#VoilabySobeys Review

I found the online grocery shopping experience at Voila to be a convenient and painless process, and would definitely recommend it.

When I was selecting groceries online, it was easy to find the items that I want using the the category menu and filter. Sale items are placed at the top of the list and items can be sorted by favorites, product names, or price.

The online checkout process was also quick and easy, and they allow Visa, MasterCard and American Express. They only process the charge after the delivery was completed.

I was hesitant to buy any fridge or freezer items as I didn't want them to get hot in the truck. However, I have since learned that the delivery trucks have climate controlled zones to keep cold temperatures cold - so I may be willing to try it next time.

Thumbs up

It was a bit of a headache trying to sign up my location , probably wouldn’t happen to many others though The ordering was easy , came on time and items were fresh

Easy shopping, peace of mind

Contactless shopping is a huge relief when grocery shopping nowadays. For the most part, the experience was good. I did find the auto correct function when searching for items to be annoying. Lots of delivery windows to select within 1-2 days of ordering and it came promptly with a pleasant employee. I did find the prices however to be higher than other stores but I’ve always found that with Sobeys.

Super convenient

This was my first time using Voila and it was quite enjoyable. At first, I thought the cost was a bit expensive but then, once I received my order, I realized that I'd received quite a lot for my money so I was very pleased.

There were lots of delivery windows but I didn't enjoy seeing food disappear when I was double checking my order! Luckily, you're able to edit your order so I just checked the site the next day and I was able to add back the missing items.

I'm used to Loblaws and it's going to be tough to get me to switch, especially as a PC Insiders member but this delivery was so smooth that it's definitely my second choice. I appreciated the call before delivery and the contactless delivery. I received a discount as part of a Product Review Club offer.

Impressed

I placed my order the day before, some items are very expensive.
But they did have a lot of great deals on especially in flash sale section. I wanted my groceries between 7am and 8am I received a phone call that my groceries were on there way. Truck pulled up, they guy had a mask on and gloves dropped all my bags at my front porch. Showed me the temperature of my cold food (very impressed) than explained the buy back bag program to me they recycle there own bags after Covid (very impressed) all my groceries were cold fresh (very impressed)
Down fall to this awesome service some prices are very expensive l, and there is a $7.99 delivery fee

Voila Grocery Delivery

I’m a regular user of new grocery services... I would rather do many other things than Grocery shop With my son! Tried Voila a few days ago and was pleasantly surprised. I rarely have shopped at Sobeys because I find their pricing to be high but Voila has many items on sale and were similarly priced as my regular store. The website was very easy to use, no problems with navigation or freezing. The delivery went as planned, in fact, my delivery was within the 1st 5 minutes of my delivery window. My delivery driver was very polite and dressed with a Voila shirt, wore a mask and made sure he mentioned that he had checked the temperature of the frozen/refrigerated items. I found the delivery fee of $7.99 to be competitive.. it’s less than similar services. The quality of the meat and produce were of high quality and well packaged. Overall , I’d recommend and would use them again! #chickadvisor #voila #sobeys #paidreview

Voucher code enticed me to order from Voila

They promise a one hour delivery window and fulfilled that promise.
My order was for 11am to noon, I made a request to have the driver message me when close by and he did so giving me a 15 minutes.
The truck has different areas where they store frozen, refrigerated and shelf items. The driver wore a mask and gloves, he was friendly and pleasant. A few items were out of stock and I had to rethink my order in order to get to the use of the voucher. My order did not contain any fresh produce, but did contain freezer items which were frozen upon arrival.

Voila delivery service by Sobeys

This was my first time buying groceries on line, so it took a while to look through all the different departments. The groceries were delivered on time and the delivery person was very efficient. It’s a great service when you can’t go to shop in person.

Good quality, friendly service, but very pricey

I received a $25 off coupon for $100 order from ChickAdvisor in exchange for my jonest review of Sobey's new Voilà grocery delivery service.

The time windows were very quick. If I wanted to I was able to choose something for next day delivery. They seemed to have a lot of availability, which was great. I did not have any issue choosing something for a Sunday which is what worked best for me since weekdays are tight with my job.

