Tesco.com bagless delivery

[pobletsmum]

Several people seemed interested in my 'bagless' delivery from Tesco.com, so I thought I'd start a thread about it.

A few days ago, when at the 'checkout' on tesco.com, I had to choose whether to have my shopping delivered in bags or packed loose in crates & unpacked into my kitchen. I thought I'd give the 'bagless' option a try, with the aim of being a bit 'greener' and gaining a few green clubcard points too (1 point given for every 10 items purchased). Yesterday, my delivery arrived and here's my experience...

The driver wasn't all that helpful. He brought the crates into my kitchen (4 in total, a relatively small delivery for me, approx £60), then watched me unpack the items onto my kitchen worktop. The tesco website had warned me that bagless takes longer, but is quicker if customers help the driver unpack (not rocket science!). In the event, it would have been nice if HE had helped ME just a little. Fortunately, DS was in co-operative mode, so the whole unpacking thing went very smoothly, and took only a few minutes.

The website stated that bags would still be used if necessary for certain items e.g. bleach bottles, raw meat. In total I had 3 carrier bags & 3 clear fruit/veg bags - a huge improvement on the mountain that can sometimes be left behind.

Overall I was very happy with the 'bagless' option, and would choose it again. I asked the driver about it and he said that lots of people have tried bagless then converted back to bags, due to time taken unpacking. He said this was more often the case for large deliveries (£100+). He said that the trial is being run all over the country, but he wasn't sure that it would be continued. Drivers apparently have a 6 min slot for each delivery (unloading, getting signature etc.) but this way takes around 20 min per delivery (mine was less than this), so if Mr Tesco does his sums, it won't work out very well financially for him.

Anyway, I hope this answers some of your questions. If you got bored with this ramble halfway through, I don't blame you. If you stuck with it, please leave me a message so I know it wasn't a complete waste of time!

Thanks for that. I didn't know you could have a bagless delivery. How do you choose that option or is it only in certain areas at the moment?

Message withdrawn

I haven't used tesco.com as yet (have used asda though) - like the idea of bagless and that's the one thing I HATE about online delivery. Not sure if it's just asda but I end up with a million bags.

Thanks for review

I can see that it would be good in theory, but Tesco recycle carrier bags and you can hand the ones from your last delivery back to the driver, so just as "green", surely?

I didn't know about it either. At the checkout page, I was forced to choose either bags or no bags, it's not possible to skip that bit IYSWIM.

The driver said it's a trial all over the country, but I don't know any more than that I'm afraid.

I read it, thankyou. May give it a go before Mr.Tesco counts his coins!

i insist on bags
all of mine are reused either for lining bins to chuck rubbish, or returned to delivery man when i have too many.
my most recent delivery was half bagless , even though i wanted bags. nightmare to unload as he just placed crates in porch and waited for kids qand me to unlaod

I will try in next time i shop online. Worth it to get extra points!
BonyM - but you don't get extra points to pass the bags back to the driver!!

But why can't Tesco et al use paper bags for their delivery options? Swift unloading and greener packaging - surely everyone's a winner?

I did it! I did a huge order £200+ and in hindsight it was probably a mistake. Took ages!!! I didn't read the bit about them bringing it to the kitchen. It was unloaded yoghurt by yoghurt etc onto my hall floor. The driver helped a bit when he realised he'd be there all day otherwise. Of course I then had to take it bit by bit to the kitchen when he'd gone. Quite funny really. So I suppose the most unfair thing is that the drivers still have to meet the same targets on time, bags or no bags.
Don't think I'd do it again on reflection!
I did it mainly because a few times before that I had a huge delivery where every item seemed to have a bag all to itself!
There's a real ramble for you pobletsmum x x

Blardy italics ever owrk on me. Must stop trying.

BonyM - I suppose I agree it's still green to hand them back, BUT... I hope that if they were to continue bagless deliveries, they might actually need to produce fewer bags, so fewer would need to be recycled. I actually found it easier having everything loose on the kitchen side anyway - easier to check everything.

'...yoghurt by yoghurt etc onto my hall floor...' - I can see why you wouldn't bother again keziah!!!!! I have to say if I was ordering a £200 delivery, I might want bags for the time factor, in case DS was having a demanding day.

Ooh yes, paper bags. That would be so much better. Why don't they? Don't they use paper bags for groceries in the US? Or is that just in films?

I just placed my order before loging on to MN tonight but I didn't get any questions. Mind you I do live in a time warp so maybe in 6 months it may roll out this far west?

Does anyone else get things delivered with one item in a bag? Drives me crazy!

We do use the bags for bin liners but always end up with loads extra.

Might try this.

This is interesting.

Maybe as a middle way they should just minimise the bags, so you would get a couple of bags for lots of little things, then the larger stuff could go loose. (We often have quite a few bags with only 3 or 4 things in.)

Would be better if you paid a small contribution, say £2.50 (as a token cost) then kept the crates and gave them back at the next weeks delivery. No waiting around and no bags.

Furball - on the website they mentioned the 'keeping the crates' thing, but said that they don't have enough storage space in the stores for the number of crates they'd need to be able to lend them out to customers.

Kathy - I agree the middle ground option would probably be good for most people.

I have often had 1 or 2 small items per bag - one of the many reasons for choosing bagless.

Why would they need storage space when most of the crates would be at customers houses?

Couldn't they use cardboard boxes which pack flat?

They could use cardboard boxes - the sort that fold flat easily - and ask you to return them next time. Like the veg box schemes do.

Presumably making, using, and recycling a carrier bag is still worse for the environment than not using one at all so it is worth the effort not to use too many.

great minds ...

Not sure fruitful, just reporting what I read on website. I guess there would be an initial crate mountain, and they'd have to keep quite a lot in stock in case of fluctuating demand?????? At least they have considered it.

I'm not sure I'd want a load of crates sitting in my kitchen each week anyway - we don't have much storage space in our house/garden.

On a related subject, I was chatting to a friend who designs eco-friendly packaging.

He says Tesco's degradable carrier bags aren't all that great because they degrade into greenhouse gases!

Also, apparently the EU are trying to make sure that we put less degradable stuff into landfill (here was me thinking degradable=good). Because when it degrades your landfill sinks and you can't use the land for anything afterwards.