy with the telephone help line.

have tried them all- sainsburys the worst by a square mile- used them 3 times- overcharged by £60 once at christmas- took a whole month to refund. another time they smashed a bottle of booze on the doorstep and left me to clear it up.

tesco frequently arrived without milk

waitrose wonderful bit limited slots

ocado fab- 99% of time everything arrives and when you expect it. have monthly delivery pass so costs £9.99 per month with a minimum £40 spend per delivery. have it set up so the basics arrive week in, week out.

i have taken to buying fruit and veg elsewhere at the weekend. Ocado essential fruit is pretty poor and everything else is really expensive, so i pootle into Morrisons over the weekend and get that. if there are any offers on whilst i am there, i will get them and take them off the ocado order.

I use them all the time.
Tescos - good
Sainsburys - great
Waitrose - good but expensive
Asda - good, but website is a faff.

Since DS was born (8 weeks)I've done an online shop at Tesco. Generally they're great although twice they've sent stuff v. close to sell by date, which they refunded and apologised for, tbh I ate it anyway :)

We stock up on fresh veg, meat and dairy locally (some great independents where we live) but for everything else we do Ocado as I have no time to do big supermarket shops. 99.99% of the time they've got our order correct; drivers lovely and take into kitchen for me; take all the old bags back with them; very few substitutes; I hardly ever overshop because I'm lazy/short of time so I just shop from my own online shopping list (things I've bought before); love Ocado's vans :-); good customer service (once they forgot to deliver us a bottle of wine so they delivered us 2 bottles of wine free of charge the next day); Ocado "Tesco price match" key items on my shopping list so most things I buy are not pricey. Plus Ocado have a great iPhone app that helps me no end!

Sainsburys. I wouldn't do it any other way.

I go once a week for a few bits and pieces to M&S if I am passing.

It saves a huge amount of time and all of the stress of taking DCs to a supermarket.

Ocado delivery every other day of around £40 - never run out of stuff / nothing ever goes off.

Drivers always friendly and will always carry shopping in.

Add bits on as and when needed.

Worth every penny of the £6.79 a month we pay for a delivery pass.

Ocado - fab service, and once you start using them they regularly send you discount vouchers via email. Delivery charges as low as £1.99 for late evening/midweek.

Sainsburys pretty good, and delivery free if you spend over £100. Tesco ok, Asda bit hit and miss. One good thing about Tesco (think they're the only ones who do this) is they allow you to specify a particular substitute if the item you want is unavailable. With the others, if you tick "yes please" for a substitute you end up with whatever the picker fancies - Sainsbury's sent me some plaice fillets once instead of Quorn fillets.

I have a home delivery once evry couple of months, and it can be a sanity-saver - I've got three dc under 4 and taking all of them round the supermarket can be a headache. Go on my own in the evenings sometimes, but more than not just want to sit on my backside and eat biscuits by the time they're all in bed

Thinking of doing this now I have dd2. I actually like shopping & have always resisted Internet shopping but it's crap with a baby & hideous with a baby and toddler.

How often do you get deliveries? Isn't it a faff to do online? Do you miss out on offers? Was planning on using sainsbos.

On Ocado (and I'm sure with others) all offers are advertised throughout the website; ordering is easy peasy and you can re-use any number of shopping lists you've used before. I do big orders every 3 or 4 weeks (all veg, meat, fish, dairy are bought locally though).

I love online supermarket shopping. I went with DS2 (2YO) to Sainsbury's for some things I forgot on Monday and he had a meltdown. Must do one this weekend. Although I never manage not to go during the week for things we've run out of. I regularly do Tesco but Ocado as a treat and when I get the 15% off emails, but they're always for the next day so have to be quick at ordering.

Try it, you'll love it!

We'd be a complete muddle without Ocado in our lives.

I did 60 shops with them last year - on their "delivery pass" so for ten quid a month, as many as you like, minimum spend £40. And often, my shop is only £40. So I average £2 delivery per go. Money well spent considering I don't have to travel/use petrol/waste time/bring home/unpack/ etc etc.

I actually struggle to understand why people DONT use grocery deliveries. Why on earth would you go to the shop!?!?!?

Yesterday, I even placed a shop in the morning, and it arrived yesterday evening. Deep joy

It's bloody brilliant. Only a one hour slot too, which is massively convenient. I have even had the 7-8am slot sometimes to get the stuff here and in before we go to school. Ocado also tell you before you order if a particular item will be out of stock on your day, so it is very unusual for an item you have ordered not to be available. It happens sometimes, but I found with Tesco I used to get substitutions on most shops, which frankly, is very tedious.

I reckon I get more offers on line with Ocado than with Waitrose in store. Once you have your lists set up etc, it is a breeze.

Ocado does offer an amazing service, reminder texts etc, but the actual groceries are more expensive, not all are 'price matched'.

When I've had some poor quality fruit or veg I think I should've picked it myself.

I recently started online shopping as I have started a diet and it's easier for me to only buy what we need rather than what I fancy!!
It's worked out a lot cheaper ad there isnt the temptation of sweets, junk, dvd's and clothes.
I've tried Tesco twice and Asda twice, I'm veering towards Tesco as yesterdays Asda delivery was £8 dearer as they substituted parts of a promotion so I ended up paying double for things I wasn't in desperate need for.
I also like the Tesco app on my iPhone as I can add to my order as I remember things. Tesco seem to be more expensive on some items but the service is 100% better, although saying that I shall give Asda one more try specifying no subs and see how it goes. I sent an email to customer services yesterday complaining and still haven't received a reply though which I think is fairly lax

Asda generally get an absolute slating on MN, from what I can see. I have never tried it, but after reading some horror stories, I can safely say I never will.

You are right not everything is price matched on Ocado, but if you are careful, it really doesn't work out much if anything more expensive. And mostly, the quality is great. I always stock up on their offers.

And if you are a SAHM or work from home then some deliveries on Ocado are free eg I work from home and have opted for a 1-2pm delivery slot this Wednesday and there is no delivery fee. Ditto, generally, any deliveries after 9pm.