COVID - general discussion - Temp Locked
Comments
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Ocado? I am not sure that we have Ocado up here. Certainly our Waitrose order was delivered in a Waitrose van by a Waitrose uniformed driver, presumably from our local store. Waitrose stores are very thin on the ground up here.
We do not have Iceland in our area, but we have Farmfoods right next to Lidl, so can easily stock up on frozen stuff should we wish, though we too do prefer fresh veg.
It is mainly OH who goes in the shops, I just do the driving and carry the heavy bags, so she is doing her best to keep me safe. 🙂
From listening to the news, watching TV, and reading on here, I get the impression that, in our area anyway, people are possibly observing the rules more than in many other areas, even though the FM is always pretty gloomy!
Since last March, we have not been away in the caravan, or visited any NT properties, or indeed anywhere. We have seen our son and family once, and otherwise not mixed socially with anyone other than our daughter, SIL and Callum. Even then, other than Callum, they keep their distance.
OH has visited the optician, as have I, and I have been twice to the dentist and once to the hospital for a blood test.
The shops we use are not usually particularly busy, people are observing social distancing, wearing masks, queues are well controlled, trolley and hand sanitising is in place, Otherwise we are shopping on line, with the occasional click and collect, so we feel pretty safe.
Even so, we are looking forward to getting vaccinated!
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Kj
I imagine Ocado were mainly in the South of England but as the company grew they did extend further north but not sure they ever reached Scotland, but I could be wrong on that score. However the point of my comment was that part of the tie up with Waitrose was the insistence that the minimum order value was £60 (Ocado didn't make a profit for years!) However with the split Waitrose have been able to lower their minimum order value to £40 which I imagine opens up their customer catchment quite a bit and might suit yourself to save visits to supermarkets?
David
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We have Ocado in Yorkshire they also do a lot of Van deliveries for other brands👍🏻
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Perhaps we need a "must wear a mask or face-shield" outside of the home without exception policy. No ifs or buts and strictly policed with an immediate fine for non-compliance. Similarly, if police visited "beauty spots/ leisure destinations" and applied immediate fine if vehicle registered more than 10 miles from the location might discourage what appears to be a lot of unnecessary travel.
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Agree with the last part but there is no evidence that I've seen that wearing a mask in the open is needed or helps with stopping the virus?
Again without exception? There are medical ones.
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I've just been looking at the Ocado site, they even run it via Alexa so you can "speak" your order. Although they charge for orders under £75 they have a smart pass system for cheaper products. There's a post code check to see if your area is covered. During this heightened part of the epidemic it's another possible delivery option for some. We've got Ocado in our area.
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Corners wrote: "Again without exception? There are medical ones."
Then wear a visor, as I said. We've got a body count of over 1,000 a day. We can't afford a 'pretty please' approach.
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Again wearing a visor may mot be possible either for medical reasons. There is not a pretty please approach, the rules are quite clear.
are you wearing a face covering when outside CY?
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Yes I would agree with that, I, like you I think, just stay clear of places with lots of people.
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I would expect that to be the case being put forward
,When out with Rosa in this area ,as usual , i carry a mask, but have not needed to wear it Yet ,as many times we do not see or meet anyone else and if we do its the dogs who do not social distance
Were we live If? anyone comes across another person or group of people with an unwell person ,then a mask would be worn
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I have the impression that for a lot more of the UK population, the penny has finally dropped. I had to go into a big supermarket yesterday, for first time in months, and almost everyone seemed to be using sanitising stations, and I didn’t see anyone not in a mask of some some sort. I was only in there 5 minutes, not many folks around which was staggering for a Saturday.
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I was asking OH if she had known about the £40 delivery from Waitrose, as we found £60 of food far too much to deal with, but it seems we have dropped off the Waitrose radar as she has not received any e mails from them for ages, despite previously being eligible for priority slots due to age. I would have thought they would have informed customers? When did it change?
We did do a couple of click and collects before summer, but she was not happy with the short use by dates on some items so we stopped doing that. We have visited the store twice since then I think.
Checking on line she can see we do still have priority access, but the only available slots in the next 10 days are the 7am-8am ones. For a more reasonable time we will need to wait till at least the 21st. Must be more people booking a delivery than previously, due as David said, to the lower spend now required.
We could book one well in advance for a reasonable time as the freezer is well stocked at present, then go in and amend the order later. Can one of you experienced Waitrose shoppers tell me......do the special offers all last for a calendar month?
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DavidK mentioned that the delivery system changed when Waitrose dropped Ocado.
Delivery slots are like hens teeth, if you see one you might do well to take it! They are only available on a two week schedule with one day being added per day. Special offers change but you can really only use them when you see them. The demand for deliveries has increased due to recent Covid advice. Ocado has just announced some shortages, I think it pays to stay in touch with news items regarding food and shopping.
I have got recent Waitrose slots by looking in early in the morning but frequently others have got there first! I'm a priority slot and there's not much room for manoeuvre. Click and collect has a bit more flexibility.
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Having handed it over to OH, she has now booked a slot for the 25th and will see if she can move it a bit later in that week once more dates are released. There were plenty available for after the 21st.
