New to online supermarket shopping-any tips?

GaleSF63

Steve_L said:

I had a very interesting (phone) conversation last night with a friend of Lynne's, who used to work for Sainsbury's. They regularly had cases, where food had been delivered and booked into the warehouse, so was in stock, but hadn't been put out onto the shelves. By the time someone found them still in the warehouse, they were usually well out-of-date and had to be disposed of.  Fresh stuff usually smelled after a while, but frozen stuff could be in limbo for years. Probably, someone was probably told to put them out, then either (at worst) didn't bother to do it or (at best) were collared by another supervisor, who told them to do something else. There were no checks to ensure that it had been done so no-one told anyone when it wasn't. The stuff was written off and no-one told anyone higher up what had gone wrong. She was unhappy about the waste of food at the time she worked there. But it could also explain what we see happening with our online shops. And now, the consequences of someone not being able to get something online and having to go out to get it could be a lot more serious.

I've benefitted once or twice from that (lack of) system when things have been found just in time and gone straight into the reduced for 10p - and then straight into my freezer. 

Steve_L

The parts for some upgrades to the computer arrived, so thought I'd better place this week's order a day early, just in case something went horribly wrong. Checkout was a disaster area. If you believed what you saw on screen, then whole sections of the store must be empty. It was interesting that most of the "low margin" items were shown as "out of stock", but all the "high margin" versions were available.

Of course, some people will buy the cheaper low margin option first, but the question is how much of these are being supplied? It's not in the store's interest to supply enough to meet the demand for these, so as to shift the demand up to the more expensive higher margin option. But, shopkeepers have probably been doing this since the Sumerian civilisation.

However, this situation is haemorrhaging money from my small fixed income and they have become an unavailable option for me. I'll try again tomorrow. 

PS. if you don't log in, than everything is "in stock" and the few that are are those, which it was rare to find on the shelves, so this situation seems close to reality. Of course, you can compare the sheves with the website, but you wouldn't need to log in. If you've logged in, then it's a safe bet that you can't check the reality on the shelves. As I've said, I'd love to do a home shopping order in store. I have a bad feeling that I know what I'd find.

Questions need to be asked of ASDA about their performance, whether by accident or design, in all of this.

Steve_L

Today's delivery arrived. Nothing completely "unavailable". Only 1 substitution: ASDA scampi (235g, £1.87) ordered, Whitby scampi (225g, £2.00) received, still charged just £1.87. 10g less scampi, but this is infinitely preferable to no scampi.

However, we have a new problem. ASDA (and apparently a lot of other supermarkets) have run out of bags.

The driver had to leave the crates by the door and I had to take the items out and put them in some of the bags I've received in the past weeks. At least, there's now a use for some of them.

They stopped using bags years ago and have now used up all their old stock. The manufacturers have stopped making themi and aren't open to start making them again.

It's ironic that something a supermarket has run out of and needs to replace is "unavailable".

GaleSF63

Steve_L said:

However, we have a new problem. ASDA (and apparently a lot of other supermarkets) have run out of bags. 

i

My last Waitrose delivery was in pedal-bin bags. 

greatcrested

Anyone familiar with Sainsburys online shopping?

When scrolling down a list from a category I've selected eg 'tomatos', why do they include 'Featured products' which are totally unrelated to tomatos? Is there a setting somewhere where you can turn that off?

Also, Tescos allow you to enter a 'note' against each item but sainsburys don't seem to. I ordered loose baking potatoes and got such small ones they weren't worth baking - with tescos I learned to enter "big ones please" in the notes - but can't get tesco slots at present.

pumpkin89

greatcrested said:

Anyone familiar with Sainsburys online shopping?

When scrolling down a list from a category I've selected eg 'tomatos', why do they include 'Featured products' which are totally unrelated to tomatos? Is there a setting somewhere where you can turn that off?

No - they get paid by suppliers to feature certain products when a customer searches for specific words/phrases.

Steve_L

GaleSF63 said:

Steve_L said:

However, we have a new problem. ASDA (and apparently a lot of other supermarkets) have run out of bags. 

i

My last Waitrose delivery was in pedal-bin bags. 

What? Waitrose? I would have expected at least organic hessian ones!

Steve_L

pumpkin89 said:

greatcrested said:

Anyone familiar with Sainsburys online shopping?

When scrolling down a list from a category I've selected eg 'tomatos', why do they include 'Featured products' which are totally unrelated to tomatos? Is there a setting somewhere where you can turn that off?

No - they get paid by suppliers to feature certain products when a customer searches for specific words/phrases.

I have a bad feeling that some supermarkets may take this one step further. I've noticed that their own brand stuff suddenly disappears from the shelves as soon as these "promotions" start and then suddenly re-appear as soon as they end.

Steve_L

I've just noticed that, if you sign into the ASDA online shopping website, cornflour is shown as "out of stock". It's made from corn, which isn't used predominantly in commercial baking, and it's not a ground flour. Its American name of "corn starch" is more accurate. As usual, if you don't sign in, it's shown as available. Has the person "managing demand" on the online shopping website made a revealing error?

GaleSF63

Steve_L said:

I've just noticed that, if you sign into the ASDA online shopping website, cornflour is shown as "out of stock". It's made from corn, which isn't used predominantly in commercial baking, and it's not a ground flour. Its American name of "corn starch" is more accurate. As usual, if you don't sign in, it's shown as available. Has the person "managing demand" on the online shopping website made a revealing error?

If you sign in you get a more accurate idea of what's in stock for you because it knows which store you are served by.