Tag Archives: Shopping

Food, Shopping

The supermarket lottery of life

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OcadoWe’re trying a different online grocery service – Ocado. After years of using Tesco.com and finding that it had by far the best online experience of all the online grocery stores (I’ve tried Sainsbury, Iceland and Ocado in years gone by), a friend who worked for John Lewis’ consistent evangelism and a couple of vouchers, coupled with a persistent desire for us to eat healthy, provided the push we needed to give it a another go. Over the years they have revamped their website and their delivery service is superb – slick and seamless where Tesco’s is clunky and fiddly. One example of this is that they bring the groceries in bags which they collect on their next delivery, ensuring they can walk straight to your kitchen and not faff around with trays or pallets and you’re still empowered to be moderately eco-friendly as far as the bags are concerned. Also one-hour booking slots, etc.

It struck me that online delivery services free you from the supermarket lottery of life. Whilst proximity to good groceries was an important factor in us choosing our home, we weren’t specific about the grocer, and as it happens we’re in a Tesco catchment area – the nearest Waitrose is 15 miles away, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s about twice the distance of the local Tesco. This means you get accustomed to a certain level of mediocrity from your shopping after a while, and you get constrained by the choices Tesco imposes on you. One massive bonus of the village we’re in is we have two local butchers, so at least for meat we have some extra choice… and of course our garden will hopefully soon provide some veg.

That said, the delivery charges on Ocado are steep and we’re not sure yet if we’re going to set up a recurring shop (which gives you free delivery) as there is a certain joy and satisfaction in actually going to a shop and getting inspiration for meals that way. OK, it’s not Rick Stein wandering through the markets of a Mediterranean town, but it’s less sterile than hitting a virtual checkout…

Shopping

The hidden cost of inflation

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I was talking to @geowgeow about why things cost random prices in shops, on seeing a surprisingly reassuring price-list in a sandwich shop in Victoria station. Everything there cost rounded whole numbers instead of apparently arbitrary digits – 12.64 is a pin code, not a price tag dammit!

Carrying the thought through (as you do) however led us to the fallacy of this – inflation is running at over 4%, so a 1 pound sausage roll would have to cost 1.04 next year and so on. So the silly prices return.

@geowgeow speculated that rounding for tidiness is probably worsening inflation – store managers that don’t like price tags that say 1.04 round up to 1.05 and BANG – up goes inflation by another percentage point.

Alan Sugar might be happy with the entrepreneurial instincts shown here, but Mervyn King? He’s probably unimpressed by the entire situation.

Miscellany, Observational

Commercialism-as-a-Service

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I’m – believe it or not – beginning to get bored of the endless shuffle of stuff. The computer’s died, get a new one, the new iPhone weighs 15g less, get a new one, etc. It’s astonishing that some industries – I’m looking at you, Gillette – actually deliberately engineer products to fail sooner than the materials would require just to turn a dime. Depressing, really.

My pipe dream? Commercialism-as-a-Service. It’s a bit like the Abel & Cole veg box but for, y’know, everything else. I will voluntarily give information about my needs and shopping requirements to whoever wants it (Google? Facebook? Duke it out amongst yourselves), and you can just sort it all out for me, preferably on some kind of sensible lease/upgrade cycle. Cash for CaaS. Good for the environment, good for me. We can have some kind of sensible iterative process to refine what you give me and we’ll negotiate a sensible rate for outgoings.

Where do I sign?

Shopping

Temperamental car and man-shaped wishlists

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Horse, aka Amanda’s beloved 68 BHP 2002 Skoda Fabia, my commutermobile, has been faltering a bit lately. All through winter I’ve had long waits in Bas-Vegas car park, waiting for the windscreen to thaw out (Horse’s climate control isn’t the best), and last week the engine management light flicked on and stayed on.

Crap, thought I. And having finally managed to book in for a date Amanda could drop it in for servicing and lend me the other car… it went off again. Hopefully for good this time.

Not that there’s anything fundamentally wrong with it (we hope), but between the two things I’ve added ‘new car’ to the list of things I obsess over quietly but have no actual intention of spending money on. That said, my obsessions tend to take a semi-practical nature, so rather than dreaming of a Maserati or vintage Mercedes SL I could never afford, I’ve been day dreaming about semi-practical cars.

Criteria? Affordable ish. Modern-ish. Proper heating, central locking and automatic windows (non of which Horse, for all his strengths, has in any great measure). Back doors and seats that will fit a carseat. Reliable. Relatively fuel- and maintenance efficient. Fun to drive and a bit sporty.

