Grocery Shopping – Online vs In store

edinburghlad

Hello,

Just looking to understand what peoples views are on shopping in store v's ordering online. The reason I ask, last year I done a lot of shopping at aldi and I do love the food from there. The only problem is I could never get everything I needed and would end up going to Mr T's (and spending more money).

This month I signed up to Mr T's delivery saver (£6pm) and I hope it will save me money in the long run.

Any views?

NewShadow

I find that one online shop of staples and heavy stuff works.

Then I shop once or twice, either at the market or Lidl, for fresh fruit and any bits I forgot.

Max £20 for the top up shops.

Horace

I make a list and what I can't get in Aldi I will get elsewhere but I don't ever spend more than I intend to.

At least if you shop instore you get to handle the produce whereas ordering it online and getting it delivered can mean that the food you get is not always as fresh as it could be.

rosie383

I have a couple of friends who have started to shop online and both have said that they are saving money as they have to really plan their shop and aren't doing top up shops except literally for milk. I do love to go to Aldi to shop and apart from approved foods I have never shopped online but am seriously considering it. In my mind everything is on hold until we move house then I intend to try to get super organised. I might give it a go.

Ilona

Never have shopped online, and never will. I like to see what I'm buying before I pay for it and bring it home. I don't want to have to complain when things go wrong, sent wrong brand, sent wrong size, sent scabby vegetables, etc.
Ilona

marleyboy

I much prefer to pick the freshest food, or produce with a longer expiry date, which is something I could not do online. I suppose if I was just buying tinned food or tea\coffee I would give it a go. But I usually just end up picking those up whilst I am at it.

peachyprice

I don't really get on with online grocery shopping. I like to be able to choose the freshest and best, not relying someone else's judgement of what is fresh, nice looking or the best piece if meat.

It's not for me.

S-Iam

We do the majority of our shopping online and have done for 14 years. So I've rather a lot of experience I've tried all the supermarkets that deliver to my area and they are all different. They all have positive and negative points. So my advice is to try them all and see what you think.

health problems mean that for me supermarket shopping is very difficult. And something I would need help with. Having someone deliver my food shopping directly to the kitchen is a godsend for me. It also means DH and I don't have to spend our precious time together supermarket shopping. I can do an online shop on my own. So for me it makes me independent in a way I wouldn't be able to be normally.


For us it works. I can place a shopping order at my convenience and continually tweek it until the night before the delivery. Although I like a bargain as much as the next mse, not seeing the supermarkets selling tactics in person means I'm less likely to be tempted and therefore more likely to stick to my list. Because of that, for us, it saves money. I shop every week to 10 days and rarely need to do top up shops.
(We don't have an aldi or lidl nearby. I do however use our local butchers and greengrocers)

Agreed, sometimes there are things about the food that isn't to to my liking and I have to phone up and complain, but I always get an immediate refund. And friendly staff. Which makes a potentially stressful the phone call far easier than it could be.

My advice is give it to ago. Try out all the supermarkets that deliver to you - as I said they all have their plusses and minuses. And see what you think. You may only use it for the heavy stuff, or like us for most things. Or maybe not at all. But at least you'll then know.

Eta - I've just reread your original post. One of the positives about Mr Ts is that it allows you to write notes to your shopper, ie, long expiry dates please, or, green bananas. Which whilst not fool proof does, in my experience, help.

pickledonionspaceraider

I think Mr A's home delivery service is fantastic and have been using it for nearly two years now.

-Shopping has always arrived on time

-I save money as I only buy what I need - and you can see your order totting up so you know exactly what you are spending before you get to the till

-Whilst doing the online shop, I keep popping back into the kitchen to check on what I have in the cupboards and meal plan around that

-Saves time as we all work full time, and makes the weekends far more enjoyable if we don't have to spend what would be 3 or 4 hours doing a food shop

- Produce from Mr A is always fresh

- Occasionally you get substitutes, but they are ALWAYS better than what you had originally ordered and are worth more, but you pay the cost of our original order - say you choose a washing up liquid for 59p and the only similar one they have availible is worth £1.50 - they send you the dearer one, but you still only pay 59p for it

- Only issue I have ever had was a bottle of bleach missing, rang up customer services, got through immediately, refunded for bleach

- Price for delivery is very reasonable.

I will never ever go back to supermarket queing on a saturday morning after being at work all week, no way I would MUCH rather pay them to do it for me, as time is far too valuable. I cant believe people are still going to the supermarket themselves, when you can get them to do the whole lot, for as little as a quid

It really has turned our weekends around since we started doing this, and cannot reccomend enough

edinburghlad

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I am giving online shopping from Mr T a go for the next 6 month with the delivery saver at only £6pm. I will then compare (using YNAB) to the last 6 months of last year. I really feel that online shopping is the way forward. The mobile app lets you add things to your basket when you run out of something, therefore you will not forget it when you go to do the shopping.

bladerunner73

I started using delivery saver in January and so far have found it really helpful for making me stick to planned meals and a shopping list I usually do 2 x £25 shops per week which suits me better as the food is fresher. The only real problems I've had is a couple of overcharges where I have ordered meal deals and things have been substituted with other things but I've just called and they've refunded the extra to me.