I think it's pretty average really... as in, your average town is pretty s**t! Luckily I have a hair dresser's in my local village so I have no need to go in at all. I think I've been into town once in the last 5 years maybe.

There are occasions when shopping can be less than hell. Even enjoyable. Certain criteria need to be filled:

1. It's vastly more fun with company.

2. You need to have plenty of time. I hate being hurried back to the car park or the train because it stresses me out.

3. You need to have plenty of time to browse around, explore shops further off the beaten path and actually look at things properly.

4. You need to have plenty of time to take a break, relax, maybe sit in the park and have a picnic or something.

5. It really helps if you don't really need to get anything in particular. That way, if you happen across that obscure item you'd forgotten you'd wanted it's a win.

So basically, shopping is best when it has as little to do with shopping as possible...

Yes but I get my meat and veg locally so I can see it, and get it fresh, and what is in season. So I visit the local butcher and greengrocer for those. Anything that is either frozen or has a long shelf life I get online. Usually in a big once a quarter delivery so saving on delivery charges as well.

As for substitutions I stopped with ASDA because of their stupid substitutions. I was offered pork sausages in exchange for venison sausages. No comparison. ASDA does not allow you to pick which items that you can stop substitutions so it is either block all or accept all. So my last delivery had no substitutions but loads of missing items including items charged for but not delivered. Tesco's substitutions are actually all right so I am switching back to them. Especially since if the item is not there they find a suitable replacement and do not charge more for it. So if you pick a value item and they only have a branded item you get that at the same price as the value item it seems.

The price-match is good, same as Asda, but the subs can be totally bonkers. My shop on Friday they subbed an emery board for a bottle of nail polish remover for example.

It all depends on the person doing the picking. Some of them have more common sense than others...

You're lucky if you have a local butcher or grocer you can visit. We used to have both in the village, but they shut. Competition from the supermarkets a long time before the Internet came about.

We had our first substitutions with Ocado last week. One was a Lime shower gel in place of a Lemon one (same brand, same size), the other was 2x500ml UHT milks in place of 2x1l UHT milks (same brand, same type of milk, only charged for the smaller sizes). We had the option of declining either or both items on the door.


At work all the substitutions are done by "the system", although obviously this is only really an option since we should know exactly what we have in stock at all times, without having pesky customers taking things from the shelves (8-p).

We did gain a (butcher's counter, labelled for another customer) steak last week, presumably because a picker put it in the wrong bag in the tote.

Standard "I work for the above company" disclaimer. Views and experiences are my own, not their's. I may be wrong. etc. etc.

Interesting, and I'd not heard of them. They do my area so I may give them a test.

Unfortunately they don't stock the one item which Tesco failed to deliver last week as "no suitable substitutions". Why is full fat milk powder so hard to find!?

Seems there's a shortage of full fat milk. Ocado was low on UHT full fat as well :S

IIRC Ocado = Waitrose.

It used to. Now it sells waitrose product, main brand and self branded product.

Interesting. If you can send me details (and ideally a bar-code if it's a non-own-brand) I'll submit a product request, as I'd be interested to see if it gets followed up.

Bar code is 8715000998630 for the 400g pack Nestle brand, which is the only one I can find. I say find - I've yet to actually buy any ever and I'd usually avoid this brand!

http://osem.co.uk/products/nido-instant ... ilk-powder

Here in Germany, there isn't really any online grocery shopping. I think Amazon started selling groceries, but that's about it.

We have about a dozen bakeries, 4 or 5 butchers and 3 or 4 greengrocers in the town (population 30,000). The pedestrian zone is still very active with lots of local shops.

We have 2 Aldis, 2 Lidl, Famila as the main "supermarkets" (there isn't much super about their size, they are generally much smaller than a British supermarket) and a bunch of smaller markets, wich are about the size of a typical old Spar.

I can't think of a British sized supermarket in the area (50 mile radius).

I have never bothered with online shopping - Three mainstream supermarkets within a 1-2 mile radius means it is ery easy for me to nip in the car and scoot over.

I have always been tempted. I might even give it a go.

Most services give you money off your first shop. I advise that you look around for the best deal.

If the cost of driving to the supermarket exceeds £3 or so then it can save you money as well. Ernie suggested to me mysupermarket which also makes suggestions as well. So you can trade down easily, plus you can bulk buy without overloading your vehicle.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk.

To get a £3 charge for delivery you'll have to get your stuff delivered at a pretty inconvenient time. Most of the 'reasonable' delivery slots in the online stores when I've used them have been 5-6 quid. That means in an average car you're only going to save money on 'carriage costs' by going yourself if your supermarket is about 20 miles away.

'Course, if you're OK with having your stuff delivered at 11PM on a Tuesday night, then the saving is there to be made.

Jon