Food shopping frenzy

I can always remember being at work and talking about needing to do a big shop that coming weekend and people looking at me like I was crazy.

Are you mad? Do online shopping, get it delivered. It’s sooo much easier.

I debated trying it for a long time. Fast forward to having a toddler and twins and me and the other half decided maybe it would be easier having our food shopping delivered. Tying to get round a supermarket with a tantrumming toddler was testing enough, add 2 twin babies to the mix and it was near impossible. We found ourselves starting to ask people to watch the kids so we could go do our food shop.

Now I don’t know about you, but I really really value my child free time and to waste it going food shopping is not top of my list! 

A couple of months back we went for it and sat down to set ourselves up and order our first big shop online. We badly needed to budget and since we always purchased nappies in one shop we thought it made sense to go with them.

Hmmm. Well so much for the easier and more relaxing element to it. We spent over 2 hours building a shopping list of items. And then? The site crashed. 

No I’m not joking. You know that feeling when you’ve nearly finished a big project for school/Uni, a work presentation, a blog and then realise you’ve not saved your work? Your computer crashes. That sinking feeling of dread.

Yep had it all. And you know what? The convenient online supermarket shopping website wiped our whole order!

Cue me having a moaning phonecall to customer service - who took ages to answer and were about as much use as a chocolate teapot. 

I was so determined to finish the job that I stayed up until gone midnight re ordering all the items. 

Hm. Not quite so relaxing so far.

We then get to the delivery. The day of delivery my other half gets an email - substitutions...we had decided to accept them when ordering, how bad can it be? And we weren’t exactly requesting out-there items, so I assumed most things would be fine. 

There were so many items replaced and some of them I have to say did not make sense to me. Maybe it’s because I’m a first timer I thought, I don’t get this online food shopping game. 

And then it was time for the shopping to actually make it to our home and cupboards, fridge and freezer. To be fair it was on time, but I then felt like somebody competing on Supermarket Sweep, rushing to get items out of crates on my doorstep whilst they delivery driver dropped more and more plastic boxes in and around my porch.

We’ve since used the same firm another couple of times. We chose no substitutions this time. We then ended up around 15 items short - 15 relatively important items I should add. And we went for an evening delivery - this not only seems to mean less availability of ordered goods, but also that the Supermarket Sweep re-enactment needs to also be done as quietly as possible so neither of us wakes the kids!  

What is it? Are we using the wrong company? Being too fussy? 

Maybe I’ve had this idealised view in my mind for so long from others I’ve built it up to something more in my head. 

All I can say is I really haven’t found it all that convenient or relaxing just yet.

I did however use another supermarket last night and the delivery is due tomorrow. Who knows, maybe I’m about to be blown away by it all? 

Don’t hold your breath...