Greedy Supermarket Charges

What many people don't seem to realise is that supermarkets make a loss on every delivery they make (around £5-£7) after they've paid for the people who pick and pack the order; then the driver; then the cost of buying and running the vans - it's far more profitable for them when people come into the stores and do their own shopping. They've been running their delivery service at a loss for years, which worked when only a small percentage of their sales were delivered, but over lockdown that's all changed. Personally, I still think £4.50 is a good deal - to save me petrol, AND my own time (both driving there, doing the shop, and driving home).

Well said Carly

Am so surprised anyone could think 4.50 is expensive when you count cost of van, staff to pack and drive/deliver, petrol, etc.

I have not yet used supermarket delivery services but I am moving to a more rural area soon, so may start to use this service. For some reason I had assumed the minimum charge would be £5.00, so I am pleasantly surprised to find out that it is will be less than this. I think £4.50 for the time spent by supermarket staff selecting, packing and delivery to my door is very reasonable fee for doing my fortnightly shop especially taking into account the fuel saving in not having to go myself. I'm not surprised that the supermarkets make a loss on providing this service. Perhaps we will be paying more post- lockdown eventually if the take up rate is increasing the level of losses . However I don't think I will tip the driver, unless the tips are pooled, as it would seem unfair on all the other staff back at base who do the selecting and packing the orders. When I had a house in rural France, the only service offered by supermarkets was click and collect which was not nearly as convenient.
I paid more than £4.50 to post a single medium size parcel at the post office, so all in all, very pleased to hear from GNs that on the whole, a good service is being provided at an affordable price.

Call me cynical, but supermarkets would not be offering delivery services if they made a loss on them. In normal times the service is heavily promoted by Tesco and Sainsburys, with money-off vouchers (up to £12 off a £60 shop) sent out after most shops for use on the next one, so yes, it’s a brilliant deal for the customer, but it’s obviously for the providers’ benefit too. They’re not charities.

The big companies may well have to spend up to £7 preparing each delivery. But the costs of maintaining in store services - checkouts, changing rooms, toilets, car parks, security, display, cleaning, etc - will be higher. As more automation takes over, as at the big Ocado depots, where the orders are prepared by robots, the costs of delivery will decrease. There’s also, if course, the fact that customers can easily be swayed into buying more if they’re not having to lug it home, and can see all the “offers” without moving from their chairs!

Call me cynical, but supermarkets would not be offering delivery services if they made a loss on them
I'm not sure about that, Maggie. I think prior to Covid, it wasn't a profitable thing for the supermarkets - Morrison's held out for a long time before providing an online service.
After all, supermarkets have loss leaders on products, so why not on a service too?
Covid changed things with a huge increase in demand for online shopping of which at least some will be sustained. Some(many?) people won't go back to shopping in the stores.
The supermarkets have had to employ more drivers, train them in cross-infection procedures, hire or acquire extra vans, have more staff picking the goods & if online shopping becomes a larger part of their business, they can't afford to subsidise the delivery part of it.
I'm very grateful that they responded to the crisis in the way they did and I certainly don't begrudge the delivery charge at all.

I take your point, janea, but if the big supermarket groups would rather we shop in store (which I haven’t done for around 10 years now), why have the biggest money off vouchers for many years now been for online shops? As a loss leader this is spectacularly badly thought out, leading us into yet more online shopping instead of tempting us back instore. I believe they have their sights firmly fixed on the future, where they’ll be competing with the likes of Amazon, now making inroads into grocery delivery. Yes, the costs of establishing the delivery service are astronomical, but investing now will lead to fewer and/or smaller stores having to be maintained in future. I hope they’re also looking to lower their carbon footprints.

Other stores, such as Aldi and Lidl, look to be concentrating on instore shopping only. It’ll be interesting to see who the eventual winners and losers are.

why have the biggest money off vouchers for many years now been for online shops?

To retain their customer base & stop them going to Lidl & Aldi?

But the vouchers could just as easily have been issued for use in store? I’ve switched regularly between Tesco, Sainsburys and Ocado online for many years, always going with the one with the biggest money off voucher at the time. I can’t remember the last pre-lockdown shop that I paid full price for and the discounts have been significant, often 20% off, plus free delivery.

