Online groceries - introductory offers

[pwa]

I doubt that a supplier would give Aldi poorer dates on things than they would to Waitrose. I go in both, and see no obvious difference in appearance.

I don't tend to buy fruit and veg from the supermarket, so can't judge other than on the appearance in my local. A quick google suggests many people have come to the conclusion that Aldi fresh produce isn't as fresh as elsewhere.
I do know from having applied for a role in the local distribution center (Built six years ago and they've already outgrown it) that they have smaller more frequent deliveries to the stores, almost a JIT approach to stock replenishment. Which also explains why more of the retail building's footprint is shop floor.

I have noticed that some perishable supermarket produce now has no obvious use by date. But you still get clues that are presumably intended for staff replenishing shelves. In Asda, for example, a pack of tomatoes might have F21 marked on it, meaning that the item should be displayed until June 21st. A=January..... So if you see that 21 on one pack and 23 on another, the 23 is two days fresher. Obvious really, but it took me a while to spot it.

[PH]

Waitrose and M&S dont seem to come out particularly well but Aldi in particular seems to do better. Asda often scores top too. We shop exclusivly at Aldi and Lidl and I cant ever remember rejecting anything. Their food chemists seem to be able to replicate and even improve on brands.
Al

I'm usually an Aldi shopper, (Partly convenience, there's one across the road) for the sorts of things I've bought from Ocado, Aldi is consistently cheaper, but not by as much as I remember, either their prices have gone up, or others have come down, either way the gap has narrowed.
For example:
Aldi Cucina chopped toms 47p, the Ocado equivalent, which is close enough to be the same thing, 49p. But then Ocado offer loads more choice, I can spend an extra 16p for M&S or Casa Florenti, same taste, less juice more toms. Or I can spend three times the Aldi price for Mutti which taste like they've just been picked from the garden. Or you could try the £2.80 Natoora Sardinian ones, can any tin of tomatoes be worth that?
I found the same with most of the other stuff, tinned fish, beans, rice, pasta, tinned fruit... the standard ranges are a few pence dearer than Aldi and I've had the choice to upgrade.
Bringing this back onto the topic of introductory offers, it's allowed me to sample some of the dearer stuff at Aldi prices, alongside savings on stuff similar to what I'd have bought anyway. I'm well stocked on Heinz baked beans at Aldi own brand prices, and M&S toms cheaper than Aldi.

[slowster]

...they once had a supply of fresh goods come in with the wrong labels. They said Aldi instead of Waitrose. Same goods from the same supplier, but two prices depending where you got them. That supplier also does M&S.

I doubt that a supplier would give Aldi poorer dates on things than they would to Waitrose. I go in both, and see no obvious difference in appearance.

The supermarkets will have their own specification which they require the product to meet. In some cases there is little or no scope to vary the ingedients or manufacture of a particular foodstuff, and the product supplied to different supermarkets - and in the supermarkets' own branded packaging - is identical.

However, it is not always that simple. For example, M&S gets (or used to) its own brand popadums from the same supplier as other supermarkets, but specifies a shorter 'best before date' on the packaging than other supermarkets, because the greater freshness does make a difference.

By way of another example, when a food manufacturer had a surplus of a better quality product from its range, it offered to use it to fulfil an order from Tesco for its own brand 'Value' range at no extra cost. Tesco's buyers declined the offer, because it would result in the customers for the 'Value' product being disappointed when Tesco switched back to its usual specification.

[mjr]

Bringing this back onto the topic of introductory offers, it's allowed me to sample some of the dearer stuff at Aldi prices, alongside savings on stuff similar to what I'd have bought anyway

Yes, online is probably as good as anything for tinned and packet goods, as long as you use the ones with their own stores, especially now there's all this 'small stock room, frequent delivery truck' nonsense going on, enabled by cheap fuel and pathetically weak delivery time/route condition enforcement.

Agree with comments above that the 'fresh' aisles in most supermarkets are pretty much false advertising. Buy direct or from short-supply-chain greengrocers if you can. Your taste buds will thank you!

[pwa]

Bringing this back onto the topic of introductory offers, it's allowed me to sample some of the dearer stuff at Aldi prices, alongside savings on stuff similar to what I'd have bought anyway

Yes, online is probably as good as anything for tinned and packet goods, as long as you use the ones with their own stores, especially now there's all this 'small stock room, frequent delivery truck' nonsense going on, enabled by cheap fuel and pathetically weak delivery time/route condition enforcement.

Agree with comments above that the 'fresh' aisles in most supermarkets are pretty much false advertising. Buy direct or from short-supply-chain greengrocers if you can. Your taste buds will thank you!

I think you have an advantage there, in that you live in a region that has a lot of fruit and veg growing, whereas local to me the farms are mostly sheep, dairy, beef and cereals. But I must have a trawl on the web and see what local fruit and veg deliveries are available. Maybe there is some reasonably local stuff I haven't yet found. We have become victims of habit, going to the same couple of supermarkets because it is easy.

[al_yrpal]

Hard to get fresher than my veg patch! Bucketloads of Loganberries, Tayberries, Gooseberries, Strawberrys and Blackcurrants at the moment..... Bumper Year...

