Maybe..
Their cloud melted in the heatwave?
I'll get my coat......
An unspecified UK-wide technical glitch related to the food picking and packaging process left thousands of Tesco online grocery punters without their deliveries today, the retailer has told us. “We’re currently experiencing an IT issue which is affecting some Grocery Home Shopping orders,” a spokesman at the UK’s largest …
Erm... hailing from the surrounding area as I do, can I suggest you watch this years extended TV coverage. You'll see it's mostly populated by twits or painfully misguided and delusional *cough* alternative *cough* types who just seemingly love to keep the whole corporate machine fed.
There is a deep gaping irony and hypocrisy in the whole Glastonbury thing these days. I just can't be arsed to write it up for you all.
I work for DotCom as a driver and walked in to work this morning to actually organised chaos.
The pickers (who start at 5am) use a handheld that gets customers orders transferred to it from the DotCom servers.
The routers were connecting to the devices but not connecting to anything beyond that, so no order details or items could be picked for each tray.
Now, they could get a printout of each order and then go and pick the items, but without the handheld, the system has no way to charge peoples accounts, or notify them of changes, or warn them of close use-by dates etc.
So all picking was cancelled.
Now at the time of the drivers starting at 8am, nothing had been picked for the morning runs, but they were hoping to get the system back up for picking the afternoon run.
Not our store, ALL orders are cancelled for today (morning, afternoon and evening) and we (the drivers) took pity on the single Customer Care girl that was trying to get in contact with every customer to let them know to either place the order again, or phone the customer care line; so we all ended up grabbing a list of customers and letting them know. The stores response was as fast as it could be and I really hope the customers get everything they ordered ASAP.
The problem now is that the vans can only carry so many orders, and the missed orders from today are being worked in to the deliveries for tomorrow, but it will really be the weekend to slot all them in with the current day deliveries, so please phone the Customer Care Line (there's different numbers for different areas so check the top right of your last receipt)
The morning delivery customers would have been late getting any message because it took a while to decide that the picking was not going to happen in time, but the afternoon and evening deliveries should have been getting voice messages, followed by texts and emails from before 11am.
As to what caused it? No clue, but I think I can smell P45's being prepared.
With services such as this there should be a sign-up question along the lines of "are you totally dependent on this service?" Of course you're going to get able-bodied people answering "yes", and disabled people who don't want to cause trouble answering "no".
Maybe there is a need for - something along the lines of a "coupon code", issued by the local GP indicating reliance on a service.
For those who have to drive miles to buy pork chops, as opposed to diy food preparation using pigs in the local farm, their inconvenience factor could be deduced from their postcode.
So when there is a melt-down such as this, these people get priority, everyone else should get a canned email (rather than the beans they were expecting) explaining that if they came in-store there would be some compensatory incentive.
It must be tough having to depend on it. We have tried it. But the pathetic examples of fruit and veg that they chose, the items with one day left on their shelf life and the dim-witted substitutions for out of stock items they brought (despite me asking for no substitutions) made be give up on it and give an hour a week over to doing it myself.
Now the supermarket has the scan-as-you-shop scanners so there is no queuing it Is a breeze.
"Home delivery isn't just about lazyness - if you're a lone parent in on your own with the kids in bed and are expecting food to arrive then you're stuffed, can't just leave them on their own to go shopping!"
You make a fair point, however it does make me wonder how the previous generation managed all this, in a time when deliveries were replaced by supermarkets. Sometimes all it takes is a bit of careful planning.
"...with “thousands” of households forced to head to physical stores - perish the thought..."
So no sympathy for shut-ins, the disabled, or the 90yo mum who can take care of herself but can't drive? Single parents working two jobs? Hell, married parents both working full time?
It makes you wonder how ever did people survive before internet shopping?
However did we survive before electricity, mains water, the internal combustion engine, written and spoken language...
