Review: Ocado Online Shopping

So this week I had planned my usual favourite summer bake; macarons! My boyfriend has been requesting raspberry macarons the size of a saucer and, with my final assignment handed in, I finally had time to make them. However these were my first macarons in the new place and as you might expect, but somehow I forgot, they turned out to be a disaster. I don't try to hide my failures on here, because I think it's important to show that everyone has baking mess ups, but that said I don't think you need to read a whole post about it.
Therefore I have decided to do something completely different and review the online grocery shopping experience of Ocado.com. Obviously this will only be relevant to people in the UK but maybe if nothing else you might be interested in seeing my grocery shop. It's a grocery haul!! ;)

Although I had seen the beautiful vans, pictured above, driving around I hadn't really considered trying the service until encouraged to do so by my wonderful sister. She was very pleased with the experience and encouraged me to try it. She felt that the customer service was very good and the prices were very competitive.

So I signed up and purchased my first shop yesterday. So I thought I'd review the experience and show you what I bought. (FYI: I'm not sponsored, I mean I'm not sure I need to clarify but just to be clear, and this was an ordinary weekly shop so there's nothing hugely exciting, so apologies if that's what you expect. Next time I'm feeling flush with cash I might do another grocery haul of just exciting food).

The buying experience
The online shopping experience was very positive. There are a huge amount of options but the website it laid out in an easily digestible fashion and you have the options to list items with favourites first or by price. I won't lie, doing the shop the first time takes a while! There is just so much choice, plus there are speciality shops with items from everywhere from other European countries to America and India. As someone from Ireland, I was seriously impressed with their Irish selection that includes things I haven't seen anywhere else, Manhattan Popcorn par example. So I suggest you do this online shop with a set grocery list sitting next to you or else things may (/definitely will) get out of control!

The check out process was just as impressive as Ocado check, based on your post code I'm guessing, which items are unavailable and gives you alternative options straight at the check out.There was also a voucher to get £20 pounds off your first shop which made a huge difference for me.

The delivery

One thing that impressed me was the fact that you get an email from the delivery driver on the day of the day of delivery confirming the delivery time slot including your receipt and even information about what van they will be driving.


- The Good

The shopping was delivered within the one hour time slot.

It was organized into colour coded bags for cupboard and fridge

Some wine bottles were delivered in a cardboard bottle protector

I was very happy with the veg they chose, they were fresh and delicious looking and everything was organized by used by date.

  Everything I ordered was there and there were no unexpected substitutions

 The delivery driver was really sweet and kind, found my place without too much hassle and carried
  everything to my kitchen.

  Everything was in very good condition, as you can see, particularly from the eggs and the lettuce.

 

- The bad (warning: picture and discussion of raw meat coming up)

My one criticism was that the raw meat came in the same bag as the cooked meat, lying right on top of it in fact. This may be a personal issue but I cannot stand this, I understand that everything is separately wrapped but none-the-less I was taught to always keep raw in a separate and dedicated bag, so this upset me quite a bit. That said the meat looked in great condition and everything was sealed. I have emailed the company directly to inform them of this issue.

So overall, I was very happy with the experience of shopping at Ocado.com and I would definitely recommend them to anyone =)