First and foremost let me say that I researched and visited six out of the seven sites listed below. Here you will find honest and real facts about UK supermarkets supported by images, dates and some figures about shopping online around Europe.
Who are the fastest brands to deliver groceries?
Depending on the country you are living in, it is very difficult to answer this. I live in the UK so I am focussing this post on the United Kingdom’ online supermarket brands.
We have at least seven major supermarkets in the UK who have online grocery sites.
The seven are: Asda, Iceland, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose.
Whether they are good at getting people on site and through the checkout page quicker – is a question for today’s post.
I have tried these five sites (Asda, Morrison’s, Ocado Sainsbury’s and Waitrose) out of the seven major supermarkets and I could not place an order (this was towards the end of March) with any of them.
I decided to try again a few days later. At first, I noticed that some of the sites were really slow followed by some faster ones, yet, I couldn’t finalise my shopping on any. I despaired, but determined, I tried again. My list of choice got shorter as I had to exclude Tesco and Sainsbury’s who at this point said they were only delivering to vulnerable people, Waitrose was extremely difficult to access and Asda as it was slow and the navigation wasn’t great.
With the pandemic running wild, there is currently an up-to-three week waiting period (ongoing) to be able to get a delivery slot. At the time of writing, there are no time slots available for less than that.
Our two favorite grocery stores
Morrisons
I think Morrisons did not score ace when it comes to selling a large variety of groceries, fish, meat and household products. [ updated ]
Their motto is: Convenience, quality and value for money.
The retailer has recently introduced a new service called “Food Boxes”. These start at £30 and there are plenty to choose from – to include:
the Market Kitchen Meal;
Market box (includes four different curry and chilli dishes)
and the Meat Eaters Food Box (includes dairy products, rice, bread, vegetables and other essentials).
At time of publishing this post, Morrisons say that these boxes are available for same week delivery – but I am not sure if this is still the case.
Normally internet orders starts from £40 minimum with free delivery for the first month. “Delivery Passes” are part of new subscriber service, available to help regular customers save on dispatch costs, I guess. You can choose from either monthly @£8, the six month @ £40 or the annual pass @65 which saves you £137 according to them.
Our experience – After several attempts and fast forward to 12th of April we managed to get onto Morrison’s site, fill up a trolley with most needed items with a drop off date – the first available date was first of May 2020.
Insane right! Yes, not a joke, so imagine all the hospital/care workers, elderly, isolated families who can’t drive or find themselves miles and miles from the nearest supermarket.
And let’s not forget, courier people should also be included on that category as they are probably working even harder and longer hours these days.
Currently, there are limited delivery slots, due to high website traffic, but the website will show the time left before you can hop in.
Ocado
Few days later my other half managed to place an order on Ocado website and we were lucky enough to get a delivery slot after been on a waiting list for ( a bit) over 3 weeks. I should add here that we are regular Ocado customers and pay £4.99 for the monthly SMART pass.
The minimum order is £40 with a next-day dispatch with multiple one-hour time slots available by default. These days, the site is always in such high demand that they can’t deliver next day or the day after. Normal I guess, as these are allocated to vulnerable customers.
We noticed that Ocado has increased its capacity for shoppers without priority access, and will grant a home-delivery roughly in 10 to 12 days time.
Ocado offers and make its deliveries as environmentally-friendly as possible and that is why we like them. The company promote and delivers groceries in grey bags, labelled kitchen, cupboard, fridge and normally recycles all carrier bags for you (you need to hand them back to the driver next time round – although during the current crisis this has been suspended).
They also have green delivery slots, and have added many eco-friendly vans which helps reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Extra point here, is they donate supplies to food banks and charities.
As far I am concerned, the winner at this moment in time is #Ocado.
Are people stockpiling still?
I guess online you can’t actually do that – but I read that some individuals are physically going to refill their trolleys afraid that groceries will end or never reach the shelves again.
I am putting that down to an uncivilised, shabby behaviour.
What else could it be!?
Online shopping across Europe during Covid-19?
I was wondering what it’s like shopping across Europe. So I pulled some links for you to read and explore further.
I noticed that many supermarkets across the UK and Europe are working hard to satisfy and make our daily lives better and easier, whilst keep their employees safe at the same time.
