Completely OT. Grocery delivery services

[Hugh - Was Invisible]

Apologies for posting this here but no idea where else to ask.

Ageing Mum lives on her own in a warden controlled retirement flat which has no facilities for mobility scooters. She can cook for herself but is not sufficiently mobile to do get to any shops.

My sister and I both live at some distance and cannot be guaranteed for shopping all the year round.

Does anyone know of any services that will deliver relatively small amounts? Delivery charge would not be a problem. Probably better to be an internet service that I or my sister could input. Mum is not very good at describing packet or can sizes over the phone! She is interested in real food rather than the chilled or frozen pre-prepared meals that are available from those catering for the elderly etc.

Any ideas very much appreciated.

[charles]

Tesco, Sainsburys and Waitrose all deliver round here. Our local, privately run, "village shop" also does home deliveries. He has quite a number of customers who can't walk home with their shopping.

[Bert Coules]

Although I've never tested this myself, as far as I know the major supermarkets - Waitrose, Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's - have no minimum requirement for a home delivery.

Bert

[Terry Fields]

SWMBO does this for her mother, using Tesco - but I think all the big supermarkets offer delivery, even for small amounts.

MiL phones her list to SWMBO, who then puts the order together online. Once the drivers knew they were delivering to a lady of advanced years, they couldn't have been more helpful.

You soon get to know the favourite items and how much of each is required.

A dishy young lady used to deliver stuff here, but for some reason SWMBO switched to a different day...

Terry Fields

[Robin]

Wot others have said (plus Ocado whcih I don't thijnk has been menmtioned). You can check online if they cover your mother's postcode.

I can vouch that it works. Eg we once did an order for MiL from Australia after Skypeing her to establish what was needed.

You may want to check which will take deliveries beyond the front door. I know that Tesco will do so if you order without bags but not about others.

[funkyoldcortina]

Tesco, Sainsbury, Ocado, Waitrose, Asda they're all at it. Except Morrissons I think.

Use

and that will tell you which supermarket is cheapest and automatically place the order with that one.

[Hugh - Was Invisible]

Thanks to all who have replied. We used to use Ocado for ourselves. They were incredibly efficient but quite expensive. Since they pick from their own warehouses they know exactly what will be available at the time when you order. Before that we tried Sainsburys who were a complete shambles. Loads of substitutions, some missing and some appeared to be somebody else's

[The Natural Philosopher]

At least waitrose will. IIRC its a fiver for sub 50 quid deliveries. But a weeks shopping is probably getting on for that, if she has a freezer..

The people on the vans tend to be most helpful, too.

Yes. you could order (and pay for it I suspect) on her behalf. Or keep a record of her credit card and use that..you probably have power of attormey anyway which makes taht totally legal.

Yes. Although SOME of waitrose pre pack is simply excellent. we are addicted to microwavable stemed puddings for one...with dollops of fresh cream

Other excellent things we have found are frozen chicken Kiev - they don't stint the garlic or the butter - and breaded cod portions. ih frozen peas and a baked spud its quick simple and pretty damned good.

I suggest you simply check her postcode in waitrose online and see whether they will deliver, and browse their site. The web code is fairly ugly - its better at 'search' than 'browse' in terms of where things are to be found. And be careful when ordering thing's not to do as we did and instead of ordering ONE cheese, order one KG of cheese..

[Nightjar]

My first port of call would be to do a round of local shops and see which ones do a delivery service. Certainly in my part of the world, which has more than its fair share of elderly, that would cover just about all food needs. I doubt many of them sell on the internet, but, AIUI, they quickly get to know what their regular customers want and need. I have also had reports of a couple that even turned up to see whether an elderly customer was OK when they had not placed their regular order.

Colin Bignell

[The Natural Philosopher]

I cant think of much that I cant get on the internet...

In fact we hardly use shops at all unless we are in a hurry.

Oh. I cant get the car tanked up on the internet. Have to drive to the fuel station.

[Frank Erskine]

My mum, in a similar situation, uses Oakhouse Foods:-

-

[Lobster]

Yeah, I know someone who routinely does his Mum's weekly shopping for her that way: she has a phone but no computer, he has both and lives in California. It's a weird world!

David

[The Natural Philosopher]

Actually, its thios bit of te world that fills me with something less than the usual despair I encounter when 'going shopping' or 'watching politicians on TV' or reading the Murdochian press.

This sort of thing actually is one of the 'green shoots' of recovery..a way to use what's cheap to make life better and develop business models that work in the 21st century.

The current 'crossover' mode of the supermarkets exactly suits today's conditions,. Drive by shopping if you are near, or online if not.

Contrast the sheds falling like dominoes in the retail parks..

[docholliday]

My mother tried out Sinsbury's delivery and had too many (not very close) substitutions, too. They would always take them back and credit her, but that's not much help if the missing item was something needed that day. She finally gave up on them when she received a pack of smoked fish which was supposed to be sealed but had leaked over the rest of the shopping in one bag - probably carelessness when opening the box the packs would have come in... Unfortunately there isn't a Waitrose close by.

[Hugh - Was Invisible]

Thanks. I am the OP. As I mentioned earlier we used to use Ocado who deliver mainly Waitrose groceries. Excellent quality, practically no substitutions and 1 hour slots

[Chris Hogg]

As others have said, Tesco is good and we use it for my elderly mother when we can't get over to do her shopping ourselves. She phones her order to me and I set it up on line. I know pretty well which particular items she has if there is a choice of several brands or sizes. Never had a problem with missing items, and I generally go for 'delivery in bags', and tick the 'no substitutes' box. If something's temporarily not available, it usually says at the time of ordering. You can input your loyalty card number and accrue bonus points, the same as in the store. Delivery charges modest, typically between UKP3.5 and 5.0, depending on time of day and day of week. Don't know if they have a minimum order size though. Delivery people always very helpful, carrying the goods into the house and putting them in the kitchen for her.

[Bob Eager]

Ocado will.

[Steve Walker]

Yes, some sort of crossover is the way forward. I certainly tend to look online for things, decide pretty well what I want and then nip into a shed for a physical lookover. If the price is right (often by buying online for collection from the shed) I'll buy from the shed, else I'll order online and put up with the hassles of home delivery.

SteveW

[John Rumm]

Any of the big names will do it. They will drop any quantity, and may do free delivery for larger orders. Delivery prices often vary with more desirable slots being a bit more expensive.

In the past we have used tesco, waitrose, and occado. Occado were probably the best, but would not deliver to where we moved, so switched to waitrose (much the same selection but orders picked from the local shop rather than the main warehouse).

[Jethro]

Being a bit of a web pioneer, I tried getting SWMBO into online shopping

10 years ago ... she finally relented in July, and now wouldn't have it any other way. It finally dawned on her that spending half a Saturday going round a crowded store in a wheelchair (let's not talk about parking) only to see they haven't got half the stuff you want was not the best use of time.

We tried Tescos, and and (she !) discovered that subtle selection of special offers, and bulk buying, and you quickly make up the £3 delivery ... oh, and you get it delivered when you want (i.e. during the week). So we use the free weekend time to look round local butchers and speciality shops we never had time to when we did a physical shop.

And surely it's greener for one van to deliver to 20 addresses, than 20 cars drive to the supermarket ?

My only worry is at some point the government decides it needs a special tax[1] to encourage it's uptake.

[1]like VAT on eBooks - I mean wtf ?????