In Good Company

The end of conventional trolleys? Not unless they clean up the online interface...

Ahhh... another restful morning for both Phil and I, and after the day that we both had yesterday it is well deserved.

So whilst lolling around in bed for a good part of the morning was nice, getting out of bed was a bit of a trauma. My muscles have completely seized up, I feel like someone has stuffed a metal rod up my backside because I can't bend or do nothing, everything aches and it's like I've aged 90 years overnight. Phil isn't in a much better state either after all the removals he's been doing for the past couple of days, so between us it's like watching two OAPS struggling without their Zimmer frames.

Consequently then it takes us a little longer to get motoring than usual, but after some scrambled eggs for breakfast we then head off to get some screen wash concentrate since we'd run out an my car uses screen wash like it's going out of fashion. We then go to tesco, but we don't do our usual huge weekly shop of everything we'll need. This time we literally get fresh stuff such as fruit and veg and a few things for today.

Then, when we are back home we give online grocery shopping a go. First impressions, not bad, by why oh why don't they display pictures straight away rather than having to open a pop up window to see the product? It's well annoying... I mean think about it logically, most of us shop by sight, ie looking for something that's a familiar colour or shape, basically by the branding... so why take out the most identifying feature when shopping online? Bizarre. The other thing I found annoying was looking for products, I mean yes this gets easier when you've got a list of all your favourite things already stored, but the initial shopping experience is time consuming. I think they should liken it more to a conventional shop, after all they all have the same layout, I'm sure it couldn't be too difficult to overlay that experience into an online shopping one. The final thing I didn't like was the "variable" final figure you get for the cost of the shopping. Again, I can understand this if you've got a lot of weighed goods in your basket, because weight can't be exact for most products in a practical sense. But online discounts? They should be applied as soon as you hit the checkout, not when your order is delivered. After all, you are buying the goods because they are on offer when you are "shopping", you shouldn't have the discrepancy of them being removed because an offer may have finished by the time your goods are delivered.

Don't try to teach and old dog new tricks!

Anyway, despite the above we are still trying it out and the stuff is being delivered on Tuesday. I don't know if I'm convinced about the whole scenario, but if it means more time for Phil to do as he pleases then that's all well and good - I just think the supermarkets need to do some serious usability testing on the way in which their online shops works, they could be so much better were it for a little more forethought and consideration for the shoppers.

This afternoon we watch In Good Company, rather apt considering Phil has been effectively away from home for a couple of days, so it's nice to have him home and have someone to annoy and chat too. We also have an early tea and are in bed by 9 to try and catch up with some shut eye and muscle repair.

Posted by Abi on the November 13, 2005 9:05 PM