Voila food delivered!

Sobey's is right around the corner from me, but couldn t resist with their new delivery service. I know I had used Metro and was very impressed. Sobey's is good, comparable to Metro. One thing I did notice was that they did not substitute products which is critical to me, cause of special diets - even for my cats! Sobey's bags may end up being a problem for them cause they use the regular plastic bags which had trouble holding the boxes of cat food and litter, never mind the laundry detergent. Surprised they didn't burst just walking the goods down the hall in the house! Produce was fresh and refrigerated and with temps in the high 30s lately that's key! However, I did stop in the local Sobey's itself and the prices on Voila and at the actual store were not the same - romaine was cheaper at Voila surprisingly as well as a few items, that I had not ordered seemed cheaper in the store. Another item was, with Metro, if you order over $50 delivery is free. At Voila it was $7.99, unfortunately.

Safe and Convenient Grocery Shopping

During these precarious times, safety is an ongoing concern and hearing that Sobey's offered not only online grocery shopping but delivery as well, in addition to being offered a discount to try out the service was music to my ears.
Finding items was easy by going through the categories that included sale items. I fist began shopping on the Voila website and downloaded the app which was very easy. I was concerned that the sale items that I selected wouldn't carry over due to the available delivery date but they did which was great! When placing your order you have a timeframe where you can make changes to your order, which was an awesome feature.
My delivery came earlier than expected but I was called prior to ensure that an earlier delivery was okay. The items order were packed in bags by my house, which delayed the delivery process. I'm not sure if the items were in refrigerated cabinets in the truck.

Not comparable to other delivery services.

REVIEW:
I got to try @sobeys Voila program thanks to @chickadvisor. I received a $25 off WYS $100 code. My total came to $84.63 as there is a $7.99 flat delivery fee.

Ordering: The website was okay. The search bar doesn’t work that greatest.. I searched pickles and it brought up all canned items, had to scroll far down the page to find the first pickle jar. I noticed a lot of their flyer sale items were not online or not reflected on Voila such as Pringle’s. Not a very large selection of products.

Time slots: Lots if available time slots to use. Windows were 1 hour long.

Cashing out: I was taken off guard when I finished my order and it never asked me for my @airmiles_canada number. I called the customer service line and talked to a lovely lady who said they did not give Airmiles through this program. HUGE loss as I would have got over 100 points which is $10 .
Very disappointed here, especially because I tried to order products based on my points offers.

Delivery: The gentleman called me when he was about 20 minutes away. He parked around the corner and brought my groceries in bins to my house. He put everything on the front step for contactless delivery. I was outside so talked to him a bit, was very nice and very careful with the food - appreciated this!

Food: My order was correct. I got all my items and they were as advertised. I appreciated how meat was wrapped in another bag and same with wet produce. Everything was cold and even better then trying to bring it from the grocery store myself. Only complaint was my cantaloupe was very noticeably rotten. Huge spot on the side and smells horrible even before opening the bag. It went right into the garbage - so a waste of $4.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
I found Sobeys pricing VERY expensive. Their ordering platform was not up to pair with other services. Not getting any type of points back is a HUGE hit. Cannot use coupons. Process was quite easy, however other services offer more products, points, price matching and coupons.

REVIEW:
I got to try @sobeys Voila program thanks to @chickadvisor. I received a $25 off WYS $100 code. My total came to $84.63 as there is a $7.99 flat delivery fee.

Ordering: The website was okay. The search bar doesn’t work that greatest.. I searched pickles and it brought up all canned items, had to scroll far down the page to find the first pickle jar. I noticed a lot of their flyer sale items were not online or not reflected on Voila such as Pringle’s. Not a very large selection of products.

Time slots: Lots if available time slots to use. Windows were 1 hour long.

Cashing out: I was taken off guard when I finished my order and it never asked me for my @airmiles_canada number. I called the customer service line and talked to a lovely lady who said they did not give Airmiles through this program. HUGE loss as I would have got over 100 points which is $10 .
Very disappointed here, especially because I tried to order products based on my points offers.

Delivery: The gentleman called me when he was about 20 minutes away. He parked around the corner and brought my groceries in bins to my house. He put everything on the front step for contactless delivery. I was outside so talked to him a bit, was very nice and very careful with the food - appreciated this!