If one was up and about at 7am, a delivery for tomorrow was available.
The offers are advertised as "January Offers" so will hopefully still be available up to the end of the month.
OH was saying it is far too easy to spend money at Waitrose, but has tried to restrain herself!
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Checking on line she can see we do still have priority access, but the only available slots in the next 10 days are the 7am-8am ones. For a more reasonable time we will need to wait till at least the 21st. Must be more people booking a delivery than previously, due as David said, to the lower spend now required.
We could book one well in advance for a reasonable time as the freezer is well stocked at present, then go in and amend the order later. Can one of you experienced Waitrose shoppers tell me......do the special offers all last for a calendar month?
Kj
I imagine you don't have that many Waitrose stores around where you live. If that is the case that could put pressure on the delivery rounds. We probably have about five or six Waitrose stores within a 20/25 mile radius so the demand can be spread out more. Some Waitrose branches have the advantage of extra staff from the JL stores nearby which are currently closed during the lockdown. Slots seem to be available on a two week rolling basis. It used to be four weeks but I think they found at busy times that put too much strain on their IT. We currently have two further orders places and the day before our next one we can usually book for two weeks time. Rarely do we have to deviate from our usual delivery day/time slot.
With regard to the offers they used to put the expiry date on the shelf edge tickets but for some reason they have stopped doing that. I think they do run for a month at a time. Don't forget there are other offers, particularly on meat where you get three for £10 and these seem to be on offer all the time. We like their Waitrose British Chicken Pork & Apple Stuffed Thighs and they are also three for £10 as are many of the other meat products. Handy if you want to stock up the freezer.
David
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I don't think they were dropped but more a case of coming to the end of the original agreement. It was only in 2020 but that was always going to be the case, it wasn't a surprise. Waitrose have been planning for the split for some time. Local Waitrose branches have extended their online services and I think in London they have built three fulfillment Centres. The system that Ocado setup, initially with financial help from Waitrose, was very expensive could only be profitable if they have operated on a massive scale and as Waitrose is one of the smaller operators they were never going to be able to maintain Ocado on its own. I think M&S invested £750 million into Ocado to kickstart their delivery service. Be interesting to see how that pans out?
David
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Back when I worked for a living, I hated having to do the time consuming, things in trolley, things out of trolley, things back into trolley dance at checkouts, so we tried online shopping. Started first with Asda, that was ok, on time, good quality fresh stuff, but there were a lot of substitutions for my liking. Then we tried Tesco, excellent, very few substitutions. We shopped online until I finished work, by then the scan and shop had happened so I could whip round a supermarket in 20 minutes, unless I was browsing. We decided to use deliveries for holiday Cottages we use, as didn’t have to cart a lot of fresh stuff or shop in an unknown supermarket. Have done this for years, and Tesco has all cottage addresses stored, so if we revisit a cottage, I merely change the address from home.
During last yearwe have got organised so that I shop online for around three weeks groceries, topping up at one or two carefully selected shops to visit in person for things like fresh veg, milk etc.... (We don’t eat meat). We bought a small chest freezer mid lockdown to carry extra produce, and to store home made stuff. It’s really worked for us. Been lucky in that I haven’t had an issue getting a Tesco slot.
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As far as we know, there is one Waitrose in Glasgow itself, in the West End (posh area), plus two others in the "upmarket" suburbs of Newton Mearns (to the south) and Bearsden/Milngavie (to the north), the latter being only about 2 miles from us and the biggest and newest of the three. About 3 years since it opened I think.
The store is fairly popular, but rarely crowded. They have a bit of competition as we also have a few M&S Simply Food stores in the area, a Sainsburys Local, plus a superstore one not too far away, then Tesco, Asda, Aldi, Lidl, and a Morrisons a little further away.
From Waitrose we mainly buy the Easy Cook range, the 3 for £10 offers, good for stocking up the freezer, plus some cheeses, cold meats and Deli items, and occasionally some fresh veg. Otherwise we check out the special offers, can often be some good prices there.
Always do a Waitrose shop when they send us discount vouchers, sadly very rare these days!
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We signed up for Sainsbury’s deliveries just after the first lockdown started. Took a few frustrating days and numerous phone calls to register but it’s been worth it.
Don’t even mind the ‘substitutions’ but sometimes they do seem very odd.
Can, just about, understand substituting a low calorie soft drink for a full cal one of the same brand but had to scratch my head last weekend when an order for a large bottle of virgin olive oil was substituted by a small bottle plus 2 tins of mackerel fillets in olive oil
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We’ve been using delivery service since March which we’re sort of locked into now as we also shop for a couple of older neighbours. We’ve used Asda & Tesco as getting slots have sometimes been very challenging. Without exception Tesco have been the best, hardly ever get a substitution, whereas with Asda it was commonplace. We also subscribe to Tesco ‘DeliveryPlus’ which at £7.99 per month allows us to book 4 weeks ahead including delivery charge - definitely worth it.
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You have a lot of options there K, more than we have, no Waitrose or M&S close to us. I am so used to Tesco now, other websites seem clunky to me. I actually gave up registering on Ocado/M&S. we don’t buy enough from M&S.
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