Al

[pwa]

Hard to get fresher than my veg patch! Bucketloads of Loganberries, Tayberries, Gooseberries, Strawberrys and Blackcurrants at the moment..... Bumper Year...

Al

The rain of the last month has resulted in stupendous rhubarb, which we are working our way through. No ill effects to report so far.......

[Cugel]

Hard to get fresher than my veg patch! Bucketloads of Loganberries, Tayberries, Gooseberries, Strawberrys and Blackcurrants at the moment..... Bumper Year...

Al

The rain of the last month has resulted in stupendous rhubarb, which we are working our way through. No ill effects to report so far.......

Too much barboo will make one fat. It isn't so much the barboo itself but the ladles, oodles, dollops, slathers and pourings of custard on the stuff that does it. Ice cream is a substitute for custard but this can be worserer for the waistline.

When a child, I dipped sticks of barboo into a sugar bag. Even now I must pay a dentist to make things right, seventy years later!

[mjr]

Agree with comments above that the 'fresh' aisles in most supermarkets are pretty much false advertising. Buy direct or from short-supply-chain greengrocers if you can. Your taste buds will thank you!

I think you have an advantage there, in that you live in a region that has a lot of fruit and veg growing, whereas local to me the farms are mostly sheep, dairy, beef and cereals.

Ah, maybe. There are a couple of large farms here with their own shops, also selling produce from their neighbours, but there are also the small growers which can be found in many parts of the country selling at the farm gate, and still most towns have one greengrocer being supplied from wholesale markets a few times a week, whether a shop or a market stall.

But I must have a trawl on the web and see what local fruit and veg deliveries are available. Maybe there is some reasonably local stuff I haven't yet found. We have become victims of habit, going to the same couple of supermarkets because it is easy.

I guess it's easy in that it doesn't take much "I want these things so need to visit those four shops/stalls" decision-making, but I have to walk much much further if I go shopping there than at the market and small shops, as the items I want are scattered among many I don't that are there deliberately positioned so to catch the eye, just like the online collect/deliver services are full of antipatterns that make me spend time avoiding them, or spend more money. I find supermarkets pretty difficult, especially if I'm with other people less cynical about the "look at this" tricks.

[axel_knutt]

Aye, now Amazon's gone full evil and seems OK with directly trying to trick its customers too

Not groceries, but this morning I looked at something on Amazon for £300, with a tick box for an £80 discount voucher. This afternoon I went back for another look, and found that the £80 voucher was still applied, but the discounted price was now....£300. A bit like a jacket I saw in a local shop: £15, reduced from £20. A week later it was £20 reduced from £25.

[axel_knutt]

Nearly fifty years ago, I spent a winter picking sprouts and cauliflowers in the North East. The sprouts would go to a high end supermarket on a three day sale or return basis, the returns would go to a supermarket where every little helps.

When I was a kid I had a Saturday job working for a shop that stocked Ever Ready batteries on a sale or return basis, each week the unsold ones were taken away, but I don't know what happened to them or whether that was the case for every shop selling BEREC batteries. Perhaps there was a choice of two wholesale prices: sale or return, or get the rejects.

[pwa]

Nearly fifty years ago, I spent a winter picking sprouts and cauliflowers in the North East. The sprouts would go to a high end supermarket on a three day sale or return basis, the returns would go to a supermarket where every little helps.

When I was a kid I had a Saturday job working for a shop that stocked Ever Ready batteries on a sale or return basis, each week the unsold ones were taken away, but I don't know what happened to them or whether that was the case for every shop selling BEREC batteries. Perhaps there was a choice of two wholesale prices: sale or return, or get the rejects.

A friend of mine, in his youth, had seasonal work out in the flatlands of eastern England, packing potatoes. They were washed by machine, then sprinkled with powdered peat to make it look like they were fresh out of the ground. The actual ground they grew in was rich in clay and didn't look as nice, so the peat finish was used for presentation.

[Paulatic]

£5 for shopping to turn up at your door from a near unlimited selection seems pretty cheap to me if you stand back and consider it. Probably cheaper than most bus fares to a supermarket and back.

Yes I find it excellent value. We get a Tesco delivery about every three month paying £3 for a four hour slot. For that price someone has picked 120-140 items and a van with driver has travelled 40 minutes from the depot to my front door.

I could have bought all those items while doing smaller shops, at a nearer store, in between. Tesco hasn’t sold me anything I wouldn’t have bought. Often the things arriving in the van have longer use by dates than I find in store. Win win £3 well spent

[mjr]

A friend of mine, in his youth, had seasonal work out in the flatlands of eastern England, packing potatoes. They were washed by machine, then sprinkled with powdered peat to make it look like they were fresh out of the ground. The actual ground they grew in was rich in clay and didn't look as nice, so the peat finish was used for presentation.

Whereas the ones truly grown in fen peat were responsible for a different sort of skullduggery: when produce used to get sent to markets by train, the crates were marked with the loading station's name, to help route and charge the freight correctly. Reportedly, "Burnt Fen" potatoes weren't selling well, so the station was renamed to Shippea Hill. It's still open now and used to be the least-used station back when its service was poor as well as arbitrarily-timed, but they no longer load goods there.

[rjb]

A local bakery in Somerset is doing well.
"Burns the bread".
Our Shops - Burns the Bread" https://burnsthebread.co.uk/our-shops/