Online shopping delivery slots during crisis

Geoff_W

Farway 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 ?

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

I went to my local Sainsburys last Thursday during their 'vulnerable customers ' hour. It was totally manic and a lot of the shelves were empty. I have enough food to last about 2 weeks but I'm very concerned about what happens after that. If we have to go into total lockdown I just don't know what I'll do.

Vegastare

Can anyone tell me when they release more dates....is it daily or what.

itm2

So...any inventive ideas for smoothing out demand for groceries and avoiding the mass gatherings/bunfights at supermarkets??
A few that I've been thinking of - I have no idea how feasible they would be:
- Moving from deliveries to an organised scheduled collection model for people who are mobile
- A range of collection points (e.g. scattered across the car parks of the larger supermarkets) to avoid crowding
- Order limits based on both stock availability and also customers' previous purchasing habits, using data drawn from the supermarkets customer transaction data - e.g. if someone has purchased 50 more toilet rolls in the last 3 months than they would normally purchase, then ban further purchases for a specified period to level out the supply to them. This would require supermarkets to share customer data between themselves to avoid abuse of the system, which would previously have been unthinkable, but we are already well into "unthinkable" territory. I think this is more effective than a simple "3 items per customer" rule, as this is too easily abused (and doesn't seem to have prevented empty shelves in every major supermarket in the country). It also penalises people who need to buy in bulk on behalf of others (e.g. care providers)
- Extended ordering facilities for those purchasing on behalf of others (e.g. neighbourhood support schemes for the vulnerable or elderly)

lindens

This is where FB and social media is coming into its own. Today I had a veg delivery box delivered and sorted out a milkman. The world has changed overnight, local business are flexing just to keep afloat. seek out local FB groups

Chrysalis

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.

As for facebook, it seems odd thats the only social media in england that is used, apparently thats buzzing with delivery options, so I am guessed I am forced to register on that horrible thing.

Seriously we into rationing territory now, we at the point where the weak cannot get any food.

Chrysalis

izzitme said:

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

Its far from perfect, what you described its just plain bad.
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.

In regards to delivery vans, it was pretty obvious back in january this situation would be happening, the situation is simple, buy more vans, hire more drivers.  But I expect they didnt want to do the capital expenditure and were waiting for this situation we have now as these supermarkets are now very likely to get government assistance.

pumpkin89

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.

[simon]

Hello all, i hope you are keeping safe and well.

I have a little question please

My question is, what time of day does a supermarket, or "Morrison's supermarket" open up new days / slots for delivery ?

As every time i go online a new day appears and all the slots are already gone.

Thank you so much to everyone who takes a little time to help me.

Kind Regards

Simon.

izzitme

Delivery vans are custom built & therefore take many weeks to prepare.

drspa44

On the subject of "why didn't the supermarkets increase their online capacity", increasing capacity relies on building more local depots, warehouses and large stores. Land that is available for industrial purposes is on the decline, with local government preferring residential zoning. To deliver to people in London or any large city, option 1 is to pay high business rates for a tiny plot of land and be criticised for increasing local traffic and pollution. Option 2 is to build far out of town, pay more for fuel, be more suceptible to traffic and late deliveries and not be able to offer delivery slots at short notice. Option 3 is to focus on in-store sales, which generate far more profit.

I don't think we should be building Tesco superstores and massive Amazon warehouses in the City of London, however if the UK population wants to make online shopping the default option rather than high streets, then they have to accept there will need to be more ugly warehouses and traffic in their local area. You can't run Tesco.com out of a Tesco Express!