2 minute read
Before You Go...
by 55 North
Swap flops
It looks like the ongoing supply chain problems that are causing empty shelves are now starting to bleed into supermarkets’ home delivery services.
A new survey from consumer group Which? has found that almost two-infive (39%) shoppers were given a substitution in their most recent home delivery.
It also appears that the supermarkets are getting increasingly desperate when it comes to deciding what constitutes a reasonable swap.
Aldi topped the list for substitutions, with just under half (49%) of respondents saying they’d been given an alternative product. The majority of these were probably fine. However, pity the poor customer who asked for breaded fish fillets but was given a tub of Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream instead.
It gets better. A bright spark at Sainsbury’s thought a Victoria sponge was a suitable replacement for sponge scourers.
That’s someone who’s never used cake to clean a pot before.
The list goes on and could easily fill a page. It runs the gamut from hen’s eggs for Creme Eggs to sausage rolls for toilet rolls, and all the mults are guilty.
If it’s any consolation for the Aldi shopper, ice cream and chips is delicious.
IT’S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS
Valentine’s Day has mercifully come and gone for another year and new data from PayPoint suggests that romance isn’t dead. Although it may need a defibrillator.
Apparently a whopping 74,080 parcels were picked up from Collect+ stores between 11 and 14 February. One can only imagine what they contained, and if batteries were included. However, it’s a fairly reasonable indicator that Cupid was keeping busy.
The bad news is that Valentine’s Day itself saw a total of 55,875 parcel returns, a 158% increase on the previous Monday, 7 February, which saw a paltry 21,630 take-backs.
Oh well. As Nick Williams, Head of Strategic Partners & Product, Parcels at PayPoint, gallantly pointed out: “It’s the thought that counts.”
