Do you shop online or instore?

Snakeeyes21

After deciding I would try out the tescos home delivery service I am not impressed, I usually buy for the month (tins, packs, frozen etc) plus some extra fresh stuff to last a week (meat, fruit, veg etc) then for the following 3 weeks do smaller shops around town for the fresh stuff any anything Ive run out of.

So my delivery arrived, I must add an hour late, the majority of tins, packs and frozen things were fine, but some things were substituted, but they only went and picked out the most expensive brand.

Now looking at my shopping list I'm clearly on a tight budget (a lot of the value stuff) or im a tight fisted git so why do this? Who in their right mind would substitute items for things twice the price? Do the shoppers have no common sense?

On the fresh side of things the packets of veg I wouldn't call value for money and had short shelf dates, take a cabbage thats sold per piece it was tiny, when theres always larger ones available for the same price, a pack of apples had 4 large apples in when I'm sure most people would prefer more smaller apples.

Now the meat I bought, a joint of beef looked very gristly, a leg of lamb and some mince looked very fatty as did the bacon.

Do these shoppers just throw any old thing in to you basket? would they buy the same for themselves?

So do you trust these shoppers to pick out the best size / quality for the money? I certainly wont, I think I will return to shopping instore.

squack

hi

do Tesco home delivery not price match on the substitutions anymore?

tanith

I prefer to pick and choose my own meat , veg, fruit and bread and do shopping instore because of that.. I would guess that the people who shop for you just pick the first thing that comes to hand and don't waste time looking for leaner, bigger meat, fruit and veg.. it would be ok as you say for packets and tins of stuff but as I go anyway to shop what would be the point... Personally I think people who do online food shopping either stop after they realise they are not getting value for money or they carry on because the are well off enough not to care...

geordie_joe

I shopped online at Tesco once, and never again!

it's a long story, but I'll try to keep it short.

The driver arrived with my shopping and told me that everything I'd ordered was there. Not have done this before I didn't know to check this.

One of the things I ordered was 2 packs of 200 superking fags. One of them was substituted with 20 Woodbines.

I phoned CS who said the shop only had one pack left so the nearest alternative was sent instead. I then phoned the shop and asked if they had any 200 packs of my brand of fags, they said they had lots "Got a delivery the other day and still have a shelf full of them and more in the stock cupboard".

So I took the 20 woodbines, and the paperwork down to the shop and demanded they swapped them for what I'd ordered.

Now I used to work in that shop, so i asked a few people I knew about the delivery system and this is what I was told.

If you don't specify "No substitutions" or specify a particular substitution, they computer system sometimes takes the opportunity to slip in a substitute of the slowest selling item in that line. Especially if you order more than one of an item. Thneyslip in the substitution hoping you will accept it as you did get at least one of what you oreded.

In my case I ordered 2 packs of fags, so the computer substituted one of them for the slowest selling brand.

I thought it was the picker taking the p*ss, but I was told it was the computer, the pickers only substitute if they get to the shelf and there are none of the items left.

I was also told that if they only have a certain number of fast selling items left, the computer will substitute the item in order to leave what stock they have for in store customers.

moneypooh

I have Sainsburys and gave up with substitutes after getting some very odd ones, brussel sprouts instead of bean sprouts kind of thing.

I never had problems when I did get subs as they were clearly listed and packed separately so I had the choice to accept or not when delivered. If I didn't like the sub it was refunded in a couple of days.

Pretani

Instore, but i use mysupermarket.co.uk to help me buy the best deals.

squack

yes i'm afraid the bubble has burst a bit with these online grocery services. after being let down due to a bit of snow, being fobbed off with unwanted substitutions and short dated produce, customers lose trust. I must say that Waitrose Deliver was very good when we tried it the other week though

Pretani

Yip, short dated produce and replacement goods are the two worst things to happen online shopping. I can guarantee that if you buy a bit of meat or poultry and there's at least 4 days difference in the dates, you will be able to smell the difference when you open the packet.

When I buy meat and poultry from supermarkets I always hoke around the back of the shelves till I find some that has at least 4 days expiry date on it.

dawyldthing

I worked as an online shopper for Sainsburys last Christmas and you literally get the list of what the shopper wants. For sainsburys you have to give a sell by date of i think it was a week on milk and a fair few days on fruit and veg, and we were told to pick the best ones for them, ie no dints, no rubbish packaging or anything. We had 16 hours of training to make sure we had enough knowledge. All subs are in light blue smaller bags.

Myself I have shopped online with tesco a few times, with things even running out on the same day. Just e-mail them and say you think the items (and list each one) is unacceptable as you cannot eat all this food that is out of date today and you would like to know what they can do about it. Usually they will refund it as they admit it should have a better shelf life. If you are subbed, it will sell it for the price you wanted it too, check your online shopping receipt or the one that comes with your shopping as it should show this on it, and there is a thing on the website i think. Subs are also in light blue bags in a tote of its own as the driver should get them out to tell you of them. Also with these they always have a discount code on google so i've never had to pay for delivery yet.

I've shopped at asda while i'm home, this is the second time (i'm waiting now for it delivered, they have 1 hour and 13 minutes until its late). First time it was ok to be honest, was actually early and the food was of good quality, especially the pound pizzas Only thing they didn't deliver was my wii and wii fit, as i knew i was going to be home for 6 weeks with this stupid broken ankle so needed something to do, and so treated myself to it. Also nothing was subbed last time.

If Sainsburys didn't charge as much for delivery and I could find a discount code i would have ordered from them, but i think delivery charges are alot really.

Snakeeyes21 wrote: »

After deciding I would try out the tescos home delivery service I am not impressed, I usually buy for the month (tins, packs, frozen etc) plus some extra fresh stuff to last a week (meat, fruit, veg etc) then for the following 3 weeks do smaller shops around town for the fresh stuff any anything Ive run out of.

So my delivery arrived, I must add an hour late, the majority of tins, packs and frozen things were fine, but some things were substituted, but they only went and picked out the most expensive brand.

Now looking at my shopping list I'm clearly on a tight budget (a lot of the value stuff) or im a tight fisted git so why do this? Who in their right mind would substitute items for things twice the price? Do the shoppers have no common sense?

On the fresh side of things the packets of veg I wouldn't call value for money and had short shelf dates, take a cabbage thats sold per piece it was tiny, when theres always larger ones available for the same price, a pack of apples had 4 large apples in when I'm sure most people would prefer more smaller apples.

Now the meat I bought, a joint of beef looked very gristly, a leg of lamb and some mince looked very fatty as did the bacon.

Do these shoppers just throw any old thing in to you basket? would they buy the same for themselves?

So do you trust these shoppers to pick out the best size / quality for the money? I certainly wont, I think I will return to shopping instore.

mjm3346

When I shop on-line, which is not very often I use Ocado.
The goods come from a warehouse not a store so stock levels are known when you order which makes substitutions very rare (and the goods have not been picked over by the public first), show the average use by dates when you are placing an order (shows the exact use bys on your receipt with the goods), price match branded goods with Tesco and claim to be greenest way to shop.

aliadds

I seem to be in the minority then, as I give Asda a big thumbs up for online shopping. Their substitutions are always of a higher value than the original, fresh food always has a good date and always punctual. And the delivery drivers are 1st class, friendly and helpful, and ring in advance to say when they'll be here. :T

I must also add that I'm not wealthy...in fact quite the opposite. But shopping online lets me monitor exactly what's in my trolley and stick to my very tight budget!