Is It Normal To See Only One Week Ahead For Sainsbury's Delivery Slots?

[satprof]

We haven't lived in the UK for years but someone has very kindly offered to bring us some Sainsbury's shopping. When I try to find a delivery slot for their address, I only see the current week, with no availability. Is this normal? Is there any way round this?
Thanks in advance.

[bednobs]

yes it's normal to see a week only at the moment. On ocado you can only see three days, and on Tesco, 3 weeks

[satprof]

Bednobs - Thanks for the instant reply - I guess everybody tries to get a slot really early in the morning. At least, here in Spain, we're an hour ahead.

[bednobs]

i'm not sure about that - when I was trying to get slots at the beginning of the pandemic, I often found they released more mid-afternoon. and Ocado used to relaes their about 5pm. Not sure about atm though, I haven't had trouble getting a slot for a few weeks.
Don't you have shops in spain?

[pastafreak]

I wanted a Sainsbury's slot for today. They appear Friday morning...when I looked only late day slots were available. That's fine with me. Any other day or time shows as unavailable.

[emmie]

i have no problem getting Sainsburys slots any more, usually though its only for one week ahead, which is fine by me.

[satprof]

Perhaps it's because of the location that it's a bit difficult. I have some time to get the delivery organized, so I'll plug away.

As for Spanish shops, they're fine as far as they go, which isn't very far. Mercadona has 35% of the market & is clean & respectable, but has a limited range like Aldi & Lidl. (Aldi, incidentally, is THE place to go for superb value Spanish wines.) We are just inside Spain on the Mediterranean coast and quite a long way from any large towns apart from Perpignan in France, where we go roughly monthly. (Except during lockdown!)

Many UK expats will go to some lengths to get hold of Shredded Wheat, curry sauces, decent tinned red salmon & corned beef, marmalade, piccalilli & so on. Life doesn't stop without these things but they significantly improve the quality of life. As an example, both piccalilli and corned beef can be bought in France, but it's junk compared with what's normal in the UK. Shredded Wheat is simply not available.

Thanks for all your very valuable input.

[bednobs]

:) I get you - my sister has lived abroad for coming up to 27 years and still likes me to send t bags and colmans packet mixes when I can (along with thornton's chocolates)

[bednobs]

ps have you tried click and collect, or even Morrison's or Tesco?

[woofgang]

I can now see further on ocado but all the slots are 6.99 which is outrageous

[satprof]

As it's someone unrelated who's doing us a favour, I'd prefer to avoid Click & Collect. As for the other supermarkets, I'll certainly try them if a slot isn't available by the end of the week. (Any reason not to include Asda?)

[bednobs]

in all honesty, if they are delivering them to you in spain, from the uk, they are already going to a lot of faff aren't they? Click and collect seems like a doddle compared to click, collect and deliver to another country!

[bednobs]

no reason not to include asda. I just forgot about them because we don't have one

[calmck]

I live in Portugal and use a transport company for deliveries from the UK. Deliver to UK by Thursdays arrive here Tuesday. Also use for Amazon pantry and subscribe and save. No refrigerated goods though. Do you not have an Overseas Supermarket (Iceland and Waitrose) near you? They are in Spain and Portugal

[calmck]

Admittedly I have not ordered from UK supermarkets since March as I can get most things from Amazon

[satprof]

I use Amazon quite a lot also, but it's usually more economic to buy from amazon.es, especially as I'm on Amazon Prime here. In tracing lots of purchases, it's clear that the products come out of one of the big UK fulfilment centres like the one near Tilbury. They are then sent on the regular overnight Amazon flight from Southend to Spain. (Used to go to Madrid but they seem to use Barcelona these days.)

I've always found amazon.co.uk great for technological items with keyboards. I can cope with a UK or US laptop keyboard but, for example, the French AZERTY keyboard is completely off the wall.

What will happen after the end of the year is anybody's guess.

[Canary42]

The one week rolling release of slots came about during the toilet roll panic. People were booking multiple slots with just toilet paper in the hope that one of them would strike lucky with stock. The one-week rolling release eventually alleviated this and the stores are presumably sticking with it because it works.

[allenlondon]

If you have Ocado Smart Pass you currently get two (free) deliveries a week, and can book into August. Smart Pass costs around £12 a month, but I’m not sure if you can sign up to it now - we’ve been on it for ten years or more.