As I’m sure many of you are aware, Waitrose & Ocado recently broke up. Now Ocado have well and truly committed to M&S. As an Ocado shopper, I had very mixed feelings about this when the announcement was first made. I was excited in some ways, who doesn’t love the M&S foodhall? But at the same time, it was going to be a big change. I read one article that stuck with me for the following months discussing the difference in Waitrose & M&S shopping experiences. M&S essentially thrives on fancy ready meals and some fresh produce. Waitrose is a full service supermarket. Then September 1st rolled around and I saw many disgruntled customers on Twitter, some saying their orders had been cancelled just 12 hours before their delivery was scheduled. Now I’ve had my first delivery, I thought I’d do a rundown of my first Ocado & M&S experience.
Not from the UK?
If any of my international readers are confused now, Ocado are an online only supermarket in the UK. They sell branded products, their own Ocado brand products and until recently, they were partnered with supermarket chain Waitrose. They’ve recently split and Ocado have partnered with M&S, originally a UK clothing retailer who branched out into ‘fancy’ food. Their partnership is a part of a huge £750m deal that gave M&S half of the company.
My regular shop
As Ocado stock Ocado products, branded stuff and Waitrose, my regular weekly shop contains a fairly equal mix of the three. I get mainly branded products when it comes to things like granola and snacks, mostly Ocado products for tins/ cupboard ingredients, but a lot of my fresh produce is Waitrose with a little bit of Ocado thrown in. 
Ocado & Waitrose vs Ocado & M&S
Before we start, I want to let you know that there is some bias here. I’ve always been very happy with Waitrose produce. The nearest one to be is roughly 40 miles away, and they don’t deliver to my area. If that wasn’t the case, I would have likely switched to Waitrose, at least for a few weeks, rather than willingly make the change.
Changes to the way you shop
Ocado have been adding the M&S equivalent of regular Waitrose purchases to your favourites list for several weeks now. I’ve seen a fair few people complain about that. I can understand why, at the end of the day, that isn’t the actual product you normally buy and it’s annoying seeing two of everything and only one of them being available to purchase. BUT, I’d much prefer that to having to search for everything. And it means I’m far less likely to forget something. I do my base shop from my favourites list for items I purchase weekly like coffee, my vegan milks and some fresh produce I always have. Then I search for whatever top-up ingredients I need for specific meals for the week. The favourites list saves a lot of time.
Delivery and products
I may have been lucky; it’s only been one shop. But there were no substitutes or missing items this week. Oh, and they’re giving everyone a free bag of Percy Pigs with their first Ocado & M&S shop. They contain beeswax so not strictly vegan but are veggie. 
Pricing
Obviously, my basket isn’t the exact same weekly so this is rough estimate, but most products seem to be a similar price. Comparing the items on my favourites list, most items were the same, some M&S products are 5-10p more, but then a few things (nuts & seeds mainly) are 60-70p cheaper. Of course, if something is dramatically more, there’s also Ocado own brand that may have a cheaper similar item.
For my first shop, I added a few things to try from the M&S Plant Kitchen range that I wouldn’t usually buy, got some extra bits that were on introductory offers (to try), and a few 2 for X amount offers on my regular purchases and the shop only came to about £2/3 more than average. So, had I done a ‘regular’ shop, I’m fairly confident the M&S total would have been a little bit cheaper than usual.
Quality
I’m prepared to be mocked for the most cliché vegan food blogger sentence ever here, but I tend to rate my supermarket quality by their kale. Yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds. But, Sainsburys kale is always bad, never fresh enough and I often had to throw at least a quarter of the bag out. Waitrose kale is crunchy, leafy, large stems and tastes very fresh. It’s a high bar.
I’d just like to add that my guinea pig passed away a few weeks ago but he used to get kale for his breakfast as well as what I used to cook with, so A LOT of kale was consumed in my house in an average week. And quality was obviously important when I was feeding it to my furry friend every day.
Most of the stuff seems to look fresh and be a good quality. However, the kale is not Waitrose standard. Just putting it out there… 
Overall
Despite seeing some order hiccups and my prior concerns, I don’t have any complaints about my first Ocado & M&S order. Do I still like Waitrose produce? Yes. Would I shop at Waitrose more often if that was an option? Also, yes. But is this change awful? The range terrible? Or poor quality? All no. I won’t be changing my supermarket of choice because of this.
Are you an Ocado, Waitrose or M&S shopper? What do you think about these new changes?
Until next time,
Sophie
I remember Ocado – what a blast from the past! It’s very interesting that they’ve partnered with M&S – I’m glad the pricing hasn’t drastically changed, that’s what my initial expectation was going in. I definitely get what you mean about the kale! Not the biggest fan of it myself, but I tend to look out for the freshness of rocket and lettuce as a good marker of how the produce section in a supermarket holds up x
Sorry to hear about your Guinea pig, ours loves kale, goes mad at the sight of it.
I didn’t know about this switch, to be honest it’s too upmarket for me. I only get to eat Waitrose and m&s food, when I go round my parents
We have none of these brands in Australia, but I like seeing what you can buy in other countries. Hopefully your future shops are just as good!
It’s good your first order went well although a shame you weren’t impressed with the quality! I find it can be a bit hit or miss here with the online orders, sometimes staples (like bread and milk!) are sold out when I get my delivery, other times I get everything I wanted.
