When I lived in the UK I used Tesco.com delivery all the time. Some say its lazy, but for me it saved time, definitely saved money as you can see how much everything is as you go along and it also helps save your waistline as you are not tempted by the power of the supermarkets marketing.
Packed and delivered by Mathem.se
I mean did you really set out to buy the Death by Chocolate and end up having two as it was buy one get one free?
I decided to try a similar Swedish service called Mathem. It works on the same premise as Tescos Home delivery. You register, search for what you want, select a timescale, ok they only offer Monday to Friday but early till late, then pay with the credit card of your choice and thats it.
Mathem has a very easy interface to use and I had no trouble finding most items. In fact its great practice for my Swedish!
The cost of delivery was 85 SEK but I think thats good value for money when you consider the time and effort they save you. Especially for those like me who do not own a car.
The timeslots are two hours, so I picked 7-9 on Monday.
The guy actually arrived at 18.40, so thats good and bad, what if I wasn’t home in time?
I am sure they would have come back. The delivery driver was very polite and helpful and insisted bringing the bags into the flat. Nice.
I felt so sorry for him though when I lifted them as the bags were really heavy and he came up three flights of stairs with them!
The reason I used Mathem this week is that I am still juicing! Yes believe or not, not a juice fast. Two or Three a day with a home made soup in the evening for seven day and then 2 or 3 juices a day replacing meals and then whatever I want (within reason.)
Juice yourself slim...my fridge goes through a makeover!
Last time I was back and forth to ICA or COOP all the time, it was expensive and heavy! Also a bit frustrating when they didnt have some of the fruit and veg I needed. So with this I know what I need.
In truth I wasnt expecting the best with this. I never ordered fruit and veg with Tesco because I knew they didnt care what fruit and veg I got, in terms of quality I mean. However the fruit and veg picked by Mathem was very good!
In total with delivery my weekly shop came in at 950 SEK, roughly 95 Euro. Yeah quite a lot but organic fruit and veg aint cheap anywhere so…
I will do a comparison with Tesco like I did with the Sunday Dinner costs comparison that I blogged on before.
I really recommend Mathem and will definitely use them again!
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Shane,
I’ve also tried Mathem, but now I’m using another service called Linas Matkasse (I’ve also tried Middagsfrid earlier). Do you know if there are similar concepts, ie subscriptions of recipes+grocerys delivered to your door, in the UK? I’m just curious if this is a common concept or a more Swedish phenomenon.
Good luck with Mathem!
/Malin
Hej Malin
Hmm I did not know there were others. I will bear this in mind. Mathem are coming tonight for their second delivery so I hope its as good as their first.
This is now very common in the UK. I think Tesco.com is the biggest and you see their delivery vans everywhere. I love this service as I do not have a car and much prefer one big weekly shop than a visit to ICA every day.
The only downside with Tesco’s popularity was the fact that often they would not have some of the items you order and their idea of substitutions wasnt the best. Also the fruit and veg was a lottery so I used to hand pick that though Mathems’ quality was very good.
What made you stop using Mathem can I ask?
Hi again,
I tried a few “pure food home delivery companies”, like Mathem, Mataffären.se, NetXtra and liked Mathem best. Their web site was the easiest one and the quality of the food was better (in my opinion of course). But then I wanted to try Middagsfrid, as their concept differs a bit from Mathem (or did at least at that point). With Middagsfrid, I get two bags with groceries each Monday evening and the recipes to cook 5 meals for my family. Middagsfrid is focused on providing a variation of meals for a week (e.g. one day meat, one day chicken, one day vegetarian etc) and the groceries are organic (whenever possible). After a year with Middagsfrid, I got a bit tired of all the chopping that came with their recipes and decided to try Linas Matkasse, which is a similar concept but with a bit easier recipes. There are loads of these “matkasse”-providers popping up right now. Svenska Dagbladet did a overview of 10 different companies on Jan 22, if you’re interested.
However, I wonder if Tesco really delivers this “matkasse”-concept or is it more of the online grocery concept? In the “matkasse”-concept, I cannot choose my own recipes or own groceries, but subscribe to the service which will pick recipes and groceries for me. With Mathem, it is up to me as a customer to pick the groceries, and they will be delivered to my home. I know Tesco does this (as well as Ocado and maybe a few others in the UK) but do they have the subscription-kind-of-concept as Middagsfrid/Linas Matkasse have?
/Malin
Thats a great concept and what an excellent way to get people cooking good food.
I have not used Tesco for over two years now so it may have changed. I know I could select recipes myself and it would add the ingredients to my basket.
I like the idea of not knowing what you are getting until it turns up though. I am the type of guy who rarely cooks anything twice, well other than curry! I love trying new recipes.
Once I am down to my target weight I may give this a go!