Tales of woe: online grocery shopping

by Rachel Robson on 07 July 2009  |  6 comments
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Online grocery shopping is supposed to have a range of benefits, but I'm not terribly convinced...

I've become a bit lazy when it comes to grocery shopping. After getting sick of trolley wheels being rolled over my toes and too many people cramming themselves down the aisles, I decided it was time to ditch the supermarket, and start doing my shopping online instead.

As soon as I had converted, I wondered how I'd ever survived doing my shopping any other way. No more bags to lug up the hill on the way home (this was before I had a car) - hurrah! No more wasting my Saturday in a supermarket - hooray!

But as time has gone on, I've become a little irritated by it all.

I've often read that doing your shopping online is supposed to save you money - partly because you're less tempted to buy on impulse and you stick to your shopping list. And to an extent, I think this is true. What's more, you can compare the big supermarkets on mysupermarket.com to find out which is cheapest for your personal basket/trolley of goods.

But I also think you lose out in other ways.

For a start, you have to pay for delivery - and generally, it's easier for me to get my shopping delivered at the weekend - thus costing more at around £5.50. But then again, if I drove to the supermarket, I'd have to pay for petrol. What's more, you can often find vouchers online which cancel out the cost of delivery anyway.

But it's not just that that bothers me.

What really annoys me is when I get given too much veg. Now I love my veg, don't get me wrong. But let's face it, veg is expensive. And when I get given two broccolis instead of the one I asked for, or an aubergine the size of a tree trunk, I feel a little peeved. After all, there are only two of us living in my flat and there's only so much broccoli/aubergine/courgette we can eat. (And don't even get me started about the time I got given a marrow instead of an aubergine, costing me around £3!)

Admittedly, I could return it to the van driver if I'm not happy, but that just means I will have to pay a visit to the supermarket after all - which could result in me buying a heap of unnecessary items. And of course, it's very hard to check all of your items properly when the van driver is standing on your doorstep, champing at the bit, dying to get away.

So instead I usually just keep hold of it, and end up paying more than I would have done if I had personally selected the veg.

Another aspect that bugs me is when you're given items which have a ridiculously short use by date. For example, if I was buying yogurts in the supermarket, I would select the longest date possible. But when a delivery arrives and my pack of yogurts needs to be eaten in two days, I feel rather miffed. Either I have to eat a ridiculous amount of yogurt, or it ends up in the bin - and I don't like wasting food (or money!).

I should add here that I tried out Ocado the other day (following my debacle with Tesco) and I was really quite impressed - here you actually get told the minimum number of days your products are guaranteed to last as you shop online. Fantastic! Gold star to Ocado!

Finally, I also get a little angry when supermarkets substitute my products for far more expensive ones. If I asked for the basic salmon at £3 a packet, I don't want to pay £8 for the extra fancy stuff instead! I'm sure there's a mid-way point somewhere!

So now that the honeymoon period has worn off I really am starting to think about whether I should continue to shop online or not. I'm no longer convinced it's saving me that much money.

In theory it's only saving me time. But I'm not really sure about that either - not when I have to return half of the items and pop down to the local supermarket anyway, or sit around waiting for a delayed delivery, or even when the delivery man runs off with half of my shopping still in his van! All of which have happened at some point or another.

But maybe I'm being a little cynical. I'm sure when I return to the supermarket and my toes turn black and blue, I'll swiftly change my mind again - fickle girl that I am...