Arb and Wizard go shopping ( well, one does!)

[UncleEbenezer]

The app that owns them while they are picking offers two substitutes, and if they are not available the picker can go off piste. So you should only get weird substitutions when the shelves are really empty.

Or when the picker's having a really, really, really bad day. There's a story out there on mumsnet somewhere about a woman who ordered a box of Tampax and got a pack of sausage rolls.

BJ

So there is a use for the vile things after all!

[sg31]

You do get the occasional mistaken item with Tesco, where the spotty yoof who does the in-store picking doesn't know the difference between cheddar and brie, or where he aimlessly picks up the nearest thing on the shelf and calls it whatever it was you asked for. And when he gives you sliced white instead of granary, or Fosters instead of Proper Job, you briefly consider insisting on specifying no substitutes.

But then you realise that you'd risk getting no bread or beer at all. Unfortunately there isn't a box on the order form for "bloody well pull yourself together and use the few brain cells that your creator supplied you with".

BJ

There is a section where you can give instructions to the picker. From memery it is on the check-out page where you can pick what items may be substituted. You could stipulate 'no substitutions' and then put 'if not avaiable supply XXXXXXXXX' instead. Alternatively allow subsitutions but note 'only acceptable substitution is xxxxxxxxx '.

I've done that before and it worked. I can't remember which way round I did it. Luckily most of the pickers in our local Tesco are middle aged women so they are quite conscientious. No spotty youths as far as I've seen.

I must say I've been very impressed with Tesco since lockdown. They really do seem to be the best for deliveries in this area.

[genou]

There's a story out there on mumsnet somewhere about a woman who ordered a box of Tampax and got a pack of sausage rolls.

BJ

That's funny, but unlikely. CC#2 reports that she got a delivery today with 3 * different brands of bagels in sub for 3 * potato cakes. Which she regards as a result, since the bagels are more expensive. Apparently when the pickers sub ( at least at Tesco ) the app and they are told to go more expensive, to make people feel that way.

[Gengulphus]

The link takes you to another thread, which ends with a link that brings the reader back here...

Well, that's an evening I won't get back.

Still, at least I learnt the meaning of 'recursion'!

One of the easier meanings to remember - "recursion" = "cursing again and again and again and ..." ;-)

Gengulphus

[Howard]

Out of interest, I did a quick calculation comparing our food costs in May to early August 2019 with the same period in 2020. In 2019 in that period we had no food deliveries. In 2020 it was all click and collect/delivery to home/weekly telephone order for fish.

To my surprise, our expenditure was roughly the same. I had to make some assumptions as I buy some wine from supermarkets.

In the period assessed in 2019 we bought virtually all our food from Tesco and in 2020 three quarters was purchased from Waitrose with the occasional Tesco delivery. We tend to buy Tesco's "Finest" meat etc so the prices of Tesco and Waitrose items have turned out fairly similar.

(We changed supermarket this year because, to our surprise, I was emailed by Waitrose in March telling me that they knew I was over 70 and offering me early access to their delivery/c and c slots. Previously I had only ordered once or twice a year when they sent me a money-off voucher!)

We spent more on entertaining friends/family in 2019 but in 2020 we have treated ourselves to some more expensive items eg the occasional lovely fresh lobster and Dover Sole from the fishmonger.

My conclusion is that ordering online hasn't cost us much more, if anything. The quality of food we have received in lockdown has been just as good as if we had chosen it ourselves. We did get an unripe melon - but who can get that right every time? And the fun experience with Waitrose is that virtually every other delivery we are given a free gift of soft fruit which is close to its sell by date and provided gratis.

So, at the moment, we aren't intending to don our facemasks and visit supermarkets.

regards

Howard

[XFool]

(We changed supermarket this year because, to our surprise, I was emailed by Waitrose in March telling me that they knew I was over 70 and offering me early access to their delivery/c and c slots.

Lucky ole you!

OTOH, as an over 70 year old, I was blocked by Sainsbury's during lockdown from even placing online food orders - because they were "prioritising the elderly and vulnerable".

Arb and Wizard may well be going shopping but, based on my experience, as they are posting here now it can hardly be online food shopping. Otherwise, like myself, they would have died of starvation weeks ago!

Online food shopping? AFAIAC it's a lifetime strike out. I am busily cancelling all those (unused and useless) supermarket online shopping accounts I signed up to for COVID-19.

[SalvorHardin]

Arb and Wizard may well be going shopping but, based on my experience, as they are posting here now it can hardly be online food shopping. Otherwise, like myself, they would have died of starvation weeks ago!

Online food shopping? AFAIAC it's a lifetime strike out. I am busily cancelling all those (unused and useless) supermarket online shopping accounts I signed up to for COVID-19.

In order to get a priority slot you need to be classified as vulnerable by the supermarket. A lot of people who are vulnerable didn't get classified as such by the supermarket. Being over 70 didn't count.

