Panic buying

[boxbrownie]

15 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

Are you allowing substitutions?

 

If not, I'm not surprised that they may not have your chosen brand / type in the early hours of the morning, when these orders are picked.

 

Allow substitutions; and they will deliver the nearest available product to the one that you have selected; and if more expensive, they won't charge the difference. You can reject the substitution on delivery for a refund, if you choose.

 

John Isherwood.

Do ASDA allow rejection at the moment, I am sure I read that during the Covid period if you allow substitutes you cannot reject them due to contamination, not sure.....I’ll have to check that, we ticked allow substitutions, you never know that bottle of ASDA brand Whisky may get changed for a bottle of Lagavulin Special Reserve 

[melmerby]

Just now, boxbrownie said:

Do ASDA allow rejection at the moment, I am sure I read that during the Covid period if you allow substitutes you cannot reject them due to contamination, not sure.....I’ll have to check that, we ticked allow substitutions, you never know that bottle of ASDA brand Whisky may get changed for a bottle of Lagavulin Special Reserve 

You can still reject but they won't take them back but do refund the cost

[boxbrownie]

Just now, melmerby said:

You can still reject but they won't take them back but do refund the cost

Yes just checked and read that, very fair of them.......another tick for ASDA I reckon/

[boxbrownie]

10 hours ago, melmerby said:

 

 

We also went from Parmigiano Reggiano to Grana Padana to "Parmesan wedge" as each went ouit of stock

 

 

Now that is unacceptable......our DiL order GP instead of Parmesan and couldn’t understand my not wanting to eat it with Pasta.

 

As for the odd substitutions your getting, I know it is annoying but you can get a refund (as just discussed) and keep the stuff, so get the refund and send the food you don’t want to the local food bank, they collect quite happily.

 

We do this each week with the Gov’s “emergency food box” we keep getting although we didn’t ask for it.

[boxbrownie]

Oh yes, and our second ASDA order is due in fifteen minutes.......it’s like Bingo......I wonder who will win? 

[cctransuk]

I have to say that Asda seem to be handling the huge increase in demand for home deliveries extremely effectively - given the circumstances.

 

Their policies on substitutions and rejections are fair, to the point of generosity, and it is hardly suprising if some of our favourite items are not available at the precise time that our orders are picked.

 

We, too, have had substitutions made to our orders but, in almost all cases, the substitution has been reasonable and has provided a welcome change to our eating 'routine'.

 

Frankly, I have no patience with those who expect to have their exact food choices delivered during these difficult times; it's not you who has to daily expose yourself to COVID-19 in order to try and cater for the fads of customers. There are plenty of 'heroes' out there who do not work for the NHS !

 

John Isherwood.

Edited May 27, 2020 by cctransuk

[cctransuk]

Duplicate post.

Edited May 27, 2020 by cctransuk

[cctransuk]

Duplicate post

Edited May 27, 2020 by cctransuk

[melmerby]

12 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

Frankly, I have no patience with those who expect to have their exact food choices delivered during these difficult times; it's not you who has to daily expose yourself to COVID-19 in order to try and cater for the fads of customers. There are plenty of 'heroes' out there who do not work for the NHS !

 

John Isherwood.

I'm sorry if my dietary choices offend you but I'm not going to start eating meat just to please you.

[cctransuk]

Just now, melmerby said:

I'm sorry if my dietary choices offend you but I'm not going to start eating meat just to please you.

 

No-one is asking you to do so - I merely suggest that a few inconveniences, that cost us nothing in financial terms, are of little or no consequence when far more weighty issues confront the world.

 

Hardly a matter of life or death, and certainly not worth blaming hard-working shop assistants for.

 

John Isherwood.

[melmerby]

2 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

No-one is asking you to do so - I merely suggest that a few inconveniences, that cost us nothing in financial terms, are of little or no consequence when far more weighty issues confront the world.

 

Hardly a matter of life or death, and certainly not worth blaming hard-working shop assistants for.

 

John Isherwood.

I'm not blaming the shop assistants, I'm blaming a system that doesn't seem to be able to compare like with like.

 

Several items on my list are "do not sub" because the alternative offered when they go OOS is not IMHO an acceptable equivalent.

As I've said before I do not want meat based products offered as an alternative to non meat products, which I have had in several categories.

 

The annoying thing that the stock levels a couple of days before are OK but when it gets to the day before my delivery several will have gone OOS, it has happened several times for the same products.

 

[boxbrownie]

Well ASDA came, a bit late but the order was full.....poor bloke delivering went up the wrong lane.....it’s a mite narrow!

 

But he was in a good mood and very chatty regardless of the heat and obvious hard work involved, I wouldn’t do it for the money.

