Supermarket home delivery mistakes.

[RickH]

Taking things to the opposite extreme, a friend once had an amusing substitution - instead of a 1kg pack of breakfast cereal that was ordered they sent one single 25g single portion packet!

[Cyclewala]

A lot of these are not mistakes. They're deliberate.

My son does online shopping for Sainsbury's (i.e. they pick and bag what you order) and they are under instruction, if the item you order is not available in-store, to send an alternative usually of better quality or larger quantity at no additional cost to you. This is especially important in basic necessities like bread, milk, butter. This is to avoid disappointment on your part.

If you dislike the alternative product on delivery, the driver will usually knock it off the receipt and you get to keep it.

I think the same applies to other supermarkets.

[Jdsk]

I once had a fascinating conversation with the director of Tesco who was responsible for setting up their delivery system. (At an IT industry awards do.) He was adamant that their using human pickers at real shops was a key part of their success because the pickers found it easy to choose substitutes. It also kept the new processes flexible. The alternative was supplying deliveries from warehouses or special facilities. Tesco hung on a long time to that model, although they were then just about to open their first dedicated facility for deliveries in south London.

He was also very proud of Tesco having been consulted by Walmart on how to make this work.

Jonathan

[Syd]

A lot of these are not mistakes. They're deliberate.

My son does online shopping for Sainsbury's (i.e. they pick and bag what you order) and they are under instruction, if the item you order is not available in-store, to send an alternative usually of better quality or larger quantity at no additional cost to you. This is especially important in basic necessities like bread, milk, butter. This is to avoid disappointment on your part.

If you dislike the alternative product on delivery, the driver will usually knock it off the receipt and you get to keep it.

I think the same applies to other supermarkets.

I can understand that in the situations you describe but to ship 7 times what was ordered, and charge for it, is a mistake.

[Cyclewala]

Yes, the extra charging is obviously a mistake.

The growth of online shopping during Covid, has placed a huge strain on supermarkets and they've had to make big changes very quickly. Coupled with the Brexit disruption, I can imagine mistakes being made.

[pwa]

Yes, the extra charging is obviously a mistake.

The growth of online shopping during Covid, has placed a huge strain on supermarkets and they've had to make big changes very quickly. Coupled with the Brexit disruption, I can imagine mistakes being made.

There are lots of human beings involved in getting the goods to the doorstep, with a target number of items to process per minute, so of course slip ups happen. So long as the customer doesn't finish up out of pocket, no harm done. But of all the things to have a ton of, ginger! I hate the stuff, even more than I hate cinnamon. I'd give it away or compost it.

[Mick F]

Not done online shopping for years, but we have friends and relations that do.

The good thing about shopping for yourself, is that if something isn't available, you can pick a completely different thing, or go to the other shop down the road. We go shopping with menus in mind. If we can't find what we want, we change the menu.

Our habit these days, is to go to Lidl's and then to Morrison's as we know what they stock and what we want.
Maybe to Tesco at an absolute push.

Tomorrow, we're off to a real butcher and then to a real greengrocer ................ supermarkets are ok for non-perishables (and beer and wine) but you can't beat real shops.

[Ride-sleep-repeat]

We tried home delivery once last year.Never again.
Much easier to go down to one of the 20 or so supermarkets(Asdax4,Aldix5,Lidlx3,Morrisonsx3,Tescox3,Sainsburysx1)within easy driving distance and get exactly what we want!
If they don't have it there's all the Coop/Spar/Nisa/Onestop/Tesco/Sainsburys Express plus a Heron foods and another Aldi opening shortly all within a 2 mile radius.

[Syd]

We tried all the major supermarkets when we lived in Manchester and every one made numerous mistakes every time.

Since moving to Edinburgh mistakes are very rare as are substitutions and out of stock items.

[PH]

I once had a fascinating conversation with the director of Tesco who was responsible for setting up their delivery system. (At an IT industry awards do.) He was adamant that their using human pickers at real shops was a key part of their success because the pickers found it easy to choose substitutes.

Jonathan

Do you work in IT? If so I'm surprised you'd think a human could do a better job of choosing substitutions than the right software could. The push in all logistics over the last couple of decades has been to minimise handling, which is only in part cost driven. There's so much that the right algorithm could use to choose, both in a simple general rule, or specifically for that customer - what else is on the shopping list, where you live, what you've bought before... Then there's the criteria from the suppliers side - I might substitute Raspberry Jam for Strawberry, without knowing how much of that is likely to be picked before the next delivery. It's not there yet, but despite what you may have been told, there's no way it isn't being worked towards, there's no profit in picking from stores - Well there's not much profit in home delivery at all, not without charging a lot more for it, that'll come once we're all converts.
A FT article from last year you might find interesting:
https://www.ft.com/content/b985249c-1ca ... dcc889d57d

EDIT - Apologies if that article is paywalled

[Cyclewala]

The margins on supermarket groceries are tiny - typically 2-4%. The margins in online grocery are smaller still to the point that supermarkets begrudgingly offer the service.

It's one reason Morrisons were very late to the online space and Aldi and Lidl are hesitant to join.

I think if online takes off fully post-Covid then supermarkets may make greater investment in artificial intelligence and the algorithms mentioned above. I think we will then see a review of the charges to customers.

[thirdcrank]

My guru on supermarkets is Archie Norman, who rescued ASDA from the brink.

He made the point that customers doing their own shopping are, in effect, doing for nothing what has otherwise to be paid for. ie picking the stuff then driving it around. If home delivery is free to the customer, then they are being subsidised by those who do their own shopping.

There have been a couple of supermarket annual accounts published recently. Occado were very upbeat, but it seems they still won't break even to the end of the decade. One of the "discounters" commented they had no plans for home delivery. Something along the lines that it represents 10% of the business and they are happy with the other 90%.

[peetee]

There are lots of human beings involved in getting the goods to the doorstep, with a target number of items to process per minute, so of course slip ups happen.

True. My daughter was a picker for home deliveries. She worked on the shop floor and spent a lot of her time distracted by customers asking where products were, for advice or complaints or just wanting her to move out of the way so they could reach a particular product.

[PH]

One of the "discounters" commented they had no plans for home delivery. Something along the lines that it represents 10% of the business and they are happy with the other 90%.

Both Aldi and Lidl had said they wouldn't be offering home delivery on groceries - then Aldi teamed up with Deliveroo to do just that. It's a guess, but I doubt Lidl will be far behind, as someone has already said, it isn't that any of them want to, it's whether they can afford not to.

[[XAP]Bob]

During this lockdown :

Thought I'd reduce my shopping /supermarket visits given this virus thing is so serious*. Only called in on 13 occasions last week,this week it's been reduced to 6 visits (Nb. Though I suppose if the pain au chocolat aren't very good tomorrow, given that it's essential food shopping I'll have to review the pain au chocolat elsewhere - took four shops/supermarkets last Sunday to find decent pain au chocolat)

And now I've met my first ever person who's had it/got it, it's even more serious. A local supermarket cashier, was tested as part of a testing program. Seem's he has/has had this deadly disease and like so many are showing the deadly effect (Nb. Wasn't aware he'd had it. Suppose I may have had it, but the routine testing kit sent out was so complex (Nb. Access codes, security codes, vials, security seals), chucked it out)

Really?
The current situation is made significantly worse by people doing this. And it's not just you that you are putting at risk, it's everyone else... we have always known that there are people who carry and spread the virus without showing symptoms, since that is basically always the case.
Reducing your contact with other people is the simplest and most effective way that the R value can be brought down. With the government doing too little too late too often we have to be consistent and deliberate in reducing the spread, not mooching around several shops in search of a luxury item.