back to article Amazon.co.uk takes on Tesco

Amazon's UK tentacle is upping its range of goods for sale to include thousands of grocery and food items and lashings of lovely booze. The site, famous for books and DVDs, already had a wide range of products including gadgets, computers, clothes and car stuff. There will be 22,000 items from brands including Kraft, Nestle, …

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  1. SuperTim

    Phew...

    It's all a bit pricey....

    Or am I just being cheap?

    I think I will stick to getting my quality mechandise at such upmarket emporia as Netto, Lidl and Aldi thanks....

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Good Timing

    On the day Ocado allowed their customers to pre-purchase shares for their coming flotation.

  3. Cameron Colley

    I can see a viscous circle here.

    Buy beer, drink beer, get "tipsy", order more beer, forget you ordered beer so order more...

    At least you don't have to order wine by the dozen bottles like you do at Tesco.

    1. Kubla Cant
      Headmaster

      Viscous circle?

      Is that a circle you get stuck in?

    2. Nigel Whitfield.

      Ewwww....

      Viscous? Really?

      You should see a doctor about that...

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Urgh

      Hmm viscous circle eh? That brings to mind the name of an unusual activity and name of a famous hardcore band from New York!

  4. mwk
    Pint

    It's a nice selection

    but a bit pricey.

    And so many are individual bottles! I want deliveries by the crate at least.

  5. abigsmurf

    Sounds interesting

    They're taking a big risk linking this to Amazon prime. If someone does their weekly shop with this they'll take a massive hit.

    Hope they make good on their promise for import foods. I want some of those awesome kit-kat flavours they get in Japan.

    1. chr0m4t1c
      Happy

      Have you tried

      Cybercandy?

      www.cybercandy.co.uk or their bricks & mortar place near Covent Garden if you're in reach of London.

      They have all sorts of stuff from around the world (including Japanese Kit-kats). They have all sorts of stuff going in and out of stock all of the time, so it's worth e-mailing them if you're after something specific that isn't shown on the website.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wine for under 18's !!

    Please note that this alcoholic beverage is not for sale to people under the age of 18. By placing an order for this product, you declare that you are 18 years of age or older. This item must be used responsibly and appropriately.

    Yes, I promise I am over 18 Mr Amazon ...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      meh

      Same things on Tescos somewhere, all though the old bag that delivered the other day ID'd mean -.- I'm 29 and I really don't look under 18. This challenge 25 crap deserves to have booze botherers lynched.

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  8. Scott Mckenzie

    Can't wait for this.

    I mean shipping frozen cod overnight via Royal Mail is going to work well isn't it.

    It also seems damn expensive!!!

  9. Neil Greatorex
    Pint

    Delivery Charge

    So, in Amazon fashion; Pint bottle of London Pride: £0.99, Delivery: £5.99

    Take on Tesco?, not this year..

    Mine's a pint.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Just had a look...

    ...and the initial selection of Beers Of The World isn't bad - a reasonably decent range Belgian tipples on there, at least one decent American beer, and always nice to see Brewdog's offerings available as well.

    We'll see how it works out in practice, though - I've used dedicated specialist retailers in the past and they've been very reasonable in pricing and delivery options, so it's one area where Amazon would face a bit of a struggle to win converts.

    1. dogged
      Thumb Up

      "decent American beer"

      You're funny, I like you.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Thumb Down

        Re:Decent American Beer

        From a quick glance US-wise, Anchor Steam is OK, but (believe it or not you CAMRA snobs!) there are much better beers than that in the US - you just need to see beyond the Bud/Molson/Coors rubbish (all are like making love in a canoe...)

        Either way, it's still cheaper at the local supermarket, and there are specialist retailers who already do much wider selections. (Beer-ritz, Beers of Europe, etc)

  11. swisstoni
    FAIL

    What a bargain

    £25 for a bottle of Bombay and it's not even a Litre. I don't think so. Surely the idea of this is that it's meant to be cheaper?

  12. paulf
    Thumb Down

    Poor pricing

    Just checked out a bottle of Bombay sapphire. 70cl is ~£25 plus over a fiver delivery. The Sainsbury's up the road from me has the 1 Litre bottle cheaper than that and no delivery fee (although I have to drive of course).

    Admittedly only one product, and its still in Beta etc etc. But the beer prices didn't seem that good either.

    Sorry Amazon - got to try harder than that. I can't see the Tesco-nator ceding ground that easily!

  13. Rob 101

    It's a bit expensive.

    I mean, starting at over a fiver for a cooking wine...?

    No cans in the beer section either.

    But what I really want to know is, do you still get a giftwrap option if buying 500g of broccoli?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Amstel Lager (bottle) - 6 Pack - 340ml £9.19 (£27.03/l)

    How much!?

    They've got a bottle of belfast lager for 6 quid on there as well.

    1. Nanki Poo
      Boffin

      Expensive

      I was amused at the maths, the site is just taking the volume of the bottle and calculating £/l off of that... regardless of how many bottles. Elementary FAIL, to either not have 'quantity' unit value in the Db, or to not use it to calculate the price.

