Consumer Help Required ... I Need Your Thoughts on On-line Grocery Shopping

Sue1973

I use Ocado and pay annually for unlimited deliveries.

I started using Ocado when my baby was just a few weeks old and have never looked back!!! The main advantage for me is the value of my time - I can plan my shop in the evening over a glass of wine when my baby is in bed rather than rushing round on my way home from work and have it delivered at 7:30 am saturday morning so we are all ready for the weekend!


I also find it easier to budget. I set myself a weekly budget and wont allow myself to go over it. I seek out and stock up on the special offers.

My initial worries about bruised fruit and veg were unfounded as Ocado are great at no questions asked refunds.

The only disadvantages are that I miss out on clubcard points (tried tesco deliveries once and hated i!) and cheap joints of meat reduced at the end of the day ( I used to love a rummage in the reduced section!!!)

Callie22

I've never really got the hang of online shopping. I'd really like to give it a go, but I worry about actually getting what I need. You hear so many stories about substitutions and not getting your whole order, and it would really annoy me to have planned a week's meals and then find out that I've only received half of what I need. I also don't mind grocery shopping, and I like to have a look round the store to find reductions and special offers - the times I've looked at online grocery sites (Ocado, Tesco, Sainsbury's) it seems so 'clumsy', in that you have to know exactly what you want in order to find it, and you don't get to see all of the offers. I can see how that would save you money, but I think I'd find myself ordering the same things week after week because I couldn't be bothered to search through a website. My other main worry is that I'm a bit fussy about food, and I don't really like the idea of someone else picking my vegetables or meat - again you hear stories about getting loads of short-dated food and that would really annoy me.

I can see the advantages for stocking up - much easier to get lots of something delivered. I can also see how it would be great for sticking to a tight budget, but for me, it just feels easier to whizz round the supermarket once a week and get it done in half an hour or so, rather than have to spend a couple of hours clicking round a fairly boring website. I think too that I've read too many stories on this site about the transactions going wrong, and as my budget is fairly tight I couldn't really afford to spend 'double' on my groceries while it gets sorted out.

bigmomma051204

Hiya - i have always used Tesco for online shopping and home delivery. Only tried one other store before and is was Asda who cancelled my order 45 mins before it was due to be delivered for no real reason (1 driver off sick apparently)
I find Tesco great - drivers all friendly enough and the offers are usually good (though it is annoying that when you are shopping for a week or so ahead, you can't get any offers cos they will have expired when your get delivery etc)

People think i am weird but i dont order fresh meat from them in my order...i do a small shop every week or so for that. I have always found that i get meat which is not a very nice cut (fatty etc) and that the dates are always terrible (ie out of date within a day or so) I once had 4 lots of meat (so 4 meals) all going out of date the next day... we would have to have been VERY hungry that night lol... to be fair, Tesco DID refund all of it and after i rang, i realised i could shove some into the freezer so all was not lost lol!

Shopping online with Tesco means i avoid impulse buying because, even though i go in once a week for the meat, i go in ONLY to get the meat and i rush past the dvds etc lol... if i was doing a proper shop, i would mooch along and impulse buy lots LOL!

vodkawitch1

Hi
I use online shopping (Tesco mostly but have used Sainsburys) as I find it much easier to stick to a budget. I write a list then go online to shop.
Also no parking, no lugging shopping in and out of trolleys, no impulse buys and no crowds.
I keep £10 per week cash for anything extra I may need and thats it shopping sorted.

jenniewb

I have only tried online grocery shopping a handful of times. Either at Sainsburys or Tesco about twice or three times each.

No experiences have been worthwhile and I think they'd need to pay me, discount all my shopping or chop off my legs to get me to use their 'service' again.

I dislike that I cannot specify which items to substitute and to what and how much to substiture for (eg a box of porridge oats or x amount of value stuff or nothing at all) I have never had a substitute I liked so in the end I chose the 'do not substitute' tab.

So then I decide to make an order- all the heavy stuff (I don't trust them to chose apples without bruises, cabbage halves which aren't all core, melon which is a decent size and ripe or within edible date as I don't believe they know the difference between good and bad veg.) I ordered 10 bottles of diet lemonade, a few bags of frozen vegetables- various types, two pint sized bottles of skimmed milk (one for me one for the freezer), washing liquid and softener and some tins of soup. All the heavy stuff basicly.