My father is one such person; vulnerable due to immune system suppressing drugs but for some reason he wasn't classed as such. We managed by a combination of deliveries from a local bakery and farm shop, plus Amazon, eBay and directly from some producers. We also keep a lot of tinned food, pasta and rice in the house for the proverbial rainy day.

Then in early May he got a text message from the NHS saying he has been classified as vulnerable, even though there had been no change in his health. 20 minutes later we got a slot with Sainsburys. We can't order more frequently than once every seven days.

[SalvorHardin]

Morrisons and M&S do "food boxes". You don't need to be able to book a delivery slot for these.

We bought several boxes, until we got onto Sainsbury's list.

Your choice is limited to the type of box, which contains a standardised range of products. They deliver using couriers, not their own vans.

https://www.morrisons.com/food-boxes/boxes/all-boxes

[Howard]

Arb and Wizard may well be going shopping but, based on my experience, as they are posting here now it can hardly be online food shopping. Otherwise, like myself, they would have died of starvation weeks ago!

Online food shopping? AFAIAC it's a lifetime strike out. I am busily cancelling all those (unused and useless) supermarket online shopping accounts I signed up to for COVID-19.

In order to get a priority slot you need to be classified as vulnerable by the supermarket. A lot of people who are vulnerable didn't get classified as such by the supermarket. Being over 70 didn't count.

This rule didn't apply to Waitrose. I was given some sort of loyalty card a number of years ago. In the email sent to me at the end of March (which I have just read) they offered priority booking and the only reason given was my age.

Maybe they were influenced by my previous wine purchases .

regards

Howard

[scrumpyjack]

I did manage to get on the list for Waitrose and Ocado due to age and heart problems and other issues, but there is now more availability on Click & Collect so I use both Sainsbury and Tesco for that and it works very well. With Tesco you don't even get out of the car, they put it in the boot. Sainsbury never has a queue and they put it next to your car and you then get out and put it in.

All fine but the tedious thing is that I suspect they use click & collect (and deliveries too probably) to get rid of the stuff near its sell by date.
Still beats queuing for half an hour to get into the store which happened the only time I risked my life by actually shopping in Tesco

[dealtn]

Still beats queuing for half an hour to get into the store which happened the only time I risked my life by actually shopping in Tesco

Do any stores still have queues to get in now? Certainly not my experience in the last couple of months. If your concerns about the freshness, or use by dates, are strong enough I suspect that issue can be remedied easily enough by doing your own selecting nowadays with little inconvenience.

Is my area unusual, or normal, in having no queues?

[scotia]

Fleshing out my earlier comments on having switched to online shopping - here's how we now do it.
Our major grocery shopping is now done weekly by click and collect at ASDA - a store which we did not frequent before the Corona Virus outbreak.
The reason - initially we found it was available, unlike other stores. And we were extremely impressed with their online software. We could book a 1-hour time slot, and a short time before the slot started we received a text message on our phone, and an invitation to press a button to let them know we were on the way. Their App now displayed a map, and followed us to the store, updating the time of arrival. On arrival there were multiple parking bays (with rain proof roofs), and the goods were rolled out from the shop. We transferred them into crates in our boot, and in a few minutes, we were on our way home. Before setting out we had been informed of any substitutions, and we were free to refuse them on arrival at the store. At the beginning of lockdown we saw very long queues of conventional shoppers waiting outside ASDA in the open - with no all weather protection.
For expensive, but excellent, meat we used delivery from a well known online Scottish specialist butcher, which we had occasionally used in the past.
For ready-to-cook meals we took delivery of frozen meals of a well known UK brand, sourced online from a local stockist..
And fish was our big find - regular deliveries of frozen fish directly from one of the top fishing ports in Scotland. Again, with an excellent software app.
For lots of assorted other non-food items we used Amazon.
We are are both mid 70s, and it is likely that this online shopping will continue - due to its sheer convenience.
Since the infection rate dropped significantly my wife has re-visited M&S and Waitrose for particular items, and found them to be much less busy than in the past. But she doesn't expect to re-visit them anything like as frequently as she did in the past.

[scrumpyjack]

Some dear friends of mine get the takeaway hampers from nearby Michelin starred gravetye manor!, only occasionally I should add

[Arborbridge]

Still beats queuing for half an hour to get into the store which happened the only time I risked my life by actually shopping in Tesco

Do any stores still have queues to get in now? Certainly not my experience in the last couple of months. If your concerns about the freshness, or use by dates, are strong enough I suspect that issue can be remedied easily enough by doing your own selecting nowadays with little inconvenience.

Is my area unusual, or normal, in having no queues?

Well, mine has no queues either. Waitrose, Tesco or Sainsbury one can normally get straight in. there is sometimes a short queue at our local Waitrose, depending on what time one goes - but it is just a small store. The same applies to the various other shops, such as B and Q, Wickes etc

No way would I queue for half an hour or even more than a few minutes - I'd walk away. I don't do queues, unless unavoidable - one can always come back a different time.