It’s also interesting that the vouchers were usually valid for just one week, which seems like a daft move on the part of the supermarkets. Obviously I would then choose two weekly £60+ shops with £12 off each over a larger fortnightly one, During lockdown I’ve been happy to have bigger fortnightly deliveries, which are better for the environment and surely more economically viable for Sainsburys.

I’m sure that someone in the strategic planning department is already on the case.

And I do accept that things will be different now that so many more people have discovered the benefits of having their shopping delivered. I’ll certainly be sticking with it, delivery charge or not.

I have just looked on the Tesco site - from 3/8/20 all deliveries if you need to pay will be £4.50 whatever time of day, at the moment Peak time deliveries especially Sunday is £7. If you pay the Delivery Saver (mine has just renewed at £72 for the year) you don't pay delivery as long as shop is over £40. If you don't use it enough over the year you get a voucher for the difference to use on your next shop - last year and the year before I had vouchers to about £25 each as my Saver had cost me more than what I used - I do actually prefer going to the shop but it is handy if not well. I did also get a part refund this year because of the pandemic - I think all users did because they couldn't guarantee deliveries. My sister also uses the Delivery Saver but never gets a voucher back as she uses it almost weekly

Part refund was only for March

I use a Sainsbury’s delivery pass £60 per year.... approximately £1.15 per week.... anytime any day.I couldn’t get s delivery for just 3.4 weeks during early Covid ....but since then they have been brilliant.

I am looking forward to M&S home delivering of food I believe from September.

I use a lot of their jars of coffee and at £5 a jar, I usually buy up to 8 jars when I visit the local Foodstore, I should be okay when in the near future I can no longer drive.

I use my Clubcard points for my Delivery Saver Plan too, I have just renewed it and for 6mths it's cost me just over £15 in vouchers which I think is pretty good. Tesco has been the only supermarket that I could get a regular slot with during lockdown too.

It’s no use accusing a supermarket of greed or saying you’re a loyal customer. They exist to make as large a profit as possible, not to serve their customers and the automated ordering process doesn’t know you from Adam nor from Eve who first ordered last week.
There is no human being looking at your list and saying,”Ooh look, that nice Mrs Sashabel wants lemons this week. Must be making a cake for her son, home for the weekend”

My daughter has been using click and collect from Tesco but has found meat ,fish and veg going out of date next day which then means somebody has to go to the shops She has found a local company which do deliveries now and asks us as we have continued to go shopping weekly during lockdown

Watermeadow - by stating that I was a loyal customer of Tesco's wasn't meant to imply that I expected preferential treatment or that they should recognise me as such. I was simply stating that for the last 5+ years, I have never paid more than £2 for a delivery for one of their "off peak" slots which will now cost me £4.50 from 3rd August.
Their delivery saver is good value if you want to be tied to one supermarket for all your groceries, but occasionally I have a delivery from Asda or Waitrose, and want to maintain that flexability. As it turned out, being registered with more than one supermarket was extremely beneficial in March and April as I couldn't get a Tesco slot for love nor money!!

Sashabel, I don't know your circumstances or location, but is it possible for you to do local shopping once or twice a week for some fresh items and use the Tesco delivery once a month for a big shop including non-food items?

Charleygirl5 I also use M&S for some of my grocery shopping and Ocado have the contract to deliver for them from September.

Ocado ain’t cheap. We have just been offered a slot, first since we registered in April, and delivery is £6.99. Felt bound to get on their list so that we will be in a position to get M&S stuff, if there is a big rush in September. They may possibly have a different system when M&S comes on board, I don’t know.

The only supermarket we have been able to get regular deliveries with since lockdown is Tesco, and we shall also continue with them. I don’t mind paying £4.50, and you can now pay for 6 or 12 months, which is cheaper.

mjmiller1 - Unfortunately, due to several health issues, the only way I can grocery shop is to do it online. I haven't been in a supermarket for over 3 years and totally rely on home delivery for all my needs.

I agree about flexability to use different supermarkets if you can Sashabel. They have different products, different offers, and different quality.

Tesco are trying to encourage customer loyalty I suppose as they all are. Shopping around costs more