Troy McNaughtonShopfast--is anyone else giving up on them?
December 15th 2007 07:49
Shopfast--I give up!
When I started using Shopfast in 1999, they were great. Buy your groceries online, and pay only six dollars to have all your stuff delivered. For someone like me, who does not drive and buys lots of bottled water, it was a godsend. No more schlepping back and forth to the neighbourhood grocery with a little upright trolley, which for some reason, made people eye me with curiosity and/or suspicion. The trolley was wire, red, and purchased at a two-dollar shop in Marrickville--there was nothing inherently threatening about it. I guess the problem was that people associate trolleys with (a) stooped little old ladies carting crates of cat food back to their flat, (b) Asians going to and from Paddy's Markets, and (c) derros wheeling around their filthy blankets, newspaper clipping collections, and casks of Arkansas Jed's Fire Eagle Piss. The spectacle of a young, healthy person pulling a trolley down the footpath screams "WEIRDO" in the mind of most Australians.
Shopfast rescued me from this weekly embarrassment, and had other benefits, as well. The groceries were delivered in enormous, sturdy cardboard boxes that made excellent storage containers, and came in handy during my too-frequent moves, whenever I was bounced out of a house-share. The variety of goods on Shopfast always exceeded the choice of goods at the local supermarket. Premium cat food that you can usually only buy at the vet's. Premium wine and liqueurs. South Cape feta cheese. Amazing choice of bottled water--sparkling and still, imported and domestic.
First, Shopfast replaced the deluxe delivery boxes with cheaper and less sturdy boxes, then did away with them altogether. Fair enough. You weren't supposed to keep the boxes anyway, and anything that saves the environment is good. I did feel sorry for the delivery drivers though, who had to unpack all the merchandise from the reusable plastic crates.
It was around this time that the delivery drivers started looking more rushed and harrassed. One driver told me he was quitting because Management were cramming more deliveries into time slots and demanding that he work inconvenient shifts, without increasing his pay. More work, more time-pressure, and complaints from disgruntled customers who were too stupid to assign blame where it belonged. As someone who was temping in call centres, being screamed by middle-class farts in a froth of impatient greed about the accrual of their credit card reward points, I could empathise.
Then the range of items offered narrowed. No more vet-approved cat food. Gone was my preferred brand of cheese biscuit. Oh well. I could get those items elsewhere and carry them home in my backpack. Anyway, I primarily used Shopfast for things too bulky and heavy to fit in my bicycle panniers.
Then I stopped buying milk, because the cartons delivered only had a few days to go before the use-by date. Shopfast always credited my account when I complained via email (not to the downtrodden driver), but it kept happening, so I gave up ordering milk.
Then things were frequently out of stock. Anything over a certain number of items triggered an 'unusually large quantity' flag in the minds of the Shopfast computer, which meant my bottled water orders were frequently unfilled. 'They'd be using Just In Time inventory control,' my husband sneered. 'Modern companies are run by middle-class deadshits showing off all the fancy systems they learned in management school.' In other words, the sort of people who threatened to call the Ombudsman in my call centre days when I explained that I could not reinstate the expired bonus points that they'd been hoarding for six years.
Prior to the delivery of my most recent order from Shopfast, I got an email saying that seventeen of the items I had ordered were out of stock. I called Shopfast's 1800 number, waited in the queue listening to the 'your call is important to us' recording, and explained to a weary-sounding, patient, and exquisitely polite operator that I would like to cancel the order, and that Shopfast's management needed a kick up the backside.
Guess it's time to buy a new trolley.
Does anyone else use a grocery delivery service in Sydney? Please comment below.
When I started using Shopfast in 1999, they were great. Buy your groceries online, and pay only six dollars to have all your stuff delivered. For someone like me, who does not drive and buys lots of bottled water, it was a godsend. No more schlepping back and forth to the neighbourhood grocery with a little upright trolley, which for some reason, made people eye me with curiosity and/or suspicion. The trolley was wire, red, and purchased at a two-dollar shop in Marrickville--there was nothing inherently threatening about it. I guess the problem was that people associate trolleys with (a) stooped little old ladies carting crates of cat food back to their flat, (b) Asians going to and from Paddy's Markets, and (c) derros wheeling around their filthy blankets, newspaper clipping collections, and casks of Arkansas Jed's Fire Eagle Piss. The spectacle of a young, healthy person pulling a trolley down the footpath screams "WEIRDO" in the mind of most Australians.
Shopfast rescued me from this weekly embarrassment, and had other benefits, as well. The groceries were delivered in enormous, sturdy cardboard boxes that made excellent storage containers, and came in handy during my too-frequent moves, whenever I was bounced out of a house-share. The variety of goods on Shopfast always exceeded the choice of goods at the local supermarket. Premium cat food that you can usually only buy at the vet's. Premium wine and liqueurs. South Cape feta cheese. Amazing choice of bottled water--sparkling and still, imported and domestic.
First, Shopfast replaced the deluxe delivery boxes with cheaper and less sturdy boxes, then did away with them altogether. Fair enough. You weren't supposed to keep the boxes anyway, and anything that saves the environment is good. I did feel sorry for the delivery drivers though, who had to unpack all the merchandise from the reusable plastic crates.
It was around this time that the delivery drivers started looking more rushed and harrassed. One driver told me he was quitting because Management were cramming more deliveries into time slots and demanding that he work inconvenient shifts, without increasing his pay. More work, more time-pressure, and complaints from disgruntled customers who were too stupid to assign blame where it belonged. As someone who was temping in call centres, being screamed by middle-class farts in a froth of impatient greed about the accrual of their credit card reward points, I could empathise.
Then the range of items offered narrowed. No more vet-approved cat food. Gone was my preferred brand of cheese biscuit. Oh well. I could get those items elsewhere and carry them home in my backpack. Anyway, I primarily used Shopfast for things too bulky and heavy to fit in my bicycle panniers.
Then I stopped buying milk, because the cartons delivered only had a few days to go before the use-by date. Shopfast always credited my account when I complained via email (not to the downtrodden driver), but it kept happening, so I gave up ordering milk.
Then things were frequently out of stock. Anything over a certain number of items triggered an 'unusually large quantity' flag in the minds of the Shopfast computer, which meant my bottled water orders were frequently unfilled. 'They'd be using Just In Time inventory control,' my husband sneered. 'Modern companies are run by middle-class deadshits showing off all the fancy systems they learned in management school.' In other words, the sort of people who threatened to call the Ombudsman in my call centre days when I explained that I could not reinstate the expired bonus points that they'd been hoarding for six years.
Prior to the delivery of my most recent order from Shopfast, I got an email saying that seventeen of the items I had ordered were out of stock. I called Shopfast's 1800 number, waited in the queue listening to the 'your call is important to us' recording, and explained to a weary-sounding, patient, and exquisitely polite operator that I would like to cancel the order, and that Shopfast's management needed a kick up the backside.
Guess it's time to buy a new trolley.
Does anyone else use a grocery delivery service in Sydney? Please comment below.
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Comment by missnomer
I just use Coles Online, no probs with them, delivery more, but the prices compare to instore and you can get specials as well!
cheers
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Anonymous
We still mourn the good old days of our weekly shop fast visits. : /