Their website was a little difficult to navigate. Even when I typed in certain items they would not come up. I had to go through the menus to find them the long way. So I'm not sure if there is something going on with their search functionality that they still have yet to work out. Mostly, though, things were easy to find. There seemed to be quite a bit of variety on the website but nowhere near what is available in store. There were some items I wanted to include in my order that they simply did not have. Thankfully all staples and most versions of those staples were available. I also liked that they have a Sales section you can shop from if you are looking for deals, sort of like you would find in the flyers.

There are two big downfalls for this service that I actually feel are deal-breakers for me personally because I live alone and this service just does not cater to someone like me for these reasons. One, you cannot choose individual produce. With similar delivery services I have always been able to choose 1 banana or 1 tomato like you can if you were in the store. With Voilà, unfortubately, they make you buy produce in bunches of their choosing which is highly inconvenient. They gave me a huge bunch of bananas which made me spend more money than I wanted and also a lot went bad before I could finish them all. I think you should be able to buy as many or as few products as you wish. It doesn't make a lot of sense to force someone to buy an excessive amount of produce that will go to waste, making them spend more money and wasting produce that will not get eaten before it goes bad. There are other services that allow me to buy individual items so I think they need to fix this.

The second thing is that their products are extremely expensive. I think this is more about paying for convenience because I do not mind so much paying the $7.99 delivery fee or a tip for the driver. But the actual food in their stores is so overpriced that I could not afford to buy from this service on a regular basis, especially as a single person, by any means. As an example, a pack of 5 corn was $6.49 and that is just not in my price range. Their Compliments brand items were more reasonable though.

I was informed by the driver they will start charging for bags as well but that you could bring them back to the store to be reimbursed once COVID is over. I feel this might defeat the purpose of grocery delivery for a lot of people because I personally use it because I do not have a car. I would not take bags back for reimbursement since I am too far from most stores and would not get on the bus to get a few cents back for bags. It might be worth it for those who drive.

The driver texted to inform me she was about 20 minutes away, which was great. I appreciated the heads up. She also asked me, since I am in an apartment, if I would like her to come up with the groceries or if I wanted to come down to get them. She was extremely friendly and professional and was wearing a mask. The service was top notch! She explained about the bags, as stated above. She also explained that the double markings on the bag handles were indicative of cold produce that needed to be put in the fridge or freezer right away which I thought was a great touch! All the food was kept at good temperatures: the produce and dairy was all cold and everything frozen was frozen.

Overall, there are things that need to be improved about this service such as the website functionality and perhaps the variety of items compared to that of in-store. For sure I think people should be able to choose the number of produce items they want instead of being forced to buy a "bunch" of Sobey's choosing - that would be my number one issue. But the service people are very friendly. I did need to get a refund for one item and the process was very quick for that as well. I think affordability is the main issue here for most people; it is just out of the price range for a lot of people.

OK - good for those who value convenience over cost

This was my first time ordering groceries online. I have a few friends/family who have done it before, some regularly. Overall the process was easy and it would be especially great for those in mandated quarantine, needing heavy items without having a vehicle, or those returning from travel or cottaging who need groceries but maybe don’t have time to go to the store.

A few negative things to note:
- the delivery fee is quite high ($7.99), I believe others charge closer to the $5 mark
- they’re going to charge for bags and are quite liberal with their bag use. I was told they aren’t charging for bags currently but will in the future. The delivery driver said that users should get a credit back for any bags returned, but you can’t return bags if your groceries are being picked up by your building concierge. I also felt like their bag usage was all over the place. Some bags were full while many others had only one small item in them.
- pricing is high and not consistent with regular store offers. It’s best to treat the online/delivery store as a completely separate entity as the pricing is completely different (usually higher) than going in store and offers will differ between them.
- selection is limited. Unlike other services that offer the same items in store and online, I found this service had some items with a ton of selection (ie kombucha) and others with very little choice.

I’m unlikely to use this service again, mainly because of my concerns with the pricing. That’s not to say it isn’t a good service that could be very valuable to some, it’s just not valuable to me from a budget and selection perspective. I would recommend this service to anyone who values convenience over budget/selection.