[Gwiwer]

We haven't tried any of the supermarket deliveries recently.  We occasionally used Tesco but after they couldn't offer a delivery within three weeks at one point last year I gave up on them.  We looked in at times in the early days of the panic-buying but of course there were no slots available then.  

 

Ocado are coping gamely with prioritising their paying Smart Pass and other priority customers.  They do release other slots as and when available and at no specific time or day so one might have to get lucky if not already on their regular list.  Their policy on substitutions is that they ask you to minimise rejections at present, they will take them back but probably have them restored to the warehouse (unless very vulnerable such as fresh meat) as they operate a machine-picking system.  The only human contact is the brief removal of the carrier bags from the delivery crate and them being placed by the driver on - currently - your doorstep though in other times they would happily carry them through to the kitchen if asked.  

 

Delivery availability will vary by region.  In the London area there will be both a greater pool of drivers and probably a larger number of vehicles which can be used.  One problem Ocado specifically has mentioned is that since the mass switch to online shopping the number of items per order has typically more than doubled meaning around half of the previous number of orders can be accommodated in each van.  The average time per delivery is very little different whether there are ten or a hundred items.  So those vans are doing fewer but larger drops and can actually manage more deliveries across a day than before which is where some of the extra capacity has been found.

 

Keep trying.  Some people get lucky some of the time.  

[cctransuk]

2 hours ago, melmerby said:

I'm not blaming the shop assistants, I'm blaming a system that doesn't seem to be able to compare like with like.

 

Several items on my list are "do not sub" because the alternative offered when they go OOS is not IMHO an acceptable equivalent.

As I've said before I do not want meat based products offered as an alternative to non meat products, which I have had in several categories.

 

The annoying thing that the stock levels a couple of days before are OK but when it gets to the day before my delivery several will have gone OOS, it has happened several times for the same products.

 

 

I sympathise with your position as vegetarians, but I do not believe that now is the time for the supermarkets to be devoting scarce resources to classifying all of their products amongst the considerable number of food regimes now practiced by by some customers.

 

This would be the only way to guarantee that substitutions offered were appropriate for the customer's particular regime; the chances are that a suitable replacement would not be available, anyway.

 

Customers are totally free to adopt their chosen regime but, in doing so, must accept that they are limiting their choice of products. During abnormal times such as these, it is inevitable that reduced choice will equate to missing products.

 

John Isherwood.

[Gwiwer]

With respect to John's opinion there are substitutions and there are substitutions.  

 

No supermarket should substitute, for example, a vegetarian product with a meat one nor (as once happened to us) a non-dairy one with a dairy one.  Many customers choose such things of necessity (such as medical or other dietary need), in connection with religious beliefs or personal preference whether or not that is driven by social conscience.  

 

If no similar product is available then there should be - as we also very occasionally get - an apology that no suitable alternative could be offered.  

[boxbrownie]

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 

 

Ocado are coping gamely 

Delivery availability will vary by region.  

 

Keep trying.  Some people get lucky some of the time.  

Unfortunately Ocado do not deliver in our region, which grated a bit when our DiL and Grandchildren were staying with us for the lockdown (they went home a couple of days ago as their Dad deemed the risk from his job is now much lower the peak is over) , anyway she is an Ocado member and was happily ordering  regular groceries for our Son back at their home while he worked but she couldn’t order anything to be delivered here.......such is life.

[Nick C]

Substitutions ought to be something for the computer system to handle before reaching the picker on the shop floor anyway - the system knows which products are suitable for which categories (or ought to!), so the customer should be able to tick the appropriate boxes in their account settings and the system would then only allow alternatives that fit the selection criterion. 

 

Particularly important given that for some customers, their dietary regime isn't just about choice, but about allergies or intolerances, and for them an inappropriate substition could have serious medical consequences.

[boxbrownie]

5 minutes ago, Nick C said:

Substitutions ought to be something for the computer system to handle before reaching the picker on the shop floor anyway - the system knows which products are suitable for which categories (or ought to!), so the customer should be able to tick the appropriate boxes in their account settings and the system would then only allow alternatives that fit the selection criterion. 

 

Particularly important given that for some customers, their dietary regime isn't just about choice, but about allergies or intolerances, and for them an inappropriate substition could have serious medical consequences.

I am not so sure the subs are made by the “computer” but from reading the ASDA info if you tick substitutions then if your chosen item is not available at time of picking then the picker will choose a substitute, pretty sure that’s how I read it.

[cctransuk]

18 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

I am not so sure the subs are made by the “computer” but from reading the ASDA info if you tick substitutions then if your chosen item is not available at time of picking then the picker will choose a substitute, pretty sure that’s how I read it.