It's not that people are generally unable to survive without something which didn't exist x years ago, more that once the value of x starts to get large enough, that something has probably now become such an integral part of their lifestyle that to lose access to it, particularly with no warning at all, can cause significant problems.
I have to depend on a handicapped van system whose pickup and drop off left much to be desired. Pickup can be up to one hour prior to the arranged and drop off up to two hours after that time. Then there's the other side of that equation. Often, taking a taxi was a better use for my time and my sanity. Physical health as well given the lack of seating while waiting, or especially if the seating is of the homeless hostile variety. Don't even get me started about my VA medical appointments which are totally inflexible, canceling being the only option. Which is what I am doing as the temperature is above 40C.
Living as a near total shut in sucks. The 'net & delivery services render it possible to pull it at some expense in some comfort.
Which situation explains why every delivery driver and the postman receives a hand salute when Isee them. Police, firefighters and ambulance crews, ditto.
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"So no sympathy for shut-ins, the disabled, or the 90yo mum who can take care of herself but can't drive?"I have exactly the same amount of sympathy for them as I do for me! Don't drive, disabled by ankylosing spondulitis, 3 miles from the post office (no home delivery here) and 10 miles from the nearest supermarket.
Instead of the faux outrage, why don't you do something useful? Like helping the people you have sympathy for. Spent most of my life helping those less fortunate than myself and now I'm on the receiving end.
In the case of the 90yo mum, there would be meals on wheels or some such - a similar system but not internet based. Single parents working two jobs may have come to rely upon it so as to be able to get extra stuff done during the day. If it works >99% of the time, many don't plan for the <1% when it doesn't. Generally because there are more important things to do (As long as you don't run a company where the name rhymes with Schmitish Schmairlines).
Indeed, over optimism is an issue
A relative of mine, due to combo of age & illness limiting her activities uses online shopping deliveries.
She does always with a bit of "wiggle room" in case of delays (& ensures she always has a few bits of food & other essentials in the house so a missed delivery is an irritant but not a catastrophe).
The generally good delivery system means many customers have started to treat JIT grocery deliveries as 100% reliable & lost the habit of "back covering" strategies in place
"In the case of the 90yo mum, there would be meals on wheels or some such - a similar system but not internet based."
in the 1950s before meals-on-wheels - we kids would take a hot meal from home every day to my grandfather several streets away. The covered plate was wrapped in a towel to keep it warm. We even moved into his house a couple of times while he was ill. That was in the days when one daughter of a family was expected to be her elderly parents' carer - whether she was single or married.
No need to wind things back. Here in the primitive colonies we have refrigerators, freezers and tinned food. It's possible to go for many weeks between food deliveries if you plan ahead. Assuming that computer systems and delivery vans are going to be 100.00% reliable is insane.
"And you have the money to do it"That's a matter of money management. My tenants are officially poor (they receive a government subsidy for the rent), yet they have television sets half as big again as mine. When there's a change of tenancy, they leave behind a couple of skips' worth of tat that cost me cart to the tip. We recently gave the Gitling an almost new vacuum cleaner that one tenant left behind and it wasn't a cheapie.
Thirty odd years ago, I bought a 25 kg bag of salt. I've made ham, brined pork, salted ox tongues and used it as table salt. There's about 4–5 kg left. It cost me less than what I'd currently pay for a 125 gm package of salt from the supermarket. It doesn't take a great deal of frugality to get well ahead of the game; just a smidgeon of discipline.
Sorry have to disagree, I have seen plenty who are struggling on benefits, have been one myself, the myth everyone on benefits owns big TV's and goes on holidays is just that. Plus thirty years in the same location? Nice but I moved house several times, and maybe you are a good landlord, I have had to live in some right slums when on the dole. Carrying a huge bag of salt round for thirty years seems somewhat unrealistic to me. Especially if you can only move by shanks pony or lifts.
There's a lot of people living in the UK on about 60 quid a week, that is to cover bills, food, clothing, looking for work. I can tell you money management doesn't come into it for a lot of them, they could consider themselves lucky if they have a quid left at the end of the week.
