The real cost of getting your shopping home

The real cost of getting your shopping home

You have filled your basket, checked the total and reached the checkout. Then a delivery fee appears. It can feel like paying extra for the privilege of spending money. But is that charge poor value, or could it be buying back something useful: your time?

A delivery fee is not automatically a con. A clear, reasonable charge can be worthwhile, especially when it replaces a separate shopping trip. Equally, walking to a nearby shop may be cheaper, quicker and more enjoyable. The fair comparison includes the whole basket, the journey and the service you actually receive.

What are you paying for? Getting an order to your door involves picking, packing, staff time, fuel or electricity, vehicles and, where needed, temperature-controlled handling. A delivery fee helps fund that work, although it is not necessarily an exact measure of the cost of your individual order.

“Free delivery” still has to be funded, perhaps through product margins, a membership or a promotion. That does not make it misleading or expensive. Compare the final price for equivalent products and quantities, including every compulsory charge, rather than judging a retailer by the delivery line alone.

A shopping trip has costs too. Driving to the shop can mean fuel, parking, traffic, queues and carrying bags. Extra mileage also causes wear, although your annual insurance is not an additional bill created by one shopping trip. If you walk, cycle or already pass the shop, the extra travel cost may be very small.

Here is a worked example, using assumed figures rather than current fuel prices or Ted’s Veg charges. Both options buy the same groceries at the same prices. The shop is a 10-mile round trip, the car achieves 40 miles per UK gallon, petrol is £1.50 per litre and parking costs £2. Delivery has a flat £5 fee and no other charges.

Shopping in person wins on cash by £1.30. Delivery saves 45 minutes. If you choose to value your time at £10 an hour, the comparison becomes £13.70 for the shopping trip against £7.50 for delivery. That is a way to value convenience, not money arriving back in your bank account.

The 15 minutes assumes ordering and receiving the delivery while you are otherwise at home; unpacking time is excluded from both options. Waiting in, checking substitutions or chasing a missing item can reduce the saving. Free parking, a shorter journey or an existing trip would favour shopping in person.

Where delivery earns its keep. For a busy household, avoiding a separate journey can free up time for cooking, family or a proper break. Delivery can also make heavy shopping more manageable for people without a car or who find travel and carrying difficult. Check where the driver will leave the order, particularly if stairs or access are an issue.

Ordering at home lets you check the fridge and cupboards before buying, and review a running basket total. That may help avoid duplicates and stick to a list. It is not a guarantee of spending less: online offers and suggested extras can be tempting too.

Where delivery can fall short. A £5 charge adds 25% to a £20 basket, but 6.25% to an £80 basket. Paying £5 for 52 weekly deliveries costs £260 over a year. A pass only helps if you use it enough. Minimum spends can encourage overbuying, and buying £10 of unwanted food to avoid a £5 fee is no saving.

You also hand over control of the picking. Someone else chooses the ripeness of your avocados and the size of your potatoes. Substitutions, missing items, unsuitable dates or delays can mean extra admin or another trip. A delivery fee should come with reliable service and a straightforward way to resolve problems.

Check product prices as well as charges. An October 2025 Which? investigation found groceries could cost more through rapid delivery services than when bought directly. That snapshot does not establish that every online retailer costs more. Read the Which? comparison.

The case for shopping in person. Choosing produce yourself, spotting a useful reduction and taking food home immediately are real advantages. A market visit can also be an enjoyable outing, with conversation and advice from the stallholder. If you enjoy the trip, it would be unfair to count every minute as a burden.

The environmental comparison deserves the same care. A shared delivery route may replace several separate car journeys, but a walk to a local shop avoids a motor journey altogether. Packaging, failed deliveries and whether an order actually replaces a trip all matter. Neither option deserves an automatic environmental win.

A small scorecard. These illustrative scores judge suitability out of five: 1 means a poor fit and 5 a strong fit. They assume comparable grocery prices and a reliable delivery service. Each row describes a different need, so the scores are not added into an overall total.

The verdict. For our worked example, delivery wins if saving 45 minutes is worth the extra £1.30 to you. Shopping in person wins if your priority is the lowest cash outlay. Change the journey, basket price or delivery experience, and the winner can change too.

A fair fee is clearly explained, included in the total before you commit and backed by a service worth paying for. A charge that appears late, stacks up with other extras or delivers little benefit deserves scrutiny. The useful question is whether the complete order represents good value for your household.

At Ted’s Veg, we see a place for both: the convenience of ordering a box and the pleasure of choosing produce at a market. Explore our fruit and veg boxes or find your nearest Ted’s Veg market and choose what works for your week.