Is grocery home delivery good for the environment?

cliffter

I don't know if anyone else has thought about this - but do you think that by delivering customers shopping the supermarkets actually reduce the amount of emissions emitted in to the atmosphere compared to if customers went themselves?

morganb

It reduces vehicle emissions but the number of carrier bags used increases dramatically! (though some supermarkets take bags back for recycling)

cliffter

But has anybody ever carried out a study to say 'Yes, by having your groceries delivered you save the environment'. When you think about it, you have all the staff coming to work in their cars to pick the shopping and drive the vans...

Plus, how many miles do you think those vans do per gallon?!

ailuro2

Diesel vans, and they are refigerated so will use more energy.

However, they can carry a few people's shopping each journey, so as long as they go to the same area then it could be compared to your shopping sharing a lift with someone else's.

Good question, not sure the answer is a definitive yes or no,though.

newleaf

I think it is good for the environment, it reduces the number of vehicles on the road therefore easing congestion. It's car sharing for groceries

Volcano

I was involved in Iceland's (the supermarket) initial implementation of home delivery when it first started in 1997. The only outlay as far as extra staff were concerned were the drivers, they just cracked the whip to get the existing staff to cope. Deliveries are grouped together for convenience (and profit's) sake, so it is rare to make a one-off delivery a long distance away.

Depending on the distribution of the deliveries, the vans would do between 6-12 'drops' in a 2 hour slot (including loading), I'm guessing they covered about 35 miles in this time.

Remember that the van is driving with a warm, newish engine so is relatively efficient compared to several cold-starting, short distance, cars of varying ages.

For me, the £3.99 delivery charge is actually less than the money I would spend on petrol getting there and back (as I live quite a distance from supermarkets), nevermind the hassle of shopping, parking, screaming kids etc.

kitekat

I would say yes,as opposed to maybe 6 cars on the road spewing out waste there is only one van.Plus its cheaper for me as i dont drive and a taxi cost way much more than Tesco del charge.And the driver collects all plastic bags from you to recycle.

cliffter

I definetely agree with your point about the taxi Kitekat, it is hard to factor in people who use home delivery because they do not have their own transport.

However, there are quite a few people who could 'pop-in' to the supermarket on their way home from gym/work/nursery and only make a short diversion in an already warm engine. In this instace their use of the home delivery service is surely increasing carbon?

I guess a crucial question is, what proportion of people are using home delivery because they have no other way of (easily) getting their shopping (and therefore no other way of polluting the environment)?

Ken68

Hi, and good point Clifter, as an oldie I could also use the free bus. What proportion of home deliveries are for senior citizens who wouldn't otherwise use a car.
A good topic.

skyepark

WHat about home delivery for people who use buses? this doesnt detract form the road usage it adds to space taken up in the van and distance travelled, wheras using the bus doesnt. plus im sure we spend less as there are only 4 hands.

Hay_2

Not always because I get the home delivery then 50% of the time have to drive to the supermarket anyway to get something they didn't have that we REALLY need or gave a rubbish substitute:rolleyes: