Food shopping online..makes no sense

[Octygone]

Was thinking about this the other day, so lets see if anyone else can make sense of it...

so you order your food online from the likes Sainsburys/waitrose etc and it is free delivery if your order comes to over £50.....this is the bit I don't get now

a person has walk round the store to pick the goods you wanted.....

then it has to be loaded on to a van.......

Another person has drive to your house to deliver the items and either drive on to the next house or back to the store...

they cannot make a profit out of doing this....think about it

pay the person to pick the items ...30 minutes say ....£20

pay for the van 60p per mile £10

pay for the person to drive and deliver, maybe 90 mins £30

so for a £50 shop it will cost the store an average of £50 to £60 pounds.....and who is paying for this.....well all the people who don't shop online of course.....if everyone shopped online the store would go bankrupt.

Am I the only one who is confused

[David 8]

They pay £40 ph to pick food for delivery's ???

I'm leaving my job ......

[Octygone]

They pay £40 ph to pick food for delivery's ???

I'm leaving my job ......

How much does it cost the company to employ a person..it isn't just the wages (which are about £7.50 an hour)

[Rob 4x4]

Pickers in store are on minimum wage, 6.19 or less if under 21.

Drivers are given specific routes with multiplecdrops, again on average wage of upto 10.00 an hour.

Profit is made from orders who pay delivery (free delivery is usually an offer on first online order only not the norm).

[GTWaites]

I used to work for a certain supermarket. Wages were no were near. £40 ph. Wasn't even £7ph!

[BossFox]

pay the person to pick the items ...30 minutes say ....£20

pay for the van 60p per mile £10

pay for the person to drive and deliver, maybe 90 mins £30

More likely...

pay the person to pick the items ...30 minutes say ....£2 (they pick a few orders at the same time, so a third of the wages)

pay for the van 20p per mile £2 (mutliple deliveries in the same area)

pay for the person to drive and deliver, maybe 90 30 mins £4 (maximum of half an hour per drop, multi drop deliveries)

Stealing potential sales of your rivals... priceless.

Total cost £8.

Profit on £50 of food maybe 50%.

No problem.

I was somewhat amused by how much you think people are paid.

£20 per hour to drive a delivery van?

£40 per hour to put things in a trolley?

You must be earning a fortune!

We don't use this service as we like having a look round and making sure we don't get lumbered with the short use by dates.

Tried it twice and the fresh stuff was not as good as in the shop and any missing things had an odd alternative.

[BossFox]

How much does it cost the company to employ a person..it isn't just the wages (which are about £7.50 an hour)

12% employment tax plus holidays etc...

If you want a ballpark guess around 25% more than what you give them gross.

[Octygone]

More likely...

pay the person to pick the items ...30 minutes say ....£2 (they pick a few orders at the same time, so a third of the wages)

pay for the van 20p per mile £2 (mutliple deliveries in the same area)

pay for the person to drive and deliver, maybe 90 30 mins £4 (maximum of half an hour per drop, multi drop deliveries)

Stealing potential sales of your rivals... priceless.

Total cost £8.

Profit on £50 of food maybe 50%.

No problem.

I was somewhat amused by how much you think people are paid.

£20 per hour to drive a delivery van?

£40 per hour to put things in a trolley?

You must be earning a fortune!

We don't use this service as we like having a look round and making sure we don't get lumbered with the short use by dates.

Tried it twice and the fresh stuff was not as good as in the shop and any missing things had an odd alternative.

Think about the wages for the people you employ (most are on between £7.50 and £9) does it not cost more than just their wages wages to employ them...i.e. National Insurance etc....(OK just answered this) was trying to add up the total cost not just wages or petrol

The pickers do 3 picks at a time....and it takes about 45 mins.......also most of the distances between drops are around 12 miles...sometimes a lot more...know of one that is 22 miles....what is the cost per mile to run a refrigerated Mercedes van...must be more than 20p per mile

[Chappers.]

We tried online shopping in an attempt to prevent impulsive purchases when walking around the supermarket. The savings we made would have been worthwhile if my wife was not so impatient - unfortunately the delivery driver arriving with the van almost full of toilet roll due to MrsC's repeated pressing of the relevant button at ordering time increased the overall spend somewhat (her excuse? "I didn't think it was working").

[BossFox]

Think about the wages for the people you employ (most are on between £7.50 and £9) does it not cost more than just their wages wages to employ them...i.e. National Insurance etc....(OK just answered this) was trying to add up the total cost not just wages or petrol

The pickers do 3 picks at a time....and it takes about 45 mins.......also most of the distances between drops are around 12 miles...sometimes a lot more...know of one that is 22 miles....what is the cost per mile to run a refrigerated Mercedes van...must be more than 20p per mile

Rather than ask TESCO I'm prepared to say that my guesstimate of £8 per drop is a lot closer than yours of £50.

You also have to remember that all costs are reducing the tax liability and vehicle depreciation saves a lot of corporation tax profits.

Around here they can do lots of drops in a local area, even "rural" Essex.

I didn't factor in for those than live in the real sticks. I've no idea where you live.

[Octygone]

We tried online shopping in an attempt to prevent impulsive purchases when walking around the supermarket. The savings we made would have been worthwhile if my wife was not so impatient - unfortunately the delivery driver arriving with the van almost full of toilet roll due to MrsC's repeated pressing of the relevant button at ordering time increased the overall spend somewhat (her excuse? "I didn't think it was working").

Would have loved to see a Picture of the delivery driver delivering a van load of toilet roll...priceless

[Octygone]

Rather than ask TESCO I'm prepared to say that my guesstimate of £8 per drop is a lot closer than yours of £50.

You also have to remember that all costs are reducing the tax liability and vehicle depreciation saves a lot of corporation tax profits.

Around here they can do lots of drops in a local area, even "rural" Essex.

I didn't factor in for those than live in the real sticks. I've no idea where you live.

This is in Wiltshire....and Waitrose...they do just over one drop an hour each and all drops of over £50 are delivered free (they haven't ever had anyone who bought less than £50 yet ....have to say I hadn't figured on tax breaks and the like

[Svend]

Me and my colleagues try to work this one out all the time. Our store has 11 vans, both VW and Mercedes. Now you'd think with all them vans, each would have there own area or there abouts, but they don't. One van driver did a Carlisle drop, then Annan, then Penrith, back to Annan, then Workington, then the computer allowed 30 minutes to get from Workington to go to Penrith again, before two in Gretna and then back to store in Carlisle. The wasted fuel is just astronomical, so we really can't be making any money on it at all.