My current fantasy frontrunner? The Mazda RX-8. Jeremy Clarkson loves it (for what that’s worth), and I think its a pretty good looking car. It is ludicrously affordable second hand and there’s a Mazda dealer about 500m from my house with a pretty good looking one on the forecourt. Maybe a test drive is in order… as well as someone explaining the benefit of a rotary engine to me.

But other than this, semi-aspirational cars seem to be few and far between. I couldn’t get excited about driving a Seat Léon or something like that. Any other ideas from my petrolhead friends?

Shopping

Lovely stuff from White Stuff

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I mentioned in passing in a recent blog post that I’d bought pretty much all (I’d estimate 90% of my non-running, non-formalwear) clothes from one brand over the last three years. The nice people at White Stuff spotted my post and in thanks for the mention sent us a box of samples which I’m going through the process of trying out. Now I’m hardly a fashion model but it only seems fair to post a picture of me in some of my new stuff to demonstrate quite why I love the clothes (and the brand) so much…

This is me in my new super-comfy check pyjama bottoms and comfy longsleeve tee. I may post more pics in the days to come if I can get some interesting pics and Emily doesn’t spew on too much of it.

So, reasons I love White Stuff clothes / brand.

Clothes:
1) They fit me. They fit me when I was fat, and now I’m thinner, I’m a medium and that feels good. It’s been years since I’ve been a medium in anything. Although a lot of their ‘L’ stuff fits me pretty well too (for my larger readers, they go up to XXXL in some clothing lines!).
2) They suit me. Without looking like I’m trying to be fashionable (inevitable that I look like I’m trying and also that I fail), and without looking like I’m a slob (which is what tends to happen otherwise)
3) They’re SUPER comfortable and pretty hard wearing. Really nice cottons for most stuff and this amazing cotton/cashmere blend for a lot of their jumpers which I like.
4) Lots of WS colour ranges suit me.

The brand
1) They’ve sent me clothes as a *thank you* for a mention. They didn’t ask me to blog about them, and have made no particular effort to drive a hard sales pitch. As a social media douchebag myself, its pretty gratifiying to have seen this done well.
2) They’re persistently doing friendly, funky, crazy stuff, from drinks and biscuits in store to a bus travelling around the country to a couple of elderly brand evangelists. Fun stuff, accessible, enjoyable.
3) They’re creative in-store. As well as the aforementioned drinks and biscuits there are frequently novelty freebies of some value (decks of cards, etc) as well as a variety of in-store promotions (a Cluedo style whodunit was one I recall of late) which are engaging without being tedious.
4) Their e-promotions are well-targeted and well-written. I actually quite like geting their mailers.
5) They seem like really nice people.

So kudos, White Stuff, makers of awesome stuff, and thank you. I’ll shop with you again soon (there’s a coat I have my eye on), and this winter on more days than not 100% of my clothing will be from your collections.

Now, do you do baby stuff?? ;-)

Running, Training

Dadrunning

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Having made it through the half marathon and become a dad, and with winter encroaching, my motivation for running training has waned. As a result, finding the time and inclination to leave my cute daughter (who could wake at anytime and want to play with her dad at the weekend) has been really tough. And of course, things have been busy, so everything has waned.

Yesterday I took a first step at tackling this distressing lack of motivation – after all I still take a massive amount of satisfaction from running and want to get back on the roads.

This vital step was, of course, shopping. Now equipped with running rain jacket/windbreak, running tights, running headlight, reflector strips and long sleeve running t-shirt, I am ready for the colder season of running.

I can’t do much about wanting to be around to play with Emily at the drop of a hat but have certainly diminished my concerns about running in the cold with those purchases!

Another thing that’s going to help is running pre-planned routes. My previous two post-Dadhood runs were on untried routes and necessitated a lot of on-the-go routefinding which is a demotivating factor for me as it messes with my training splits. I’ve a lovely 11 mile run that I sometimes do that I will just do sections of until I can motivate myself to plot another nice road running route.

With Christmas fast encroaching I really can’t let myself degenerate into moderate fatness as I did last year. The diet tracker is coming back out and I’m going to pick my next race and set my next target so I have something to work towards. Maybe the 50 minute 10k should be my next objective?? Thoughts on a comment…

GMT hugs to all of y’all….

Postscript: it is working already, of course. Did a v speedy 5k yesterday to break in the running jacket and see how the fitness had held up. Jacket great. Fitness so-so!

Dadblogging, Shopping

Brand shopping for Hippo

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I’m, for my faults, a brand shopper. I look for brands I’ve developed some affection, respect or trust in over the years and go to them as a repeat customer. All the clothes I’ve bought for the last 3 years have come from White Stuff – they make things that fit me and I think look pretty wonderful. Similarly, when we got the new car for me (less so for Mrs D), the reputation – in terms of safety, driving, reliability, resale value etc – meant a lot to me. And whilst I diverted from my family automotive history, there is a certain safety in the choice we made.

