New to online supermarket shopping-any tips?

TheBanker

I find Morrisons OK for dates - can't comment on the others. But as mentioned above, Morrisons (at least in my area) comes from a warehouse, not a shop, so it's probably easier for them to manage stock control. The handy thing is the delivery note shows you the shelf life of each product so you can plan your menus easily to se the short dated things first. Having some freezer space helps too, especially at the moment when you might not be able to get another delivery in a week's time. 

mikb

Chrysalis said:

 not unusual to get 1-2 day use by dates on bread etc. from tesco for me,

That would actually be highly unusual, as there are no "use by dates" on bread. It's a best before date, it does not mean that you have to consume a whole loaf of bread at once, or throw it away. It's a guide. The bread will be safe for some time after, and if you have a freezer, use it.

The 1-2 day thing isn't a problem, I regularly seek out the reduced bread (as in 0 days. Now! Today!) which they know they struggle to sell because of people holding views similar to yours

GaleSF63

mikb said:

Chrysalis said:

 not unusual to get 1-2 day use by dates on bread etc. from tesco for me,

That would actually be highly unusual, as there are no "use by dates" on bread. It's a best before date, it does not mean that you have to consume a whole loaf of bread at once, or throw it away. It's a guide. The bread will be safe for some time after, and if you have a freezer, use it.

The 1-2 day thing isn't a problem, I regularly seek out the reduced bread (as in 0 days. Now! Today!) which they know they struggle to sell because of people holding views similar to yours

I once had a loaf of Tesco brown bread which I didn't open until 14 days after its best before date (don't ask). It lasted till it was used up and there's only me. Heaven knows what preservatives there are in it!

Steve_L

This week's delivery arrived OK. So close to 100%, but not quite.

Homepride tomato & bacon pasta bake ordered. Homepride spicy tomato & pepperoni pasta bake received. The order doesn't show it as having been substituted, so we're asssuming it was "mis-picked". The labels are similar and I've picked up the wrong one in the past. And people put things back in the wrong place. Lynne can't eat spicy food, so a refund has been requested & we'll try again next week. However, the refund acknowledgement e-mail now says it's spicy tomato & pepperoni.

Less than 20% fat beef mince ordered. Shown as subbed for less than 5% fat beef mince. Less than 20% fat beef mince received.

5 loose white potatoes ordered. Unavailable. Sub' allowed but not subbed. So, at the time our order was picked, there were no other white potatoes in the store? Last week, a bottle of still white wine ordered. Unavailable. Sub' allowed but not subbed. Again, at the time our order was picked, there were no other still white wines in the store?

So, do we go without potatoes (i shouldn't be eating them anyway) this week, or do we go out, potentially risking my life, and get them in another store? However, in my case, there are now some things we need, that ASDA don't do and whose suppliers don't do home delivery, that we're going to have to go out for anyway, so the risk won't increase significantly. But, for someone else, a decision made by a picker could, in the worst case scenario, mean death.

There is an apparent discrepancy between the total of the order and what's on my credit card account, but this is shown as pending and dated yesterday. The adjustment for the spuds has yet to appear. I'll see what's happened when the dust settles.

I haven't rung ASDA. I don't think there's anything the customer service people could do. Could they send me just 5 spuds and a jar of tomato & bacon pasta bake? I think not. It would be just another call, where all they could do was "provide every possible assistance short of actual help". I use to hate those calls, when I did the same job for PO Telephones, British Telecom and then BT.

Overall, it's more entertaining than annoying. I find myself looking forward to seeing what they come up with next week.

GaleSF63

Steve_L said:

This week's delivery arrived OK. So close to 100%, but not quite.

5 loose white potatoes ordered. Unavailable. Sub' allowed but not subbed. So, at the time our order was picked, there were no other white potatoes in the store? 

Overall, it's more entertaining than annoying. I find myself looking forward to seeing what they come up with next week.

i ordered potatoes from Waitrose once and got the no substitute available, and thought the same thing - surely they weren't completely out of potatoes?

As for being entertaining, it can also be enlightening - there have been a few times when after being given a substitution that was preferable  I've swapped over to the substitution for future orders. 

Sounds as if you've got online ordering sorted very quickly!

Steve_L

Only having my occupational pension until my state one arrives next year, we usually have to go for the own basic brand stuff, so the only way with sub's is up.  Except for the mince, where we went up and then back down again. We've already had some good ones. We've only had one to date (100g of cloves for 100g of black peppercorns) where we don't know when or even if we're ever going to use them up. However, with branded stuff (where the own basic brand stuff and/or other lesser brands isn't acceptable: a gentleman cannot compromise on some things, for example, HP sauce) then you don't substittute and use your reserve stock while you "tough it out" until it's back in stock again. ASDA's stock control is ... how can I put this kindly? ... always been their Achilles heel ... so we're used to doing this already.

Steve_L

I'm having pangs of guilt about my last home shopping refund. I ordered Homepride tomato & bacon pasta bake. I got Homepride spicy tomato & pepperoni pasta bake. Lynne can't eat spicy stuff. You don't want to know any more. So I applied for an online refund.

However, after further thought, I realised that I could use the stuff myself, when she can go back over to her friend's place in France and I'm cooking just for myself. The Best Before End date on the jar is June 2021 and we all know how conservative they are.

I'll see what happens next week and try to do better.

pumpkin89

Steve_L said:

I'm having pangs of guilt about my last home shopping refund. I ordered Homepride tomato & bacon pasta bake. I got Homepride spicy tomato & pepperoni pasta bake. Lynne can't eat spicy stuff. You don't want to know any more. So I applied for an online refund. 

Don't feel guilty.  If you'd been shopping in a supermarket and the tomato & bacon one had been out of stock, would you have bought the spicy tomato & pepperoni instead?  It sounds like the answer is no, in which case it's perfectly fair to request a refund.

Steve_L

Next week's ASDA order placed. Both the salted & unsalted butter we'd ordered were out of stock this time.Is there any way of selecting something else at this point? If there is, then it isn't obvious. There's a button with a dustbin, which is obviously delete, and another button next to it, with two arrows that look like the British Rail logo. There are no "tool tips" to tell you what they do, if you hover the mouse ponter over the buttons. I didn't dare click it to see what it did. It's poor programming, but par for the course. I clicked on "Continue" and the out of stock items vanished. So, we may have to go out again for just the butter, which sort of defeats the object of online shopping.

Steve_L

PS. I've just signed back in and the butters that were shown as out of stock are now shown as available and I've even added them to my trolley. What the [CENSORED]?

Going to a store and spending the next 14 days worrying if I was going to die was less stressful.