Online shopping delivery slots during crisis

Farway

rogertb said:

So we are being advised to stay at home, my wife and I are in our 70s, there are NO available delivery slots available from ANY supermarkets, do we starve at home or go out and get the virus ?

I guess you would do the same as I intend to, go out shopping in the over 70 slot allocated by your supermarket, which seems to be the first hour of opening but check first as some have early period for NHS workers

Gloria_Steeth

rogertb said:

So we are being advised to stay at home, my wife and I are in our 70s, there are NO available delivery slots available from ANY supermarkets, do we starve at home or go out and get the virus ?

Hopefully it doesn't have to be a choice between starvation or contagion. 
Is there a corner shop near you that might do home deliveries now?  Or try your neighbourhood Facebook group or local church website as many are offering help with shopping. A fruit and veg trade wholesaler in my city has diversified into home deliveries and offers bread, butter, milk, toilet rolls along with the fruit and veg. There are bound to be other home delivery ventures springing up but hopefully there will be more supermarket delivery slots available when they take on more staff.

mac.d

I'll second the recommendation to try a local corner shop first (and unfortunately just need to hope they haven't put up their prices). Then try your nearest supermarket for the morning slots of access for the elderly. If local church or other groups aren't possible, do people think local council offices be of help with linking up those who are older or vulnerable to groups offering help? I'm wary of local facebook groups in case there are people who will try to scam those looking for help. 

In the short term this is all a bit of a mess, but hopefully the panic buying will ease, and increased staff working in supermarkets will help sort out the issues with deliveries. It is difficult what you do in the meantime while this happens though. 

Farway

Gloria_Steeth said:

rogertb said:

So we are being advised to stay at home, my wife and I are in our 70s, there are NO available delivery slots available from ANY supermarkets, do we starve at home or go out and get the virus ?

Hopefully it doesn't have to be a choice between starvation or contagion. 
Is there a corner shop near you that might do home deliveries now?  Or try your neighbourhood Facebook group or local church website as many are offering help with shopping. A fruit and veg trade wholesaler in my city has diversified into home deliveries and offers bread, butter, milk, toilet rolls along with the fruit and veg. There are bound to be other home delivery ventures springing up but hopefully there will be more supermarket delivery slots available when they take on more staff.

There are here, for instance one pub / B &B is now doing click & collect basic groceries

Bacman

There seem no supermarket delivery slots at all, that promotes panic buying itself.
If you can't get a delivery of even most of your order items you are forced to go to the supermarket to get those items.
Supermarkets know up to 3 weeks in advance of people's orders online so there is no logical reason they can't set those items aside so people can get what they order; especially now as they are preventing people from amending orders in the last 48 hours.
Supermarkets are not the problem, they are a business. It is not the government's fault (actually they are doing all they can). In saying that, supermarkets can do a LOT to ensure people get more delivery slots and get what they order. That will help reduce the panic buyers. They are recruiting thousands more staff so if they double their delivery staff it will do a lot to relieve the problem.

dosh39

The government are asking everyone to either stay indoors or maintain social distancing and avoid groups of people if you go out.

It seems to me that, as it’s just about impossible to get a delivery slot with any supermarket at the moment, we have no choice other than to go to shops to buy food and essentials.

When you visit a shop it’s very difficult to maintain social distancing and avoid touching things like fruit & veg bag dispensers, trolley handles, the checkout conveyor (including the 'next customer' separators), card payment machines etc etc.

Also with schools closed I expect many parents will be taking their children with them when they go shopping.

All this has to increase the risk of catching or passing on the virus.

Obviously wearing gloves may help but you still end up in close proximity to others, including the person at the checkout.

 

Until supermarkets get their act together, employ more pickers and delivery drivers so that they can provide a home delivery service, then the social distancing measures currently being advised will be much less effective.

izzitme

@bacman. The supermarket that I work for only knows what has been ordered when they start to pick your order on the day of delivery. Maybe not the best system but it is what it is.

@dosh37 The majority of delivery sites only have a certain number of delivery vans. They are specialist vehicles & cannot be hired from your local vehicle rental office.They are out for around 8.5 hours in the day & again for around 3.5 hours in the evening. We also have to abide by driving hours laws. It is only the tacho restrictions that have been eased.

Bacman

So why change people making updates to their orders to more than 48 hours if it makes no odds, from what it was of before 11pm the day before delivery?

izzitme

Sorry, but I can only speak for my employer, not the others in the market. As I said, it's not perfect.

loxley108

Glad i've found this forum, its been a nightmare trying to book a Tesco slot, especially now as its only showing to April 12th, whereas on Sat it was April the 18th