Waitrose introducing charges for home deliveries

MysteryMe

My 87 strong plastic bags from Iceland say hello.....    It seems like they have taken over my house!

coffeehound

GaleSF63 said:

coffeehound said:

Nick_C said:

I was going to place a Waitrose order this week.  The £3 delivery charge is disappointing, but I get a bulk order every 3 or 4 weeks and was going to pay it. The deal breaker for me is that they no longer provide carrier bags.

Yes it's an odd choice by them.  It also means things like flour and sugar in paper bags could get wet in the rain.  A bad commercial decision and I wouldn't be surprised if they are reintroduced in future when loyal customers complain or go elsewhere

I had eggs in my last delivery and they came in a carrier bag. Shop policy or company policy; I don't know.  

Last I heard, they were using compostable bags for eggboxes; the same ones as used for fruit and veg.  It'll be interesting to see if that stops too . .

GaleSF63

coffeehound said:

GaleSF63 said:

coffeehound said:

Nick_C said:

I was going to place a Waitrose order this week.  The £3 delivery charge is disappointing, but I get a bulk order every 3 or 4 weeks and was going to pay it. The deal breaker for me is that they no longer provide carrier bags.

Yes it's an odd choice by them.  It also means things like flour and sugar in paper bags could get wet in the rain.  A bad commercial decision and I wouldn't be surprised if they are reintroduced in future when loyal customers complain or go elsewhere

I had eggs in my last delivery and they came in a carrier bag. Shop policy or company policy; I don't know.  

Last I heard, they were using compostable bags for eggboxes; the same ones as used for fruit and veg.  It'll be interesting to see if that stops too . .

Perhaps just using carriers till they run out, then. 

Doc_N

I use Waitrose and Tesco at the moment (still using the free Waitrose slots I banked) but there are far too many unavailable items with Waitrose. Tesco has the financial clout and the scale to outdo Waitrose when there are shortages, and they outperform it by some margin in reliability.

Fewer Waitrose deliveries for us once the free slots are used. Too much risk of unavailable items, too expensive, and just not worth the extra. They ditched the free newspaper for any convenient deliveries a while back, so even that temptation has vanished.

Nick_C

GaleSF63 said:

Nick C said - "The deal breaker for me is that they no longer provide carrier bags."  Who are you going to use instead? Who still uses bags?

I believe Ocado still provide bags, and they buy back their own.

If I can't get a Waitrose delivery in containers that I can keep - or borrow - then I will get my old diesel out of the garage and drive the 15 mile round trip to Waitrose to get the things that only they sell.  Tinkering with environmental policies can have unintended affects.

I think this policy will push up costs for Waitrose.  It will surely mean drivers do fewer deliveries in each shift?

I've just placed my first order with "Bother".  They sell non perishable household goods, and deliver using DPD.  They claim to sell at up to 30% off RRP.  They aren't cheap, but I got a code for £25 off my first order (for £50 or more) and free delivery.  I bought £50 of shopping which would have cost £37 from Waitrose & Aldi and paid £25.  I would post a code, but I think MSE don't like us doing that anymore.

GaleSF63

Nick_C said:

GaleSF63 said:

Nick C said - "The deal breaker for me is that they no longer provide carrier bags."  Who are you going to use instead? Who still uses bags?

I believe Ocado still provide bags, and they buy back their own.

If I can't get a Waitrose delivery in containers that I can keep - or borrow - then I will get my old diesel out of the garage and drive the 15 mile round trip to Waitrose to get the things that only they sell.  Tinkering with environmental policies can have unintended affects.

You have choices that I don't. I can't shop in the store and Ocado don't deliver here. 

There's no point in getting worked up about things I can't change even if they are inconvenient. I adapted when they weren't coming into people's houses, and I've adapted to the no bags policy (with Tesco also) and as long as the drivers will empty the crates for me, it works well enough that I haven't gone back to having things taken into the kitchen. Better in a way now I have a decent trolley because I don't have to do everything at once because the floor's no longer covered with groceries in my rather small kitchen trapping me till I've sorted everything! 

I use the carrier bags for all sorts of things and will run out eventually, after which I will probably buy pedal-bin bags which will defeat their purpose, especially as they aren't so strong. 

Bacman

Give them some strong carrier bags when they arrive and they should use them for your groceries.

MrsStepford

I use Abel & Cole and/or Riverford every week normally, so if I have a bagless delivery from a supermarket, I leave out one of the boxes with a note asking the driver to place the shopping in that.Any box would do, pref without flaps. A plastic crate might get nicked in some places. 

KxMx

I don't think this is national yet but after our last Iceland delivery (fulfilled by Food Warehouse) we were told we could hand bags back next time, which we did today without issue on our next delivery. 

They are strong and large so very handy, but we accumulated so many I actually had no choice but to throw some away a few months ago, so really pleased they can be returned.

I don't know what Iceland does with them though

Farway

KxMx said:

I don't think this is national yet but after our last Iceland delivery (fulfilled by Food Warehouse) we were told we could hand bags back next time, which we did today without issue on our next delivery. 

They are strong and large so very handy, but we accumulated so many I actually had no choice but to throw some away a few months ago, so really pleased they can be returned.

I don't know what Iceland does with them though

Nice to know, like you I'm getting knee deep in their bags