UKH

So, a very nice and grateful person I work with send me a voucher for John Lewis/ Waitrose (never happened to me before..and was also not necessary, but she insisted) I thought ok, I'll go on the Waitrose site and order some nice food to be delivered. There are absolutely no slots available - not even at the weirdest hours. How do all these people get delivery slots? Lots of our neighbours get food delivered from Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury, Waitrose. I have never since all this Covid started managed to get one. But with this latest Waitrose thing there doesn't seem to be anything on offer at all. Am I just dumb? Or how do people do this, particularly as we are told to do online shopping. I can't get a delivery for life or money....

A long time ago in a galaxy far away ... we had intermittent Waitrose deliveries - not now and for about 6 months. I suspect since OCADO moved to M&S there has been a shift in availability in some areas. Decent food if you can get it, but our nearest Waitrose shop is down the motorway.

I do a Tesco delivery each week for my very ancient parents. Their local delivery supermarket is still really heavily used, so despite them having a 'priority' slot, I have to be online at midnight in order to secure a slot three weeks hence.

We stopped getting delivery slots to leave them free for those who need them more but the Mrs does get click and collect. Got to be booked well in advance and keep checking for available dates though. 

Yes, same here. Slots pop up at short notice, where people cancel them, usually for the following day.

thankyou. 

Being able to get a home delivery slot has really helped my parents (both 70+) to remain independent whilst self isolating.

Funny you should mention that. Local Sainsbury has no slots. Ever. Local Waitrose has none either but they do Click and Collect, and booking a week in advance works fine. Wa hey.

So I turn up for my collection, and discover they have removed the covid-friendly little tent outside the shop previously assigned to giving the virus to the collectors; now you need to go in the shop and speak to Customer Services. So I go in and speak to the nice lady behind the perspex and explain the situation. "DARWIN!" she yells over the top of the perspex, and a young lad eventually shuffles up looking sheepish. "We've got a click and collect customer, here's his number. Please wait over there sir".

Darwin wanders out round the back of the shop to the warehouse to find my trolley, and I cool my heels in the middle of the entry / exit area, looking at the selected recipes for Waitrose customers (some of which are very good), with viroids walking in and out around me. I wait for a good five minutes, and the lad turns up with the trolley and parks it in front of customer services. I then have to unpack the trolley into my shopping bags, receive the paperwork, and make my escape.

I'm going back to ordinary shopping thanks.

That's bizarre.  Mostly round here it involves them using the delivery vans but parked at the far end of the car park.

WTF, never heard anything so stupid. Our local Asda has it nailed, there are 3 or 4 bays with a roof over, a bit like going in a petrol station. You have a 1 hour slot. When you get there you pull up in an empty bay or join the que (never more than 1 car in front). Ring the number on the sign and give them your name and reg number. Get out of the car and open the boot then get back in. They come out, put your shopping in the boot, close the boot and your away. The only deviation is if there are any substitutions where a masked person at a distance speaks to you through your open window. 

That sounds like a good system! Locally, they are getting away with it because the local rolling rate is about 150. However you can see from the look in their eyes that the floor staff are a bit scared and are just doing the day job as best they can. Poor them.

At the moment, I feel ok with a good mask, and choosing my moment to do the weekly shop. A lot of people are facing more risk than me. If I need to isolate myself a bit more, I'll just tell customer services I'm waiting and then get the belay jacket on, wait outside and intercept the lad coming back from the warehouse, which  won't be too different from the ASDA system.

That is weird, we do click and collect at Waitrose and at our local, you park in a bay out the front of the shop, ring the phone number that is on your marked bay post and they bring it out to your car. 

We have never tried delivery but we haven't failed to to get a slot since the pandemic began, some areas must be worse than others.

For those who are physically able to shop and have a supermarket close by, get off your backside, wash your hands, put on your mask, stay away from others, get in and out rapidly and leave the  slots for those who are old, unable, work shifts or simply cannot get to a shop.

Thank you

I think that is old news now, Asda have opened up a lot more slots to be available than just those needed for those that are old / unable / work shifts. That's full delivery slots, click and collect is even more available. They prioritize those that need it anyway yet I find I can still easily get a slot. I wouldn't go inside a super market just now, having seen some stats it would be the highest risk scenario of me catching it. OFC me staying virus free not only helps to protect me but also others!

Don’t get deliveries myself, but I’ve heard from several friends (different supermarkets in different parts of country) that if fully booked, it is best to go online just after midnight as apparently that is when all new and cancelled slots are released.

I think most supermarkets allow you to store your list of groceries online first so you can very quickly book your slot and pay.