Of course some people might also have nice things I had a computer I bought it when working before losing my job, you are looking at a small subset and making an assumption all live like that.
What you need to do is look at how bad it can be for some people and base your judgement on that.
So housebound, not enough earnings for money management, maybe card meters which used to be a shocking tax on the poor, ever run out of electricity two days before you next get paid? Hows your freezer bank, (which obviously the av benefit tenant can run) going to do then?
Poor don't get to do money management most of the time that's why they are poor, there's also a big difference between officially poor and poor.
I too have experienced dire poverty. When I first moved to Tasmania in 1970, finding work for a 19 yr old was particularly difficult. Employers whose workers were conscripted into the army were required by law to re-employ them when their term of service (2 years) were completed. SMBs as a consequence only employed people who had already been balloted out. The adult dole then was $AU10 pw, but as a 19 yr old I only received $AU6. That was enough to rent a bedsit, or buy food.
Then, as luck would have it, I got a job as undraped model at the Launceston art school. Three hours a week for $AU2.50 per hour. Problem was it was monthly pay and so I had three weeks with no income. I got a bit thin. I'm almost six feet tall and my weight fell to less than 45 kg.
Perhaps I chose the wrong example for economising. I only drink real coffee (100% Arabicas) and people tell me they can only afford instant. Last time I checked, my coffee cost 30% less per mug than Nescafé. I like peanut butter and make my own. Salted peanuts cost me $AU5.60/kg for 375 gm, peanut butter varies between $AU8 and $AU13/kg. Oddly, the 750 gm "economy" size pack of peanuts cost $AU9.33/kg. The food processor paid for itself within weeks making baby food for the Gitling instead of purchasing jars of such from the supermarket.
My sister and brother-in-law earn far more than me and Mrs Git ever have. Yet they are still paying off their home. Mrs Git and I have managed to purchase two additional houses. I find that most people, not just the poor, have a very poor grasp of economy and rarely do their sums. My now deceased best friend got into trouble for teaching the working class kids in his maths class how to manage an income.
You wrote: "What you need to do is look at how bad it can be for some people and base your judgement on that." Well, no I don't actually. I can look at my own life and base my judgement on that. It's possible to live a comfortable life on a remarkably low income and it's not rocket science.
OK so I will absolutely agree that many people do not know how to balance a budget, and that a lot of people do spend beyond their means.
However there are still people in the country who do not have money left over full stop even if they do try and balance their budget not because they are bad at it, but because there is no money left at the end not spent on TV,s not spent on holidays, just no money, and there are people who have come from real shitty situations, far worse than yours or I and to judge them by yours I would say is still an unfair judgement. There's a lot of people who have started out poorer than you described, probably with more odds stacked against them as well.
To take it to an extreme (*) would it be fair if I based some of your situation on my own experiences? And said well I don't see why you can't make the effort of walking a mile or two? That's me looking at my own life and basing my judgement of you on that.
It would be totally unfair of me to do so, and somewhat shitty as well, so I wouldn't but this is the sort of thing that you need to take into account. Making a subjective judgement on your own life and assuming that because you have had it tough, therefore others can't have had it tougher is to me not the right way to think about it.
*I'd like to say I really do not mean this, I have a friend who has suffered from early onset arthritis of the knee since his twenties so I know it can actually be more than a little debilitating.
"However there are still people in the country who do not have money left over full stop... assuming that because you have had it tough, therefore others can't have had it tougher is to me not the right way to think about it."So, you are claiming that someone who has money at the beginning of the week have it tougher than I did when I had no money at the beginning of the week. For three weeks running. You might not realise this, but that is completely irrational. Bear in mind that no matter how tough I've had it and it's been pretty rough from time to time, I have never, ever claimed that there's nobody having it tougher than myself. If you believe I have, you will have to quote my exact words.
