THREE AND A HALF MONTHS LATER
The situation has worked out fine for me.
Although the facility has never been mentioned in circulated emails from Tesco head office then or later, I put boxes on the front doorstep, labelled so that, for example, shower gel is not mixed in with my food, put a note in the delivery requests/instructions, stay upstairs until the delivery driver has gone, leave it a few minutes, then go and get the shopping into the house.
In many ways easier now as I can on a cold day, as we had in May, I can drag the boxes into the hall, then shut the door and sort it out in the warm rather than keep opening the door as I did in the tray liner era.
Most of the drivers telephone me to say that he or she has arrived and to discuss substitutions, or that the shopping is now in the boxes and ready for me. Various drivers arrive, all put the shopping in the boxes, a couple don't telephone, one waits until he sees me acknowledge through the upstairs window, one just thumps the door loudly and goes!
One told me that quite a few customers do similarly, various solutions using trays, boxes and tea trollies.
It seems that many people just were not going to go along with the door opening that Tesco was suggesting would be the practice.
On a round, I am told that a driver typically has three types of delivery, into the dwelling for some people elderly and/or with a disability; driver stacks boxes on the doorstep and then steps away and customer unloads "we usually give them more than two metres though"; receptacles on the doorstep and the driver puts the grocery in the receptacles.
Although nobody has said, I think that the delivery driver putting the shopping in boxes is a far quicker delivery than delivery would be with the driver stood waiting for me to unload (though I am not going to do that).
I feel that Tesco head office could have handled this much better and avoided causing people anxiety, but I look at it as that "Tesco head office" is just people going to work. Yet Tesco head office did act well in 2020 by sharing out delivery slots and food supplies.
In the event, local people, the people actually doing the delivery have been very good and considerate.
I have optimised the system as best I can. For example I get Alpro soya desserts 4-packs six at a time when I get them and ask for the box if possible please, then the driver just has to pick up the box of six rather than some other number one at a time.
I still do all my precautions as before, whether it is excessive or not I don't know. The fact though is that at least up to now I have not, as far as I know, caught COVID-19.
So, having now having been doing the precautions for over sixteen months and they are now routine, I am wondering on what basis would I reduce them. Not that I have any desire to reduce them, they are just a regular part of how I live now, just as preparing and eating meals and so on is part of everyday living.
but do please keep posting, you have certainly livened things up a bit!