Also, you don’t have to pick your immediate local supermarket for click and collect (certainly the case with Tesco). I have two within the same distance and the availability is very different between them.

My local Tesco is quite often fully booked for deliveries for around two weeks ahead and only very limited slots still available between 2 & 3 weeks, but click and collect is usually only 2/3 days.

Just for clarification (but only know about Tesco for my parents), you book your slot without needing to go shopping beyond selecting at least one item as a 'place' holder. You then pay for this and do all the checking out process. (Don't be alarmed when the price shows a minimum charge excess, etc. Eleven quid for a single banana will get amended!). Then up to the evening before your slot you can return as many times as you like to add to your order and the price, including surcharges, are adjusted accordingly.

On the news the other day:  some bloke was caught booking dozens of delivery slots (Asda?) and selling them on ebay.  What a scummy bastard !

At least in Lancashire Sainsbury's have changed the way they organise their deliveries. Our nearest store that does deliveries is in Burnley. We always used to get drivers from the Burnley store. Now we get deliveries from Burnley, Preston, Lancaster, etc. Our last delivery came from Burnley but the driver had started making deliveries in Kirkham. He then drove a straightish line to Keighley passing us on the way. He said they were fitting in more than 20 deliveries, rather than 12-15 wandered around Burnley, in the same amount of time. We now have no problem booking a delivery a week in advance as they have effectively increased their van capacity.

As an IT bod this intrigued me...

Be careful with that practice especially with Asda. I’ve done quite a few deliveries where the customer banked an item to save a slot, intending to revisit and amend the order only to find at 10pm the slot had closed and what they’d banked, they’d bought. One customer had a pint of milk another a bottle of Bacardi. They then had to pay the delivery charge which in the case of the pint of milk was substantially more than what she’d bought.  

I mentioned it in another thread but we also have an issue with an off licence owner using our store to supply his beers because they are cheaper than the wholesaler. Problem is his delivery fills over a third of the van and therefore causes others to lose out due to a lack of space=lack of delivery slots. This has been raised with management but it still takes place due to the amount he spends every week. 

Ours literally is at the back of the petrol station. We haven't been as Mrs J is eligible for free deliveries, every week since April except Xmas, by the sounds of some posts they should be expanding the eligibility for this and increasing their capacity in general, rather than expecting people who are currently using the system to shop in store, finding staff shouldn't be a problem and the trend could well continue after covid. There seems to be massive differences depending where you live. In April/May Mrs J's sister had to do what others describe and go online at 2am. to get a click and collect slot, but has had no problems since.

There are no depths to which some people will stoop

The Sun has a similar story. Not that I would ever look at the Sun except via a search link ... 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/11570693/woman-selling-supermarket-home-f...

ASDA often relaese delivery slots around midnight.

If you can’t beat em, join em....

Psst.  Heike. Got a slot going spare, yours for a tenner. Wigan Asda ;

I heard a story that someone booked a Christmas eve slot well in advance (pre-covid) then forgot all about it and had a bemused delivery driver show up with just a single head of broccoli.

They were still in the process of doing that nationally during my stint as a temp for them in the spring/summer.  Prior to that the stores had fixed catchment areas but the new system is more flexible and shunts orders around from store to store somehow.  (Not a clue what sort of algorithm is behind that though so can't even hint at the IT part.)  Some of the customers I went to were getting deliveries from three different stores, and I was quite regularly passing vans from other stores on the road going the other way.

My dad explained some technique he has for Waitrose...

Apparently the slots all become available at once, so he makes up 3 or 4 deliveries that have 4 or so bottles of Gin in them (you have to have a minimum value in your basket before it'll let you book the slot) then in the week leading up to the delivery he goes into the basket, amends the contents by adding all the shopping they need for the week and taking out (some of) the Gin.

Please don't judge him - he's knocking on a bit and my mum had some chemo last year so they're doing all they can to avoid contact!

I'm sure I recall hearing of someone who did that and forgot, and the gin showed up!

It's those Chinese Postmen again - Trump was right!

Sorry, guys, I have to say the replies are a bit harsh, I have never had any deliveries or are going to get any, ever. It was just that a grateful  person I work with wanted me to have the voucher for 50 quid  - which made my day as there is not much to like about these days. So I tried to get a delivery with Waitrose or John Lewis- but it is not possible to get any deliveries for this money.

I have done nothing but ask a small question here and yes, I go and get my food every week myself wearing a mask. Oh  and I have not taken any delivery slots from the people who need them. 

Chill out. No harshness in the replies, just folk chatting about what they do. 
I now do an online shop and I’m not vulnerable and don’t really deserve the key worker status given to me. I just want to look after my family and me.