Hope that you are having a lovely weekend 🙂
It’s interesting what you said about kale, because I shop at Tesco and I’ve given up on buying spinach – it never really tastes fresh, and no matter what the apparent use by date is on the bag I feel like withina couple of days in the fridge most of it is unusable. Maybe I should branch out and look at the spinach in other shops?! I’ve never got a food shop delivered, but I’ve been tempted to give it a try. Maybe I’ll check out the Ocado/M&S partnership!
I’m yet to do an ocado shop since they changed over to M&S but I love M&S Food!
Love, Amie ❤
The Curvaceous Vegan
I’ve never tired online shopping but I keep meaning to. I love M&S food so I’d definitely try Ocado.
Interesting post – this brand doesn’t exist here but I am always interested to see how stores deal with companies that split up. Thanks for sharing!
Jenna ♥
Stay in touch? Life of an Earth Muffin
sounds like it might be worth a try! Thanks for sharing!
I have never heard of Ocado before, it sounds really good though! Percy Pigs did so well changing all of their products to suitable for vegetarian but for god sake they need to get rid of that beeswax! I do like shopping at M&S but it is more expensive so it is more of a luxury shop! x
I’ve tried M&S in the past and, while some of their fresh produce is nice, their ready meals just put me off! Look at how much salt is in it! I haven’t had them in years and I’d only have one if I had no other choice. Been meaning to try Ocado! Did you have to immediately pay or did you pay on day of delivery?
I totally agree, I hate the idea of ready meals and the rubbish added in. Just got a couple of Plant Kitchen things this week because I’d never tried the range before, definitely not a regular thing for me. You pay on delivery day just in case there are any substitutes to your order or something isn’t in stock. But you can book a slot up to three weeks in advance and amend your order up until a day before!
I rarely ordered from Ocado before but since they have swapped to M&S food, I may try them again as I do love M&S food! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
I ordered from Ocado when I had a discount code – not sure I’d order from them without one. I do like a treat shop from M&S though! X
I had no idea! I would love to have my Percy pigs delivered straight to my door
I never knew that Ocado was affiliated with Waitrose, I just thought it was it’s own supermarket. I have definitely learnt something from this post! I haven’t ordered from ocado before, but do love the odd treat from Waitrose and m&S. M&S Christmas food and their summer range used to be delicious!
Aimsy xoxo
Aimsy’s Antics
Your groceries look so healthy and yummy. The passion you have about this topic kind of mirrors the way I feel about Trader Joe’s. Very interesting 🙂
https://www.chicnpink.com
Oh very interesting post
xx
I’ve never heard of Ocado before and I googled it right after reading this post. It sounds like a good company! Sorry for the loss of your guinea pig as well 🙁
Marissa Belle × marsybun.com
I don’t have an Ocado where I live, but I loved reading about your experience and learning more about it! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Sorry to hear about your guinea pig 🙁
Glad to see that the break-up between both companies wasn’t such a big or negative adjustment? Especially price-wise. Not a good feeling to be forced to purchase your products elsewhere.
I’m sorry to hear about your guinea pig . I enjoyed your post despite not being from the UK.
I’m really sorry to hear about your Guinea Pig Sophie. I have no strong opinion of the Ocado or Waitrose or M&S discourse, I’ve only just found out that Ocado existed if I’m honest but it was interesting to hear your experience and views. It’s also nice they provided you with some Percy Pigs even if they weren’t vegan.
This was a really interesting read!
I’ve never shopped with Ocado as I always assumed it would be more expensive but I will try it soon and compare! ☺️
Sorry to hear about the loss of your furry friend!
Love Lozza x
http://girlygabble.com
As someone not based in the UK, I was glad to have some clarification and not get lost swimming in the sea! I have gone through my fair share of supermarkets in the US changing hands or being bought by other companies and, while it can go from good to bad, most of the changes have brought more organic foods into the stores so I am happy.
Glad to know your experience shopping is still going well and here is to all future shopping not being affected as well. 🙂
It’s always a bit of a toss up when you see companies making a change like this, right? You never quite know what to expect – Are you going to get the same quality of product that you’re used to? Will something that you LOVE change for the worst? Are the prices all going to change? Is there going to be a change in availability. I think it’s super helpful for those living in your area that you were able to do this post and let them know your honest thoughts. It’s really helpful for those who are trying to decide how they feel about everything.
I’ve not shopped with Ocado before but I do love the M&S food hall so I might give it a go one day! We tend to get our shop from Tesco now which works really well for us xx
Tiffany x http://www.foodandotherloves.co.uk
So sorry for the loss of your piggie, Sophie <3 I didn't realise you had such strong kale preferences (and yes, it really was the most "blogger" thing anyone has ever said". I've never used Ocado or Waitrose for that matter. We tend to stick to Tesco.
We don’t have any of these brands in the US but they look interesting!
I’ve never used Ocado but I do love M&S products, especially for a treat when they do their dine in offers.
I have never ordered from Ocado before, I have had a lil peek before though to see what products they had. I guess I’ve missed out on the chance of getting Waitrose things from it now, although I would be willing to give this a try! I always shop at morrisons, I went from Asda to Morrisons and so far I haven’t switched to any others. Maybe I’ll give Ocado a go for one of my shops xx
I love Ocado and the M&S plant kitchen range so I need to make an order x
We used to use Ocado loads a few years ago but can’t remember why we switched. We’ve bought in M&S the majority of lockdown though and I’m a sucker for their food so this is like my dream! Xx
We use ocado weekly and are excited to try some of the m&s food xx