My arthritis dates back to my twenties, some forty years ago. It hasn't stopped me from working: picking apples on contract at 3–4 times the rate of day-labourers, building my own house, market gardening for a decade... Things are different now — I needed to take an Endone to get out of bed this morning for example. But I don't piss and moan about it. I just do what I can and make the best of what I have. A 24 hour delay in grocery delivery seems a trivial thing in comparison. Squeaking of which...
So, you are claiming that someone who has money at the beginning of the week have it tougher than I did when I had no money at the beginning of the week. For three weeks running.
I'm saying that they might have, plus 3 weeks sorry that's bad but there's definetly worse, and yes some people could have money at the beginning of the week and still be worse of after all in the long run, some peoples problems last longer than three weeks. I also never claimed you said you had it tougher than anyone. What I said is you are looking at your situation and thinking I solved it everyone elses problem must therefore be equally as solvable. It's unrealistic.
Apologies about any offence caused by the arthritis my friend holds down a full time job as well, but I know it's not always fun, stopped him joining the police force for example. However you seemed to have missed the point somewhat in my example.
'that cost me cart to the tip'
that cost (of doing business) you include in the rent don't you ? The incidence of tax (from whatever source) falls on the consumer (and not the rentier).
Not everybody can save or raise (or have the foresight and risk capability) sufficient capital to gain from longer term economies of scale.
Sometimes frugality and austerity over time simply means starving to death.
When you look at your current net and your starting net worth, is the difference solely due to the amount of work you have put in over the years (if so then good on you) or is the largest part of that gain capital value accrual (speculative land/house price gain) ?
Here's a thing, reduce your rents to below the level that attracts a Government subsidy (which you pay for with your taxes), this will increase demand for your (now) low cost housing so you can select tenants who look after the place, pay on time, clear up after themselves and who may then accrue sufficient capital to salt their own pig.
"Not everybody can save or raise (or have the foresight and risk capability) sufficient capital to gain from longer term economies of scale."That is indubitably true. It's also indubitably true that it's possible for ever so many more people to lift themselves by their own bootstraps. Two of our tenants moved out because they had accumulated sufficient funds to purchase their own home. The first asked permission to start a panel-beating business, something I was well within my rights to refuse. Came in very handy when we needed his services.
"When you look at your current net and your starting net worth, is the difference solely due to the amount of work you have put in over the years (if so then good on you) or is the largest part of that gain capital value accrual (speculative land/house price gain) ?"The real income from property is capital gain on the land. The house/business premises depreciates in value. Rental needs to cover the cost of purchase. Renting for less than the cost of servicing a loan (negative gearing) can work due to the vagaries of the income tax system, but it's not beyond the realms of possibility that the tax system will be amended to disallow that. The current leader of the opposition has already flagged that he will do so when he gets into power.
"Here's a thing, reduce your rents to below the level that attracts a Government subsidy... "WTF? You want me to pay the tenants, rather than have them pay me? I've heard some crazy things in my time, but that's the looniest suggestion I've ever heard.
@Dan55
Oh for heavens sake, you're talking as though all the shops and supermarkets had suddenly disappeared off the face of the planet.
Maybe family members, friends or neighbours could go and do some shopping if people are so desperate that they can't live without a delivery service for one day.
"Maybe family members, friends or neighbours could go and do some shopping if people are so desperate that they can't live without a delivery service for one day."Works for me though desperation doesn't come into it. The post office is 3 miles away and even without ankylosing spondulitis I think I'd have trouble carrying four cases of wine home.
I note that most Internet vendors refuse to accept my postal address and insist on a street address for delivery. However, apart from Dell most only deliver to the post office. Go figure...
People seem happy to go back to when just before Internet shopping took off, but forget that society has changed since then and it has come to meet a need.
Because this is El Reg, of course we're all luddites and proud of it and don't have Facebook, Twitter, a smart home, or a smart TV, and have a Nokia 150 instead of a Death Note 7 yet we could probably survive the next apocalypse with generators and a mesh network, at least going by the comments. However sometimes when something like this goes wrong without any warning it could very well screw up people's day or two or three in a real and measurable way, and not because it's ruined their Netflix session.