Food: My order was correct. I got all my items and they were as advertised. I appreciated how meat was wrapped in another bag and same with wet produce. Everything was cold and even better then trying to bring it from the grocery store myself. Only complaint was my cantaloupe was very noticeably rotten. Huge spot on the side and smells horrible even before opening the bag. It went right into the garbage - so a waste of $4.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
I found Sobeys pricing VERY expensive. Their ordering platform was not up to pair with other services. Not getting any type of points back is a HUGE hit. Cannot use coupons. Process was quite easy, however other services offer more products, points, price matching and coupons.

Convenient

Had the chance to try the Voila by Sobeys grocery delivery service and found it fairly easy to navigate the site and view cart. One down side is that I did find it more time-consuming to have to go through the site to find the items I needed versus going in-store and being able to see items much more quickly. The items were also quite pricey compared to other grocery stores but I guess that's due to higher quality/organic options. Overall, was a good experience.

Good Quality at a Price

The whole process of ordering items online was simple and effective and they also have same day and next day delivery options which is quick and convenient. The delivery guy called me 5 mins before my time slot window to let me know he was almost here and that the process would be contactless and left everything at the door. The process as a while was very effective.

The cost of delivery was avg compared to others available but the overall costs of products are higher than other stores so overall value was lower. I don't mind using them once in a while to get some items you don't find in other stores. I also noticed they didn't have any ready food items or fresh bakery items like others stores so the variety in some instances isn't as large.

Overall would I use them again yes but will it be often I don't think so

Very Pricey

First of all, the Voila website, although fairly easy to use, I was disappointed that many items that I saw on Sobey's online flyer, were not available online. Secondly, the online sale items seem to be different from their in store items, and generally, the items online are more expensive, which was another negative. The process of ordering was fine, no issues. The delivery also went smoothly, with the driver calling about 10 minutes before arriving to confirm your availability to receive the grocery order. Overall, this is a convenient option, however I would question the value considering it is frustrating that the online experience is not on par with in store, the prices are higher, and there is a delivery fee.

New and More Convenient Way to Grocery Shop Online

I will say overall that I have not been a fan online grocery shopping. I did try it elsewhere during the pandemic and the experience was horrible. With that trip I clicked no substitutions and ended up with several substitutions and damaged groceries. When I started hearing about Voila, the premise sounded vastly different, so I thought I would give online grocery shopping another shot.

My experience with Voila was mainly good. I placed the order Tuesday night and had it delivered by Thursday. I initially chose Friday, but emailed to change delivery to Thursday. They answered quickly and easily changed it to Thursday for me. The gentleman who dropped off my groceries was very nice and friendly. I had one minor issue with one product. I ordered bread and the expiry date is 3 days from now. Ideally in a grocery store I would not choose a product expiring that soon. I reached out to Voila and after requesting a picture of it, they quickly made the problem right.

Issues for me personally:
-I found it very time consuming to go through all the products. I prefer to go through a grocery store where I can quickly grab where I know things are and get out.
-There aren't enough products, but I think that is a big "yet". They are still growing.
-I did find it more expensive than the grocery store overall. It would be nice to have a loyalty program or cheaper shipping for a certain amount spent.
-Sometimes there wasn't enough pictures and information on the product. No pictures of nutritional information and no written information about it.
-I would love to see a "Reviews" section added to all products.

Pros:
-I like that the delivery windows are so narrowed down and you can get your order quickly. Although I am concerned as they get busier that will change and it will be harder to get groceries so quickly.
-I love that you can get some Farm Boy products.
-None of my groceries were damaged and even the produce was perfect.
-Very fast and friendly customer service no matter what you need dealt with.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised with the entire experience.

*I received a $25 voucher as part of a Product Review Club offer.

Excellent customer service but product availability lacking

I received a discount code to use toward the Voila service by the Product Review Club. Here are my impressions:
Pros:
- Excellent time slot availability
- Delivery arrived at the specified time and driver called twice, once to advise me that the order would be arriving within 5 minutes, and once after the order had been delivered
- Groceries were well-packed and all items were at appropriate temperatures (i.e. frozen foods were still frozen!)
- Produce and other items were well-selected: no bruises, no items near to expiry, etc
Cons
- Product availability! At the time that I placed my order, many of my typical groceries were not being offered. Nothing obscure; just things like green beans, plums, apricots, etc. So after receiving my order, I will still have to visit my local grocery store.
- Price for this service. As I mentioned, I received a coupon code to use toward my order. In the absence of that code, I might not have placed an order, since delivery costs $7.99.