Tesco introduces online limit of 80 items

There is a possible way round the 80 limit, if you really need to.

Divide your shopping into separate lots and put dividers between them and say you are shopping for 2 or 3 different households. Admittedly this will not work for online orders.

But last week I was shopping for myself and a friend so had a basket in my trolley with her food and put it through the till separately.

As the computer will presumably 'counting' the items at checkout, I would have thought that anything in a box, like eggs, would count as one item, and the same with veg in a bag that is priced per bag, or even weighed as a bag. Things priced individually, however, such as bananas, I expect would be counted individually.

That's just my guess, but as some of you say that pickers/cashiers were actually opening sealed packs in order to limit you to 3 of that 'item', I guess it's all open to interpretation.

How does that work price-wise, by the way? I can see how they can simple re-weigh a bag of, say, carrots, that you had filled yourself with over the allowed number, but I seem to remember that in some cases they were actually opening pre-packed things, like eggs, to limit the number. I would have thought that they were on very sticky ground there with regard to weights and measures laws!

Jacky B, 4 carrots counted as 4 items last week, they only sent me 3 as the limit was 3 of anything!

I went onto Morrisons website yesterday and they told me I was 153,000 odd in the queue

DD used to have Tesco delivery service, and some years ago started to use Ocado. She hasn’t been able to get a slot with Ocado , but low and behold, Tesco released some click and collect slots this morning so she has got a slot for Monday , so if you can make use of this way of shopping, look first thing tomorrow .

Charleygirl you are the exception that proves the rule, But for an average household with children, i should be so generous it is pointless. What on earth are people buying?

Do a dozen eggs count as 1 item or 12?

I am shopping for three households online and because the slots are roughly a month apart we have each ordered extra so to me it is a catch 22 situation.

Ohh I don’t know if I can achieve that amount!?

Same problem here as some others - I have offered to add my 83 year old neighbour's shopping to upcoming my order. She too was widowed recently but is not computer savvy. I think I will have to box clever and perhaps buy a bigger e.g. bag of carrots and divide between the two of us, rather than a small bag each.

I can see why they have set this limitation though - entirely reasonable.

Who on earth buys 80 items at a time? Even though each tin counts as an item. I do not think I have in my life, including days when I had children at home, ever done a shop that included as many as 80 items.

Why is everyone so outraged about the lack of delivery slots?

Demand for online shopping as gone up by three or four times and when that happens they companies, do not have the capacity and you cannot organise extra vans and trained and checked personnel over night. I would expect it to take as much as a month.

As I cannot register with Sainsbury's although I shop there I cannot get a preferential slot so the plan was my daughter will add my items to her order but if they do this it will be impossible

Every time I have looked at Morrison's today, I see a message saying that their slots are sold out currently.

Parsley3 Have you tried Morrisons they are doing a £30 box of staple items enough for 2 people for 10days ?? £5 delivery charge.They where taking more orders a couple of hours ago as my neighbour secured a delivery of one.

I can’t get online deliveries with any supermarket at the moment. I can’t register as a vulnerable person with Sainsbury’s as they are using a government website that applies to England only and they have removed the phone number for their helpline so I can’t contact them that way.
I will keep trying but am at a loss just now.

Well you can’t get an online delivery here so no need to limit the numbers I think it was end of April last time I looked

I agree, SpanielNanny and HAZBEEN.

In fact, the limits on the number of some items in the shops as well as online already causes those problems for those trying to help others.

It doesn't make any allowance for household size, either. 80 items might seem a huge number for a single person, but quite the opposite for a large family.

I don't know what the answer is. If you limit how much people can buy at one go, they will need to shop again very soon (or visit several shops on the same shopping trip) which is frowned on, and will put even more strain on the delivery services, but if there aren't any limits, the stockpiling could continue. Difficult!

80 items seemed rather a lot when I read the email, but, when I looked back I realised I often have more than this! I do shop for elderly neighbours as well though as many do not want over the £40 limit and cannot afford the extra £4 they charge if you are under that.

I understand the need to stop the ridiculous panic buying/hoarding, but does this not actively make it difficult to help others?
My dil is currently adding 2 sets vulnerable relatives, & an elderly neighbours shops to her own (click & collect, but I’m assuming the same rules apply). A limit like this would potentially make it difficult to get everything that everybody needs. Of course she will be able to go to the shop to get the rest, but isn’t the whole point of us shopping online to reduce the need to go to the shops?

My first thought was along those lines too, GrannyGravy13

I don't think I have that many items in my order, but if I do, when I come to amend it, the wine is definitely staying!
Actually, it seems like a good excuse for buying extra large bottles, if they do them, rather than several small ones (in fact, large packs of anything instead of several small packs or individual items.

That's the wine, gin and beer sorted!!!!