While the Slot Finder may be rough, it does highlight how people are getting creative in solving everyday problems caused by this pandemic. Hopefully, as the likes Amazon and Walmart hire hundreds of thousands of new workers to keep up with demand, delayed delivery windows will be a thing of the past. In a year when supermarket delivery slots have been difficult to find Christmas deliveries have been booked quickly. Marks and Spencer has closed Christmas deliveries, while Tesco and Sainsbury's.

1. Delivery slots open up, shelves get restocked every day. And most important, as Vincent Finazzo, founder of Riverwards Produce in Philadelphia, told me, “There shouldn’t be a lack of demand.
2. I built a tool to notify you when Asda delivery slots become available! I was getting tired of repeatedly checking for delivery slots so I built Asda Slot Finder. It will automatically check for available slots at your local store and email you as and when they pop up so you don't have to!
3. Click the 'Book a Delivery' link in the top right-hand corner of your page. You will then be asked to confirm your delivery address before we show you available delivery slots up to 21 days in advance. If you haven't already reserved a delivery slot, you will be automatically prompted to book one as you're checking out.

by Dalvin Brown, Usa Today

Instacart is adding new features Wednesday to speed up its delivery service after struggling to keep up with higher demand.

For weeks, customers in many markets had a hard time finding a delivery slot as the coronavirus crisis drove more people to stay indoors and order essentials via Instacart. On Wednesday, the company added two new features aimed at making service faster and more convenient for those under stay-at-home orders.

Instacart is adding a 'Fast & Flexible' option that matches customers with shoppers more quickly, and it's rolling out an 'Order Ahead' tool that lets you set when you'd like to receive longer-term dropoffs.

'Fast & Flexible'

One of the new features pairs app users with available shoppers in real time to cut down on the time it takes to receive an order. The tool will give customers the option to have an order delivered by the first available shopper, rather than have deliveries pegged to a specific window of time.

Delivery Slot Finder App

Customers will see an estimated delivery range, such as Monday through Wednesday, and they'll get a notification when the order was picked up by a shopper and is on the way.

'Order Ahead'

After testing out Order Ahead in select markets, Instacart will let all U.S. customers place orders up to two weeks in advance in the coming weeks.

Typically, users could choose delivery windows only up to one week ahead.

The move is meant to enable people to restock their pantry and purchase recurring essentials well in advance of when they'll need them.

Instacart, a delivery service that partners with more than 25,000 stores in North America, has said orders have surged 150% in recent weeks.

'The customer demand we expected over the next two to four years has happened on the Instacart platform in the last two to four weeks,' said Apoorva Mehta, CEO of Instacart, in a statement.

The company has hired over 150,000 'active shoppers' over the past two weeks to meet increasing demand—continuing its plans to add 300,000 additional workers.

(c)2020 U.S. Today
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Stop checking at midnight or refreshing the supermarket sites, this new tool shows you available online delivery slots and click and collect near you.

Being able to book a slot of online food shopping is not easy.

Even though many people are avoiding online deliveries, leaving more availability for people who are isolating or vulnerable, there still doesn’t seem to be enough slots.

Shopping in store? Use this app to find how long you’ll need to queue.

People have been sharing their hacks to book in a supermarket delivery.

Some have mentioned that supermarkets release new slots at midnight.

Others have got up at 2 am to check for slots as there’ll be fewer people online and they hope they’ll get a booking.

And others will keep the supermarket site open and refresh the pages through the day in the hope new slots get added randomly.

But doing all that takes a lot of time and you still won’t guarantee to get something booked.

Wouldn’t it be great is there was a tool to show when they are available shopping slots across the different supermarkets?

Well, there is!

How to find home delivery slots

Instead of trying to find what time Tesco delivery slots become available or when Sainsbury’s release delivery slots, this new tool shows which supermarkets have delivery slots.

A brand new website, Shopping Slot, allows you to search across multiple supermarkets and find the next delivery slots as well as click and collect.

The site is absolutely free to use, and it takes all of a minute to see where has online delivery.

Simply pop your postcode into the Shopping Slot site, and it’ll deliver the results.

There is no Shopping Slot app; it’s all done via their main website.

Instead of refreshing multiple supermarket websites, trying to get a food shop, this means you’ll save time and only need to review one site.

Am I guaranteed deliveries?

Shopping Slot can show available delivery slots and click and collect for Tesco, Asda, Iceland and Waitrose.

Other supermarkets like Morrisons may get added later.

What the site can’t do is find slots if they don’t exist or are already booked up.

I obviously gave the site a test run to review Shopping Slot and make sure it works.

Unfortunately, there were no delivery slots near me, but that doesn’t mean the overall concept doesn’t work.

There is no way they can create new slots if there aren’t any new ones.

What the site isn’t able to do is hold, reserve or prioritise the slots.

If you do have slots in your area, you need to remember it’s only available at that exact moment in time.

That means, if it shows a slot is available to get food delivered, you need to head to the supermarket site to book in your delivery.

To speed things up, it’s worth making sure you’ve already got an account with the supermarket.

Don’t want to keep refreshing?

If you don’t want to keep an eye on this new online delivery search engine, they can do it for you.

Shopping Slot review the availability of delivery slots and will send you an email as soon as one becomes available for your postcode.

But, signing up to get emails is not free, and you will need to pay a monthly subscription.

It’ll cost £2.19 per month, but you get a 7 day free trial to test it out first to see if it works for you.

Remember, just being able to search for shopping slots is free.

As part of the subscription, you’ll save time not having to go and check their site for slots and will get an email notification as soon as a new delivery slot becomes available.

You’re able to cancel at any time, and they’re giving 20% of profits to support the NHS.

Read next:

:: Come and join thousands of other savvy shoppers in the Reduce Your Supermarket Spend Facebook community to find out tips and tricks to save money on your food shop.

Delivery Slot Finder Extension

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