Online shopping delivery slots during crisis

pumpkin89

The M&S box has already gone up to £35!

grumpyoldwoman

I presume they don't contain any fresh food because the boxes are all packed up ready to go well before they're ordered. Any fresh food would have to be picked and packed on the day of delivery and kept cool, whereas tins and packets can be kept at ambient temperatures for a long period. Some tinned fruit and vegetables might be better than the sweets and chocolate though.

Gloria_Steeth

pumpkin89 said:

The M&S box has already gone up to £35!

Seems like daylight robbery but I've just Googled other press releases to check the original price again, and it looks like there's also a vegetarian option which is £30 (currently not showing on the M&S website) and the meat option is £35. Would expect a tin of caviar along with the soups etc for that amount of money, though!

pumpkin89

Gloria_Steeth said:

Seems like daylight robbery but I've just Googled other press releases to check the original price again, and it looks like there's also a vegetarian option which is £30 (currently not showing on the M&S website) and the meat option is £35. Would expect a tin of caviar along with the soups etc for that amount of money, though!

Ah, that makes sense.  To be honest if Morrisons is charging £30 then I'd expect M&S to be at £35.  I expect a lot of meat eaters would go for the vegetarian option anyway (I certainly would).

sarah1972

M&S sold out 

THIS PRODUCT IS UNAVAILABLE

Unfortunately we have temporarily sold out. Please check back later. We're expecting more stock shortly.

JulieM

Just checked out of curiosity,  M & S Food boxes seem to be available again at this very moment, also Morrisons though you have to join a queue to order.

sarah1972

Just booked an Asda order for delivery tomorrow, seems its luck of the draw as I have been checking daily but they have quite a few slots over the next few days at the moment.

Robin9

ASDA now only shows slots for the next 7 days (it had been 14) - makes no difference as there are no available slots

Lanzarote1938

Got accepted on Sainsburys ite so slots will be available for me.

Chrysalis

pumpkin89 said:

Chrysalis said:

The supermarkets and government have dropped the ball.
There is not a single supermarket in my area that has any delivery slots at all for me, none at all.  Also all their call centres are refusing all calls.  I think sticking their fingers in their ears (by blocking calls) isnt the way to go.
They need to implement a scheme like the WHD, and give disabled people priority access to slots very quickly as the system has already collapsed for home deliveries, seems very odd they didnt scale up with demand.

Online orders are normally 7% of total food sales.  According to Age UK, 15% of the population is over 70, and of course there are many younger people who are disabled or otherwise needing to isolate.  So what you're saying is that supermarkets should have more than doubled their delivery capacity in two months.  That simply isn't realistic.

Chrysalis said:

Common sense would be when someone places an order, especially weeks in advance, you make sure that is stocked in advance and then "reserved", whilst currently the supermarkets instead just have pickers stroll around the store and hope its on the shelves.

I don't think you understand what you're paying for.  Supermarkets make less money from an online order than the same order bought in-store (because the delivery fee is nowhere near the cost of somebody picking and packing your order and somebody else delivery it), so why would they give special treatment to online shoppers?  You're simply getting somebody else to go and do your shopping at a time of your choosing, instead of you doing it yourself.

What a bizarre attitude, its not about that, its about operating a service in a proper way, most delivery services reserve an item when its ordered, its just a "normal" way of doing online delivery.  Your response only confirms my belief that home delivery customers by many of the supermarkets are treated as second class and them getting "leftovers" short dated food, no shopping bags etc. emphasis that.  Also delivery in most retail is more cost efficient than brick and mortar, why do you think amazon is still going, and hmv and co need constant bailouts.  For customers that come into the store, you need to pay for the building to house them, for people manning the tills, for self stackers, for the electricity etc.  Usually pick and packing costs anything from about £4 up to about £10 per order.  An order picker might be paid circa £8 an hour and wont take an entire hour to pick one order, similar with delivery costs.  I have seen the figures for a store and they "are" profitable, especially when taking into account that home delivery is used as a means of stock control, e.g. manipulating certain stock to be shifted via substitutions and product availability on website.

I am paying for the food I order to be delivered at the time I booked, its not rocket science.  If there is a stock problem I expect to be told when I am filling my trolley, not days/weeks later, at the very least one/two days before delivery so there is a chance to change order.  Its not about special treatment, its about common sense and the normal way of operating a delivery business.  So e.g. if on average you sell 50 loafs a day in store and 20 have been pre ordered online, you get 70 in, put 20 aside for the orders and the other 50 go on the shelves.  Instead of just putting 50/70 on the shelf and hoping there is enough for the pickers.

Also doubling delivery capacity in two months is quite easy.  I know off companies that can do it in "days".   A certain supermarket who I wont name, actually did do it in days, the rest of the time was simply them not making a decision, once it was made they implemented it in 4 days.

The problem is double is clearly not enough, also having people shopping in store is exposing people to the virus, the supermarkets needs to switch to click and collect for the able bodied, reserve delivery for the disabled, and also given we still have stock issues and that click+collect wouldnt be viable on the amount of food people are consuming, rationing is needed as well.  If you think i am been bonkers, wait until things get worse, right now they kind of ticking along as people have stocks of food they using up, and charities are covering the slack.