With Hippo, everything’s new. Silver Cross vs. Phil & Ted’s vs. Bugaboo? Baby Bjorn vs Tomy? Mothercare vs. Mamas and Papas vs. Cosatto vs John Lewis vs…? And so on. The few familiar brands bring some comfort – but they’re not specialist, so you wonder if they’re good at this. The prestige becomes generic.

And I remain clueless.

Anyone with any insight, or blogs I should read – please let me know… As well as all the baby stuff, with the house move we’re looking at Liebherr fridges and Bosch dryers – and need to take the great Flymo vs. Bosch Rotak lawnmower decision.

There’s entirely too much to think about!

Shopping

The generosity of friends

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There are quite a few of our friends who are similarly prepping for the arrival of little ones at the moment. Inevitably they’re more organised than us and people tell us of the money they’ve spent at John Lewis, Mothercare et al, and with the prospect of the move imminent the costs ahead frankly are terrifying.

That said, a few friends have already been incredibly generous. Gifts have arrived in the post, been hand-transported from Texas, and tonight one colleague invited us around to raid his baby supplies – and we came away with a carload of awesome kit perfectly suited for Hippo’s arrival.

Hippo’s the first grandchild on either side of the family (there are a few grand nieces and nephews about, but not that many), so we’re the first ones to have to get this stuff since we were kids. So we’re unbelievably grateful to you all. Please, take a bow. And our thanks.

Shopping

High fashion? Not me

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I’ve never been good at getting high-end/fashionable/nice clothing, much to the chagrin of my sister and brother… but thanks to my brother and his friend Nate, I have my first ever ultra-high end shoes – a pair of Lodger Italian-style black Oxfords – they are a very generous pre-wedding gift from @ArvD. You can read more about them over at the main Lodger site or read more about high end design and style at their blog here.

They’re going to take some getting used to, not least the fact that I will need to look after them extremely well… But they are possibly the most beautiful thing I have ever worn. V. exciting. Going to the shop was a great experience, too – have visited before but the experience is totally altered by actually being a customer rather than just visiting Nate…

Now I just need Raja Fashions to deliver the wedding suit… (and to lose the remaining kilos)…

Shopping

Ikea nearly embraces SaaS

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I’m a believer in SaaS. It seems the natural evolution of computing and there are thousands of possibilities of awesome once any service becomes available via the Internet. But I’m aware of the anxiety of some companies in embracing these technologies – they have nervousness about putting confidential information on the web, or of losing control… I have more sympathy for some of these perspectives than others.

All the same, I was slightly impressed when I discovered that Ikea’s kitchen planner tool allows you to save your kitchen plans online for remote retrieval. After all, this company refused to have a webstore for years, so progress had been made…

What this app means is that you can pop into Ikea, design up a kitchen with the dubious help of their experts, and then check it again from home, in case you’ve changed your mind about something or the other. Or you can design it up from home, take it into the store for confirmation and order. You might even be able to place the order directly from home, but I’m not sure we’re at the point where people are buying kitchens without seeing them first.

So great on that front… but:

1) The application is clunky, slow, and not remotely intuitively
2) It’s a downloadable Windows application using the website only as a shared storage medium – are Flash / etc not up to the challenge?
3) The software doesn’t provide enough guidance in structuring your kitchen. You almost want Ikea to upsell to you — “have you considered that you might need a cultery drawer, sir,” or “have you really designed a kitchen without a sink, you dolt” would be handy. E-Commerce 101, surely…
4) The in-store ‘help’ is just rubbish. 4 bored looking people teaching you tricks with the application (…”oh no, the software doesn’t let you put a sink in a corner unit… that doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Just add it afterwards.”) I remember the days when the guys at Ikea helped you actually come to some sensible design decisions…

So, a good first step… but Ikea’s long walk into fully enabled E-Commerce has a way to go… and it does feel like they need to fix some more basic customer support issues for this hybrid experience,or people will wonder why the struggled their way through traffic, parking and crowds to actually come into the store. Unless, of course, my expectations are unreasaonbly high, and some analyst at Ikea has done the calculations and they’re happy getting the volume of trade they do by cutting prices to nothing (an entire, reasonable sized kitchen, sans appliances, costed up at a ludicrously low price…)

Oh, I’m looking at a new kitchen, btw. In case you didn’t realise. But I have had more fun than you’d expect for the first day on vacation, despite the trip to Ikea ;-)