My delivery contained a small bag of fresh brussel spouts. 5 to be exact, they were all out of frozen vegetables apparently.
My diet lemonade had been switched to fizzy water, my washing liquid changed to powder my soup switched to a different flavor. The milk had become a two pint bottle of full fat "sorry we ran out of skimmed" and the pack of freshly cut melon I ordered had been replaced with a single honeydew melon. (The whole reason I got a pack was that I wanted all the different types of melon in one pot, not just one variety! I also for reasons I wont go into here, did not own a sharp knife.)

Needless to say it all went back. I then went out to the very store the whole lot came from only to find everything I wanted in stock. I got a cab back home for the same price as the delivery.

Sainsburys were just as bad: nothing fresh was edible, nothing arrived on time with any of their orders and staff refused to carry stuff to the lift and to my door. They left it at the front gate. It was only when I realised it had not arrived to my door I got worried, thinking it had been delivered elsewhere or the man was stuck not being able to open the gate that I saw the bags waiting outside. Lucky it was not raining! Don't know how on earth he managed that one without me signing though?!

Ocado wont deliver to my area (too rough or not quite posh enough for them?) they charge too much anyway. Asda I will never shop in ever again (personal reasons) and Icelands foods I just don't eat.

I think it just works out better if I shop myself. I get exactly what I want down to the fine details (which matter a great deal to me) things like making sure I get apples that are fresh AND unbruised- and then carrying them back home with me. Frozen veg which I want to eat or I go to another store and shop elsewhere -this I can do as I live in London, there are atleast 10 stores within a 30 min bus ride to my door and more if I travel out further. I also like to check for discount end of day deals and see which offers are on as I find the websites don't show everything the stores sell and in addition is a lot harder to see the offers which are on unless you look for a particular item. Theres just so much mess and faff on those sites they gove you a headache just by doing your own shopping!

ninnoodle

I like online shopping (I use Tesco) because it is convenient and means I don't have to spend a day of my weekend or an evening doing it. I like the fact it is packed and delivered to me just to put away. But I've found some downsides:
- I've found often the things you pick are about to go out of date - not great.
-substitutes can be ridiculous - eg. a 6 pint of milk subtitute for a 1 pint of milk, same for yoghurt (but if you're banking on making something and that stuff arriving then often there's not much choice)
-weather can be detrimental. The recent snow made orders delayed for a few days
-although convenient, I still spend up to 2 hours at my pc choosing the items
-I tend to choose the same items week after week, just because it was my last order. I can't look and feel the items so have to go on what I need, and sometimes choose things I wouldn't normally choose if I was shopping in the supermarket.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your dissertation

cezairs

Hello,
I use Tesco and Asda, I go with whichever place has the offers for stuff I want......normally Tesco. I also will sometimes do the shopping in store too, when I want to check the clothes or present buying etc.
I find I spend less when I shop on-line and also healthier !!!! I would discribe myself as a 'Marketing Persons Dream' so any smells in store or promotions I buy them.....quite often a warm french stick has been half eaten by the time it gets to the checkout !
My deliveries have always been on time and any substitued have worked in my favour. The few disasters I had were when I first started using them and were my own fault........one apple in a bag and Haagen Das Ice Cream that turned out to be the cinema size tubs....:-))
To sum up I am more in control sat at the keyboard then let loose in the shop !!

laura1988

Thanks again for all your help everyone!! It's great help, and I will be constructing my questionnaire in the next week or so, based on your views. If there is anything else that anyone would like to add, please feel free.

Thank you,
Laura

stumpycat

I don't use internet grocery shopping (but am glad other people do as it leaves more reduced stuff to rummage through! :rotfl:)

Reasons for not shopping online:
I am lucky to have several local supermarkets that I can have a quick wander round & check out what's cheaper.
I don't have a fixed 'weekly' shop and don't menu plan - I prefer to wander round and see what catches my eye or is reduced and get inspiration from there. I also keep a big supply of 'store cupboard' ingredients.
I prefer different supermarkets for different things.

hth!

laura1988

Hey again! Any other thoughts on this topic? Were there any triggering factors which initiated your participation of online grocery shopping?