Tesco Delivery Price Increase

lib21by

Or what about a percentage charge instead of  flat rate - that would be fairer -eg 10% would be an additional £1 for every £10 spent ?

And just to show we are not curmudgeonly ( had to look up the spelling ), an extra 5% to help them get rid of their long-running scribe and put in a better computer system to cope with the percentage calculations AND the slowness of their present system. The 5% to be dropped once they have done this and got a new computer up and running.

fabsaver

warby68 said:

Delivery Saver is usually worthwhile - hopefully they will open that up soon. They have only just started charging again for it. I seem to have had mine for free while slots were restricted.

Delivery saver has opened up to new customers again as of yesterday.
However the price has increased significantly    It is now a flat rate of £7.99 a month, more than double their old midweek plan which cost £3.49 a month.

In my area there are loads of available slots, especially after the 3rd August. I can't help thinking they will end up having to reduce the prices of the less popular slots. Maybe this is just a way for them to gauge what the new peak times are, with more people at home more. Armed with that data they might introduce variable pricing again, but with less premium pricing on evenings and weekends.

Bacman

I often used to see supermarket staff stuffing bags with items for online deliveries; they don't do a person's at a time, they do several and different staff do different sections (presumably as more efficient). Given the speed of these staff it doesn't take long to do a person's delivery items when you divide their total time by the amount of customers' items they did; and delivery drivers do a lot of stops in a day, over I would imagine a fairly small territory per delivery van (a bit like couriers like MyHermes who earn about 80p a parcel for their car, petrol and time costs). So, the cost we pay as customers is not likely to be too different to what a supermarket charges overall; they do however get the benefit of a larger market share.

Supermarkets are not charities, far from it, they take about half the cost of a sold item for their costs and profits. They do online deliveries because they charge enough to warrant it; which is probably why Lidl don't do home deliveries and yet are expanding, as their prices tend to be cheaper than supermarkets. Tesco are a gigantic company with massive profits, so clearly they do home deliveries to maintain their market share and profits too, as it is worth them doing it. If people used home deliveries less, then they would dispose of van delivery personnel and some staff who do the shopping; so actually we are keeping them employed.

pumpkin89

Bacman said:

Supermarkets are not charities, far from it, they take about half the cost of a sold item for their costs and profits.

Almost all of it is costs.  For example Tesco's profit last year was only 2.4% of their sales.  Hardly "massive profits".
[From their annual report https://www.tescoplc.com/investors/reports-results-and-presentations/annual-report-2020/]

JaneDoeJohnDoe

As someone who has no allegiance to any supermarket  I would say  well done to Tesco for helping UK during Lockdown & stepping  up slots etc but big boo for now trying to cash in on the market.
Maybe it is the face mask wearing which you think will make more shoppers go online. That could be true but £4.50 anytime slot charge is a rip off.
Many households are single vulnerable persons with low income who would not buy with enough frequency to want  monthly saver package.
£1.50 C&Collect is perhaps just bearable. However as someone on a low income who will not be going to stores (mask or no mask) & with thoughtful planning has never spent over £2.50 on a delivery, my shopping choices will be strictly Asda or Sainsbury's. I spend around £50 a time in goods. Roughly every 2 weeks.
After looking on Tesco site today & seeing the new rates Tesco are seemingly "off their trolley". 
£4.50 for a Weds 9pm delivery slot when my next Asda slot same time only £1...hmmm! Plus of course the chance  of having short dates -next day even as had before that time from Tesco for a premium price!
If it was not for the fact I have a day out arranged incorporating a FREE C&collect tomorrow with  Tesco I feel so strongly I would direct that grocery order elsewhere. 
If Tesco are not making a profit from internet shoppers then why are they offering the service? It is because they do not want you going elsewhere. Trying to lock customer base in with their schemes like Delivery Saver or the infamous Clubcardplus!

NandoDave

Just cancelled my Tesco slots pre-booked and switched those over to Asda and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future as long as Asda remains less than half the price for pick-pack-deliver.

The strategy is trying to shepherd people into purchasing the £7.99 per month, six month minimum contract. If it works, good for them. If it doesn't - they'll have to come up with some other way to recoup the capital outlay for all the new vans they must have kitted out.

jon81uk

JaneDoeJohnDoe said:

 That could be true but £4.50 anytime slot charge is a rip off.

£4.50 might be more than other supermarkets are charging, but I wouldn't say it is a rip off for the service you receive.

newlywed

For me, Tesco is 6 miles away and I have no car. So a one day bus ticket would be £5 And leave me with a hike up a steep hill afterwards, carrying all my items (likely a 2 hour or more round trip) and a taxi would be extortionate.

Sainsbury is closer but the same bus cost. Plus they point blank refused me any online orders after having shopped online for 10 years, so I have been sticking to Tesco and so far have very little to compare between the two.

So whilst I agree that I will not pay £4.50 for a late or inconvenient evening delivery, I have been paying £3.50 or thereabouts with Tesco throughout lockdown and so am not outraged by the increase and it means I will have more time slot choices to select the most convenient one to me, rather than deciding on price vs convenience. 

Plus it’s way cheaper than a taxi home!

GaleSF63

If we aren't paying a delivery charge we are paying in some other way.  We all pay for all of it (including their profit) somewhere along the line. The most we can do is take advantage when we can with offers and hopefully pay a bit less than the next person. 

However it's difficult to see Tesco's reasoning behind this change as it probably doesn't make a lot of difference overall, and it just draws attention to the charges. If they want to put the charges up they'd be better sneaking 50p onto two slots a week or similar. 

maisie_cat

If I could get a Tesco delivery I would have no problem paying £4.50 for delivery, it takes me around 2 hours to drive to Tesco, shop, pack and drive home. The round trip is 20 miles so fuel cost alone say £2 and I consider my time to be worth more than £1.25 an hour.
An alternative model, one that online only businesses use, is to price structure for online including delivery, so that people can choose whether to drive or arrange for a person to go collect something and save a few quid.
But you can't please all of the people all of the time.