Family deprived of grocery deliveries
A Northland family say they are being forced to travel an hour’s round trip to get their groceries because Countdown has changed its mind about delivering to them.
Jessica Gerrie said she was phoned by Countdown last week and told she would no longer be able to have her groceries delivered to her home in Tangiteroria, between Whanga¯ rei and Dargaville.
She had been receiving deliveries since she moved there in November.
But instead of having her groceries turn up on her doorstep, she will now be charged $31.25 to have them brought by courier. Perishable items cannot be delivered.
‘‘I have ended up home-schooling my kids so they are with me 24/7,’’ Gerrie said.
‘‘Our son hates going to the supermarket. He just hates it, so avoiding that weekly drama and having everything turn up on the doorstep with a cheery delivery driver who I could have a chat with was a really lovely luxury, made affordable with the purchase of a ‘delivery saver’.
‘‘We are no further away from a Countdown supermarket than we were when we lived in urban Auckland but their new policy means we are excluded from this service.’’
A Countdown spokeswoman said it regularly reviewed its delivery areas to make sure it was matching growing demand with capacity.
‘‘Over the last year we have also been working to tidy up our customers’ address and delivery details, and this has meant that a small number of customers have been found to be outside of an online delivery zone,’’ the spokeswoman said.
She said Tangiteroria had never been a full-service area and it could be that Gerrie’s address was entered incorrectly initially.
‘‘In these situations our team will often try and deliver the initial order but not further orders as it is outside our delivery zone.’’
Gerrie said it was confusing that the supermarket was advertising it would deliver to a beach or bach in December and January but some of the areas it advertised were listed on the website as non-full service areas, in the same way her house was.
‘‘I did point out that we are only 15 minutes away from the Dargaville Countdown despite being 18 kilometres away.
‘‘In Auckland, at certain times of the day, it could easily take 15 minutes to travel 5km.’’
She said she would now be driving the hour round-trip to central Whanga¯ rei to pick up her groceries, instead.
‘‘Due to now being excluded from having our groceries delivered we will be making the trip into Whanga¯rei, at around two-and-a-half times the distance, to do our weekly shop at New World.
‘‘At least I can still do my order online from them and just go in to pick it up which avoids having to drag an uncooperative son around the supermarket,’’ Gerrie said.
‘‘We are no further away from a supermarket than we were when we lived in urban Auckland.’’ Jessica Gerrie