Home delivery - eco friendly?

Gothdolly

I have most of my shopping delivered mainly because I want organic food and the ranges in the supermarkets are usually packed in plastic and I find they have a limited range. My delivery man does different areas on different days which I think is a good idea and it means I don't have to use my car. If I had to go out to buy what I order I'd end up having to visit 3 or even 4 supermarkets to get it all, but that's because I want organic.

Anything else I need such as detergents, cleaning products I tend to make myself and generally order the ingredients in bulk once or twice a year.

I guess we have a simple diet in our house but it's what we like and it works for us.

Fire_Fox

I live in a city centre; we only have a Tesco Express in close walking distance. There is a small Morrisons ten minutes walk away and a large Tesco fifteen minutes walk away.

I always used to travel to and from the supermarket by bus, but now there are two of us the shopping is too much for me to carry. I travel to Tesco by foot or Asda by bus (too far to walk) and then get a taxi home. I always take my own canvas bags for life. Occasionally I do order the shopping online, but then receive ten or more carrier bags! :mad:

I have switched to doing my shopping only every second week, which does work if you are organised and have a fridge/ freezer the right size for your family. Snacks run out first, but it probably saves money and the environment by us eating fewer!

For cleaning products I have started ordering Bio-D in 5 litre containers online, the largest size I can store. But it's delivered in a massive cardboard box, often with extra packaging. Not sure what the answer is ...

To complicate matters I recycle as much of the aforementioned packaging as possible, but as we don't have a doorstep collection and I don't drive I often palm it off onto my mum ... who drives it to the recycling centre. :rolleyes:

LittleMissAspie

Here Tesco deliver from the local (to town) store. I'm not sure how many deliveries one van can make but say it's 10. If those people all went separately it might be 2miles each way x 10 people = 40 miles. The van would have to zigzag across town to cover 40 miles, it probably does more like 15 miles. So it's got to be better for the environment here.

Personally we drive or get a delivery once a month to stock up on freezer/cupboard/household items, then cycle once or twice a week to get fridge items.

Have you tried cycling Fire Fox?

Fire_Fox

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

Have you tried cycling Fire Fox?

I did when I lived in Cambridge (no hills and lots of cycle paths) but I am a bit of a liability on a bike - I fall off if I lift my hand to indicate! I now live in a flat so no easy storage for a bike, and my journey to work is three miles uphill with Bradford's lunatic drivers for company. Asda is about three miles of duel carriageway and a couple of major roundabouts to negotiate, tho to be fair the big Tesco would be easy to cycle to. Even with panniers I wouldn't be able to carry two weeks of our shopping on a bike.

I'm afraid it's buses (bio-diesel) with the occasional taxi and lift from mum for me! :T

Tamsin_Temrin

That's the thing - he who must be obeyed likes flavoured bottled water :rolleyes: I ought to just drag it on the bus. I get it delivered.

If I was shopping on the bus I would be shopping every couple of days. A delivery once a week is more convenient.

That's the thing with the green stuff. You find myself saying 'yes, but' a lot. You just have to make the call, like Fire Fox risking death (sounds BAD to cycle there) or getting a delivery. And frozen stuff starts melting when you put it in your trolley, it's that bit safer being delivered.

Photo_Stylus

Problem is because people are unpredictable the vans tend to go out well below capacity.

My sister works for tesco delivery & delivered 2 bottles of wine to one house. Only to find nobody answered the door. Gets back to the store & finds the customer on the phone asking where the delivery is.
Another journey then just for 2 bottles of wine?

HGV driver myself & have driven on a 60 round trip for one small item. 4kg
work that out at between 9 and 12mpg

Antric

Photo_Stylus wrote: »

Problem is because people are unpredictable the vans tend to go out well below capacity.

My sister works for tesco delivery & delivered 2 bottles of wine to one house. Only to find nobody answered the door. Gets back to the store & finds the customer on the phone asking where the delivery is.
Another journey then just for 2 bottles of wine?

HGV driver myself & have driven on a 60 round trip for one small item. 4kg
work that out at between 9 and 12mpg

that is mad. i think thou if we all went to delivery it would be down to the supermarket to do its bit and plan the routes better not only in the interest of becoming more eco but to save them money in fuel also.

Fire_Fox

Tamsin_Temrin wrote: »

That's the thing - he who must be obeyed likes flavoured bottled water :rolleyes: I ought to just drag it on the bus. I get it delivered.

If I was shopping on the bus I would be shopping every couple of days. A delivery once a week is more convenient.

That's the thing with the green stuff. You find myself saying 'yes, but' a lot. You just have to make the call, like Fire Fox risking death (sounds BAD to cycle there) or getting a delivery. And frozen stuff starts melting when you put it in your trolley, it's that bit safer being delivered.

Mr. Fire Fox likes Pepsi but not supermarket shopping. I buy squash, milk and occasionally fresh juice and send him to the £1 shops for pop. He can never be bothered to go on his days off so we save a small fortune. I'd be inclined to start doing all the shopping by bus, saying to OH you aren't happy with the quality of delivered stuff, and then tell him you can't carry the flavoured water.

Bradford, like Leeds, is on a hill and just isn't set up for travelling by bicycle. The bus service here is very good, with friendlier drivers than Cambridge. Unfortunately ticket prices have gone up twice in a year.

Tamsin_Temrin

Fire Fox - could be a plan - get me out of the house and frightening the tourists. lol.

There's loads of buses, so that is NOT a problem.

If I get to the market then there is loads of packaging saved, and if he who must be obeyed decides he can't be bothered then he can get the squash. Result.

GoldenKippers

I think there are some advantages to home delivery. Don't forget that supermarkets waste huge amounts of energy with all those open freezers. If online shopping orders were assembled in some kind of warehouse this energy use could be cut. What would be good would be to have some kind of intelligent website that would offer you a reduced delivery fee if a van was already booked to be doing a nearby delivery. I've seen a Sainsbury's van delivering in my street, and it would be good to know when those people were planning to have their shopping delivered!