Five things make the grocery shopping

[shewhomust]

• helentaven tipped me off that Ocado had had second thoughts about their don't call us, we'll call you approach to delivery slots: they had not called her, but she had checked the website, and managed to secure a delivery. I too checked the website, and found a list of times at which no deliveries were available, but with the encouragement to keep checking back, as more slots are being released all the time. If you offer me a delivery, Ocado, I might take you up on it. But I can't help thinking you are just stringing me along.



• Instead I checked Sainsbury's who offered me a choice of a delivery between seven and eight o' clock the following morning, or click and collect at a time to suit me. durham_rambler declared himself prepared to answer the door at seven a.m. rather than drive to Bishop Auckland, so that's what he did.



• The delivery driver was apologetic that social distancing makes delivery less sociable. Not necessarily, and at least one of our local suppliers is always ready for a chat, but it does remove the option of quibbling over substitutions. Given the chance, I would have refused the coarse sea salt substituted for the fine sea salt I had ordered (not because I don't like coarse sea salt, but because I already have plenty). There's nothing to be done about the eggs, though: the precise eggs I had ordered were not available, so they had not sent any eggs. Since it doesn't seem possible that Sainsbury's (even Sainsbury's Sunderland, the day's supplier for some reason) had run out of eggs altogether, I suspect they were simply overwhelmed by choice.



• Other items which were simply not available to order included dry chick peas. I begin to suspect that this is a strange old-fashioned thing to want to buy, and supermarkets have gone over entirely to tinned (or equivalent). I have ordered some from Wholefoods Online, instead. Also freezer labels: I have been using the same roll of labels forever, but it has finally run out, and I have ordered some, from Lakeland (feeling quite smug about remembering this alternative to Amazon).



• I started conscientiously posting about my adventures in lockdown shopping because I didn't want to be hitting any outlet too often - one day is so like another that I don't always know, unless I note it down, when I last shopped from each place. Mostly, now, I think I've hit a rhythm, and probably don't need to write it down. Nonetheless, for the record, Sainsbury's delivery was on Tuesday 9th - and I need to order some fruit and veg tomorrow for delivery on Saturday. And that'll see us through the weekend.