      So that 27.03/l is actually about £9/l... still expensive tho!

      nK

  15. Seanmon

    Grr.

    Still no proper Frankfurter Apfelwein though. Been looking ages, anyone?

    1. Sebastian Brosig

      @Seamon

      Heinz Schenk? is that you?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Paris Hilton

        @@Seamon

        What a wonderfully delightful typo.

        Paris cos... well, you know...

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    At those prices?

    No thanks, plenty of other places to buy booze at a fraction of the price AND not wait for it to be delivered.

    Surely the corporate arse men at Tesco and the like will just brush them aside?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Nah

    It seems that anything you buy through Amazon nowdays isn't actually from Amazon.

    They seem have basically turned themselves into a shopping mall for other companies. So each item you buy could well have its over P&P. Presumably this is an attempt to muscle in on eBay, but do you really want to end up looking like that??

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Hit the nail on the head

      I recently bought (on account of getting a gift voucher) 3 more traditional items from Amazon. To be fair the prices displayed are competative. That said when you take into account the Postage and Packing charges of about £7, one item in particular had £4.99 P&P, this by no means the case.

      The item with the additional £4.99 worked out about £3 more expensive then Asda or Tesco.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fight! Fight! Fight!

    Tesco is the larger company by revenue and income. I just don't see Amazon beating them on price of beer in the long run.

  19. mark l 2 Silver badge

    delivery?

    How does the beer, washing powder etc get delivered? Can you select a time slot you want it delivered?

    If its still being sent through the post or the courier just stays it will arrive (sometime on friday) then its a big fail and i don't think tesco would have much to worry about

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I suspect

      I suspect they're just reselling a standard grocery delivery service. I may of course be wrong, but I do think there's a company that does that.

  20. Harry
    Unhappy

    "the easy way to buy bulk goods"

    I'll believe that when amazon's goods also have a free next day "collect from a nearby store" option -- though they should do the job properly, with the collection point not requiring long queues and open until at least midnight a couple of days per week.

    Delivery to home isn't a sensible option on goods that won't go through the letterbox, except possibly if you can choose a guaranteed half hour time slot for the delivery.

  21. Cantab
    Pint

    Poor effort...

    "offers only a disappointing nine lagers..."

    disappointing!? Not in the slightest. Anyone wanting to drink that piss in the first place is puzzling enough, anyone going to the length of ordering it from Amazon is ludicrous. The limited and vastly overpriced range of ales is disappointing!

    Mine's a pint of Pedigree!

  22. Stjohn Roe
    Thumb Up

    But they have Franks hot sauce!

    While the standard variety has been on the shelves of my local supermarket for a wile, I have been looking for the Franks and Lime for ages, order going in. This stuff is great and justifies a visit to the USA by itself.

    For the beer and wine i will stiil shop at lidl.

    BTW Googled a couple of weeks ago and could not find a suppplier.

  23. Richard Lloyd
    FAIL

    A lot of imported food/drink - hence high prices

    This grocery section of Amazon UK is horrendously uncompetitive in its pricing - far worse than even the most expensive supermarkets (yes, including M&S). A lot of this is down to using Marketplace resellers to stock the goods and those resellers are often sourcing the items from outside the UK (look at the beverages non-alcoholic, crisps or chocolate - most of them are brands or flavours that have never launched in the UK!).

    Also note that the resellers will often charge you postage on top of your purchase too, making the prices even more cringeful. This is a disastrous launch by Amazon UK - selling groceries at import Web site prices is ludicrous when there's plenty of UK supermarkets online that *destroy* Amazon UK's grocery pricing.

    I suspect this new grocey section will either have to be seriously revamped with competitive pricing from *UK*-sourced groceries or simply quietly shoved under the carpet and discontinued a few months down the line. Epic fail on all fronts!

  24. MJI Silver badge
    FAIL

    Tesco are laughing

    The one supermarket to get online shopping right.

    Like or Hate Tesco - Amazon are dead in the grcery market.

  25. AF

    Mostly just Amazon Marketplace from what I can see

    Having looked beyond just the beer section, it seems that Tesco etc don't have much to worry about - it just looks like it's mainly Marketplace sellers, and not much actually from Amazon. For example:

    1Kg Apples: £1.69 + £7.50 P&P

    440g Beef stir fry strips: £6 + £5 P&P

    4x Aberdeen Angus burgers: £5.40 + £4.13 P&P

    and my fave so far:

    1 orange pepper: 69p + £7.50 P&P

    Everything I've found so far that IS supplied by Amazon seems to be out of stock, so either they sold out within hours of going live, or the warehouse lads haven't made it back from Costco yet...

  26. DPWDC
    WTF?

    £12 for w2alkers crisps!!

    £12 for a 12 pack of walkers crisps, £1 a pack!! ONE POUND!!

  27. andy gibson
    Unhappy

    Perishables?

    How rotten will my fruit end up if I choose the "FREE super saver delivery" 6-8 working days?

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