 

Spot on - the computer may think that it knows what's on the shelves, but what matters is if it's there when the picker looks for it !

 

Remember, the computer doesn't know something has been sold until the customer passes through the check-out; not when it's picked up off the shelf.

 

No point in the computer suggesting substitutes - which it can do if asked - but it doesn't know what each individual customer's dietary requirements are. How could it - there's no facility for inputting such information?

 

I do think that some customers imagine that the computer has a virtual crystal ball !!

 

John Isherwood.

[cctransuk]

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

With respect to John's opinion there are substitutions and there are substitutions.  

 

No supermarket should substitute, for example, a vegetarian product with a meat one nor (as once happened to us) a non-dairy one with a dairy one.  Many customers choose such things of necessity (such as medical or other dietary need), in connection with religious beliefs or personal preference whether or not that is driven by social conscience.  

 

If no similar product is available then there should be - as we also very occasionally get - an apology that no suitable alternative could be offered.  

 

That depends upon the picker having a fairly broad knowledge of food categories and regimes; I suspect that there has not been the opportunity to train to that extent all the extra pickers that have recently been recruited.

 

I, as an omnivore, whould be perfectly happy to receive a quiche lorraine in place of a non-meat quiche, but a vegetarian customer would not. I may be mistaken, but I don't recall having  the opportunity of inputting my dietary regime when signing-up for Asda deliveries; (nor would I expect to).

 

The bottom line is, if you don't like the substitution - for whatever reason - reject it; get a refund; and donate the offending article to a foodbank.

 

John Isherwood.

[kevinlms]

19 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

 

The bottom line is, if you don't like the substitution - for whatever reason - reject it; get a refund; and donate the offending article to a foodbank.

 

John Isherwood.

Perhaps getting the odd item substituted your idea would work, but if as Keith suggested, that the order (if one can actually get one), contains significant numbers of missing or totally unsuitable items, then it quickly becomes a major problem.

 

Supermarkets in Australia, for some time have been running reasonable stocks of the vast majority of the product range. So it seems that Britain is having major issues with it's supply train.

[spikey]

1 hour ago, Nick C said:

Particularly important given that for some customers, their dietary regime isn't just about choice, but about allergies or intolerances, and for them an inappropriate substition could have serious medical consequences.

 If they actually eat them.

 

I've learned quite a bit from this thread, but one thing stands out.  Judging by some of the comments made, Mrs Spikey and I must be somewhat unusual if not downright weird.  In the present circumstances, we're just grateful for the simple fact that, substitutes notwithstanding, the supermarkets have continued to allow us to eat well. 

 

I guess our expectations are too low and our tastes are too unsophisticated for us to feel otherwise.

Edited May 27, 2020 by spikey

[cctransuk]

7 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Supermarkets in Australia, for some time have been running reasonable stocks of the vast majority of the product range. So it seems that Britain is having major issues with it's supply train.

 

The same is true of the UK - very few items are now in short supply.

 

The problem with deliveries and substitutions is that the order picking now takes place in the early hours of the morning, in order to avoid clogging the aisles when customers are present. It is quite likely that the picking occurs before the daily deliveries; ie. when stocks are lowest.

 

The current situation has caused problems that did not occur previously; order picking took place throughout the day - ie. mostly after the daily deliveries.

 

I am just grateful for being given a priority recurring delivery slot - I can accept a few substitutions if that is the price.

 

John Isherwood.

[cctransuk]

4 minutes ago, spikey said:

 If they actually eat them.

 

Quite - common sense seems to have been a fatal casualty of COVID-19 !!

 

John Isherwood.

[Rivercider]

Some years ago we actually used the shopping delivery service for a monthly delivery including heavy/bulky items. We had relatively few subs, one or two weird ones, but others were quite thoughtful, and we never sent anything back. Mrs Rivercider learned to specify some substitute instructions, ie no own brand bread.

Since 2007 and redundancy from the railway I see things literally from the shop floor, and get to see the picking team at work, though I have never been part of it. I sometimes get asked my view on a sub item, which can be very subjective (what type of potato to roast, or variety of dip or coleslaw). You might be able to guess if your delivery was picked by a mature person with a family, or a student working part time.

I know the team get feedback - and grief - at times. They sometimes have to pick a bunch of  'Goldilocks' bananas, not too green, not too yellow, not too small, not too large. Or some green, some yellow!

 

Yes it will sometimes be the case that an item is in stock when ordered, but may sell out before picking time, or conversely a delivery has arrived since the order was placed. Our pickers now start at 04.00 to get four hours of picking done before the store opens to customers. This does mean though that if the night delivery is late arriving some items will still be being filled when the picking has already started.

 

cheers

Edited May 28, 2020 by Rivercider
corrected fairy tale character