When was the last time you used Ocado? They tell you the date as you're adding to basket.
Damn that is nice, I do agree with psycho on this one, the pros of going in for shopping, good dates, if what you want isnt there favoured substitute.
Asda gave me hand soaps as a substitute for disinplus 3 times in a row then I tried the trick I used to do with tesco (after a self stacker friend I know told me how they used substitute system to manage stock, end of this post) I then the 4th time refused substitute on order, and by coincidence they then delivered it.
My younger sister during covid for about a month did online shopping but stopped it as was sick of getting short dated food and rubbish sub's. The supermarkets will never say it, but its clear online deliveries (exlcuding ocado who are online only) are been used to shift stock that inside shoppers are passing by, I have had 2 supermarkets even kind of admit it to me.
As an example I queried asda as to why some items were removed from the online page, they confirmed they still in store but because they sell "extremely well" there was no need to put them on the website, I responded, does that mean the website is used to boost hard to sell items I was told "yes". Iceland in another call confirmed to me they prioritise in store customers, if items sell well, they pulled from website, items struggling to sell in store go on website as a priority and actively promoted to buyers. It makes good business sense it is understandable, food has finite life, and online delivery services are great at helping managing stock.
But what about substitutes and dated food? Are pickers deliberately picking shorter life stock, probably not but we do know that stackers put shorter dates at front, and pickers to save time are likely just taking whats on the front.
What I did find interesting though is when my friend told me that if something is subbed it doesnt mean it was out of stock, the supermarket he worked for had a system, that if they had a sub that needed stock shifting as they were struggling to sell before expiry, then the pickers would be told to sub to that product from other brands. This obviously increases likely hood of bad dates as its old stock needed to sell but also increase chance of a sub. He said in past picker used to pick the sub but often it lost the employer money as they would do things like sub cheap branded chocolate for premium with no cost difference to customer.
For sure going to try ocado again if they are telling you use by date in basket, that sounds awesome. Hopefully now I can get slots. as thats what stopped me using them before.
To be fair Asda are not terrible I would say its about 2/3 chance the bread is stale on delivery, Tesco it was about 90%. Morrisons about 10-20%, Ocado almost never.