As many countries across Europe have implemented social distancing and other isolation measures, millions of us turned to their computers or mobile devices to do our shopping and to accomodate these safety measures.
Highlights and most searched products accross UK and the rest of Europe
What Does Online Grocery Shopping Look Like in Western Europe During COVID-19?
U.K.
Aldi is launching its online groceries for the first time in the UK to help itself, and/or make life a little easier for some of the country’s most needed customers.
The five things supermakets want you to know
Source: Weforum.org / agenda 2020
France – The mairie de Paris created a interactive cart where people can find over 265 indépendant parisiens shops that are registered to help make home deliveries.
Source: www.leparisien.fr/paris-75/coronavirus-a-paris-ou-trouver-les-petits-commercants-qui-livrent-a-domicile-31-03-2020-8291460.php [French]
Italy – the grocery shopping habits during the Covid-19 lockdown
Source: www.statista.com/statistics/1103115/grocery-shopping-habits-during-covid-19-in-italy/
Netherlands – one site showing which shops are (still) open – nltimes.nl/2020/03/27/site-launched-show-amsterdam-stores-still-open
Portugal – is gradually preparing to lift lockdow as small shops and hairdressers get ready (almost) to reopen, while students summoned to the fields.
source: www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-portugal/hairdressers-small-shops-prepare-to-reopen-in-portugal-students-summoned-to-the-fields-idUSKBN21Z30Z
Where to buy pet food online?
You’ve probably sorted your food but what about your furry friends?
I had to do online research to find proper dog food (with no additives, unnatural…) as we have a labrador and of course we couldn’t risk him having no food. He gets his three meals a day. He loves his food so much, that I can’t see myself explaining to him why he can’t get his meals. He would not understand it, but worst, imagine me saying that, it would literally break my heart to see his little face. So the first thing we did was to put an order for him.
If you have pets yourself you will be needing some extra food. Specially for those of you who can’t find a shop within a short walking or driving distance.
Here I can’t decide which is better for you, but what I can do is point you to the top sites where you can order your beloved pets food.
Here are the main brands who sell pet food.
- https://www.pet-supermarket.co.uk/
- https://fetch.co.uk/ (from Ocado) – they are experiencing longer lead times
- https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/
- https://www.monsterpetsupplies.co.uk/
- https://www.zooplus.co.uk/specials/dogs/trial_specials
Online shopping during Covid19 [Verdict]
Finally, I don’t know about you but I’ve asked myself this “have UK supermarkets failed to deliver?” In some ways yes, I think they have but let me reassure you.
I am not here to blame or point a finger at the ones who couldn’t really adapt to the consumer’s needs – we all find ourselves in unprecedented times, so we have to bear that in mind, however my first vote goes to Ocado for their prompt and speedy services (as we write this).
Our other vote goes to Morrison’s – we managed to get vegetarian Food Box – they are also good, effective, offering a fast delivery slots and still open and respecting the vulnerable and care workers.
I noticed that the majority of supermarkets have created a special timetable. Can’t really say who started it. Most open their doors at 7am to 8am to the senior and NHS/care workers. They took time to react to the events but it’s working well now.
Also I’d like to take this opportunity to say thanks to many key workers (shelf refillers, delivery, syppliers etc. #keyworkers #stayhealthly
I can see that they all have done customer segmentation planning, however, in my view the majority lacked tactical and marketing alignment.
Surprisingly, they haven’t evaluated (in- depth) the most needed or isolated regions but also didn’t look to create partnerships with let’s say local couriercompanies. For example the click & collect from Waitrose could work well, but none of the big names have adopt it. That is my only criticism as I can’t go down to ultra specifics due to lack of time and resources.
Oh, I almost forgot, I was really disappointed with Amazon Fresh services. You couldn’t count on them as there was no way to see a date on the calender until late May.. What a pointless (Fresh !?) service. Instead creating a new service and help supermarkets get their deliveries out, no they didn’t bother.
I hope you enjoyed the reading. Let us know about your recent experiences, and if you think this post could be useful to anyone you know feel free to share it.
Keep safe, calm in whatever you do! #besafe #stayhealthly