Hence the question how far back do you want to go?
I agree up to a point. But most people actually get a better deal if they were able and willing to do the work themselves*. These solutions are there not so much for the majority of the population, they are there for the people that need it. However, because the originators of these ideas make more money by convincing all sectors of the population to follow suit (economies of scale), they make compelling reasons to get everyone on board, resulting in almost total dependency.
*In my case, doing the shopping myself means that I get to pick the items I want, rather than what the person despatched to fulfill my order feels like picking, which is likely to favour the supermarket's policy of FIFO without benefit of the in-house discount you get on short shelf-life items.
"People seem happy to go back to when just before Internet shopping took off, but forget that society has changed since then and it has come to meet a need.Thinking back to the immediate postwar years when I was growing up in Nuneaton, Warks, Tesco didn't exist. I can't recall when it started, but I do remember the ladies in our street assuring Mr Ford that they would continue buying their essentials from him. It was too far away! Easily 20-30 minutes' walk!....
Hence the question how far back do you want to go?"
Mr Ford? He had a horse and cart that he sold all sorts of goods from. Kellogs cornflakes, fruit, vegetables, all the usual groceries... You just had to walk out the front door and Mr Ford's horse would take that as a signal to stop. You would purchase what you needed. Mr Ford's horse also provided something you never see in Tesco's: horse shit! There was never any mess left in the road; horse shit makes the best fertiliser for roses you can get!
There was a barber's 50 yards from ours (he sold condoms as well as give you a blow wave) and a general store 100 yards away next to a pharmacy and newsagent. You had to go to the general store if you wanted a pack of 5 Woodbines because Mr Ford wasn't a licensed tobacconist.
Now, you were saying?
I surmise that they switched to a new system about 2 months ago, and my ancient account stopped working properly. Spent two hours on the phone to second line support trying to work out why I couldn't see any delivery slots. In the end he insisted I had to make a new account as my old one wasn't compatible any more.
Then a couple of weeks later the same problem started happening with the new account, consistently every week. Agreed it's a first world problem, but then you're all reading The Register. Switched to Asda three weeks ago. It has some drawbacks but some things they do better, and at least they have workable delivery slots!
Ooooooooooookay
so
First world problems
Second world war
Third world infrastructure
Forth Estate (dunno I'm left pondian - would one have an estate on the Firth?)
Fifth Column.
And being a tuesday and calling a 2.5 year project finally truly and completely closed,
Only things worth dyin' for are chicks and cars and the third world war.
I think its time to polish la resume
Dear Sir, your order for Foie Gras could not be fulfilled. Instead we will be despatching a team, complete with mouth clamps, to install Windows 11 on all your hardware. If it borks hardware such as your Windows XP pc you may find the attached catalogue of Windows 11 hardware devices useful. Supplied with this item is a complimentary Windows 11 Readyness kit, which consists of a pair of rubber gloves.
I'm not sure the information provided so far goes anywhere close to explaining what happened. I also suspect their problems extended beyond just home shopping orders as my local Tesco had almost nothing in their chillers yesterday evening (Tuesday). The only exception was milk but that is delivered directly to store by a third party.
Prior to reading the headpost, I had never considered using the home delivery service provided by supermarkets. Logging on to Woolworths I discovered that a first order placed before 30 June would be delivered free! So, on Wednesday I informed Mrs Git that I would place an on-line order so she wouldn't need to stop off on her way home from work.
Ordering stuff was easy enough, but when I got to the checkout, discovered that our weekly spend was less than half the minimum order. Several staples (rice, bread flour, olive oil etc) only need ordering 3–4 times a year. Meat comes from the butcher and we only stocked up with a full sheep a week ago.
Then I received an urgent phone call from Mrs Git. She urged me to cancel the order and read the comments of customers online. It would seem a great way to waste time and money... To each their own I suppose...