Too many but include timing, mobility issues, location & security…
Surely these are not problems when you can have your deliveries direct to your door? What am I missing here?
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Monday morning is supermarket day. We prefer to go there rather than use delivery. Nearly always pass a minute or two chatting to someone about something or other while standing in the queue. Very easy to judge if someone doesn’t want to.
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Too much. Not to worry. You need be in the situation in reality.
I go to the mall or the supermarket almost everyday, I used to go daily before the pandemic, these days I still go probably every other day. It is only a few minutes walk from me.
Never particularly found the shelf stackers a nuisance if they are in the way of something I want they are invariably polite and either move their trolley or get it for me (more than you can say for other shoppers sometimes). They also know where things are if you can’t find something.
The girl/bloke at the self service checkouts is also very polite and helpful, I wonder if they are chosen for their public relations?
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Totally agree with you Bruce. 
. ( there can be just the occasional exception in their behaviour ). But that’s just life.
And agree too re your remarks re SOME fellow customers. 
We can get to the supermarket together, which we prefer to do …all the time I am active anyway.
Mobility difficulties are individual though and online shopping can be easiest and best for some people.
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I’d like to understand ?
Social interaction?
Unless you count talking to the van driver for 30 seconds ?
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Good point. But we chat with our neighbours quite frequently.
Do people really go to the supermarket for social interaction?
I started online shopping during COVID era and wouldn’t want to go back to in store now even though I am perfectly fit and have several supermarkets nearby.
It just makes life so much easier.
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I totally agree. Actually, we started on line shopping before Covid came along.
I have shopped online for groceries for many years too - I don’t do it quite so often as before I lost my husband because I buy less groceries, about once a month. If I visit the supermarket I get around as quickly as I can and use the self-service tills so that I don’t need to queue.
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I used online shopping a few times during my post-Covid recovery and the Lockdown months. I don’t spend enough to justify a weekly delivery but by adding stuff on that I usually buy elsewhere, I used to manage to order enough for maybe once a fortnight.
I found it useful then and I was impressed with the service Tesco provided - their fresh food always had a decent shelf life before the “use by” date.
(I couldn’t find any other company who would deliver here, except Waitrose - I tried a Waitrose delivery once and that was shocking - all the fresh food they sent had to be eaten within a day or two of delivery and the fruit and veg were long past their best.Maybe I was just unlucky that day but I would not use them again!)
I did think I may carry on using Tesco online for maybe a monthly delivery of the more bulky items but now we are “back to normal”, I have gone back to my old shopping habits, which suit me better - and help support some of the useful local independent shops in town.
Maybe I’m odd but since I retired and have plenty of time to spare, I quite like pushing a wonky-wheeled trolley around the supermarket, swerving around the obstacle courses of shelf-stackers, browsing shoppers and roaming children; looking out for bargains and deals, interacting with a few folk en-route and having a brief chat while I’m standing in the queue.
I bump into a lot of people I know in supermarkets, former colleagues, former clients, former neighbours, and it’s nice to briefly touch base with them and hear how they are getting on.
In the Winter months, if I’m home alone, I rarely get to speak to people except in shops or at the gym. My elderly neighbours have all sought their household fires and the people I pass on my walks tend to be muffled and huddled against the cold wind and rain, so it’s not conducive to stop for a bit of chat.
Another reason online shopping does not suit me is that I generally purchase a lot of my fresh produce from local independent shops, market stalls and a variety of supermarkets - I like different shops for different products.
I source household/cleaning products from a shop which is part of a very small local chain of shops - it is our local equivalent of a Wilko / Woolworths type of hardware/household/haberdashery/miscellaneous shop.
“Use it or lose it” is my motto
It’s a pleasant mile and a half walk into my local market town, so I walk in several times a week for the few things I need - it all adds to my exercise quota!
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We prefer to pick out our own produce and use three different stores all within walking distance so no home deliveries for us.
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We walk several miles a day, rain or shine !
Yes, we’ve had grocery deliveries for a number of years now - through various stores. So it is all delivered and put away in cupboards and freezer by 10am - no problem.
Yes they do.
They may live alone and no relatives or friends near and not have an opportunity to talk to anyone .
People used to walk to the bank to the Post Office to the fishmongers and meet people on the way …
Technology has made things more soulless and now with the self service tills even worse .
We are human beings and are programmed to be with others of our ilk
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Some of the people working in supermarkets unloading from those big trolleys these days are really grumpy, so I am guessing they are under great pressure & perhaps aren’t paid enough. But it’s really other shoppers that can be annoying. Blocking aisles and appearing out of nowhere when the shop is super busy. Not their fault but it does make the experience stressful. Some of these shops aren’t well designed and have narrow aisles and poor layout.
I briefly worked at Tescos part time at weekends when I was 19 and in those days the team atmosphere was great, we were all young and the money was good. But the work was hard (I was in dairy produce), we weren’t allowed to wear gloves even though you would get really cold from the fridges (because it was thought the customers wouldn’t like the look of gloves. We had white coats like a doctor and white cowboy style hats. If you had a cut you would have to wear a special blue plaster because regular plasters were frowned up (shopper opinion again).
It wasn’t the most fun job at all despite the money and I developed an unnatural craving for yoghurts and cheese!
In terms of home deliveries, they are a necessary evil sometimes but I absolutely prefer to go shopping myself.
There is a lottery with delivery drivers and whether or not they will be friendly or whether or not they will help bring the shop in. Ocado are great and they deliver in and recycle the plastic bags. The only down side is when they want to deliver early - so you are out walking the dog or shopping and you get a phone call 2 hours before the due time. Delightful if you are at home of course, but otherwise difficult to manage. But on the whole they are the only company I return to again and again plus they do M&S
I had a recent Asda order (purely because I needed to replace an electric blanket which “melted” in the tumble dryer. The delivery guy just dumped the boxes on the porch and didn’t make any effort to help. Doubly annoying is that the blanket was out of stock, but I’d had to find items to make it up to the minimum spend, so the whole experience was a pointless waste of effort.
Tesco delivery experiences have been the worst ever. Their drivers have been very argumentative. One driver had a row with me during Covid lockdown - he wanted to come inside! It’s a lot easier now since we have a ring doorbell.
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I’m sure that some do. And some don’t go out at all.