Buying Food and Drink Online: Unit Price, Shelf Life and Delivery

Food and drink is priced to resist comparison. Different pack sizes, different counts, different serving assumptions — and the result is that the cheaper-looking option frequently is not. A little arithmetic before ordering is the whole skill.

Compare per unit, always

Work out the price per 100g, per litre, or per serving, and compare that. Retailers often show it in small print; where they do not, it takes seconds to calculate. Two things this reveals:

• Larger is not automatically cheaper. Promotional pricing on a smaller pack frequently beats the bulk option.
• Count is not the same as quantity. Sixty tea bags of one brand may weigh less than forty of another.

For anything you consume at a steady rate — coffee, tea, protein powder, pet food, drinks by the case — the per-serving figure is the only number that matters.

The cost that never appears on the receipt

Waste. Buying a larger quantity at a lower unit price is a saving only if you consume it. For anything with a short shelf life, the smaller pack at the higher unit price is often the cheaper purchase in practice.

Check the shelf life stated on the listing before ordering in quantity. Speciality foods sometimes ship close to their date, which is fine if you will use them and a loss if you will not.

Subscriptions

Subscription discounts on food and drink are usually genuine. The problems are structural rather than about the price:

• Frequency drift. Set slightly too fast, a subscription quietly builds a stockpile. Set it to your actual consumption rate, and adjust after the first two deliveries.
• Cancellation. Check how it is done before starting. Some require notice periods or account contact rather than a button.
• Price after the first order. Introductory pricing sometimes applies only to the first delivery.

Perishables and delivery

Anything chilled or frozen depends entirely on the packaging and the carrier's speed. Before a first order with a new seller, check what they say about insulated packaging, which days they dispatch, and what happens if a delivery is delayed or missed. A missed chilled delivery is a total loss, and the policy on that varies enormously.

Check whether delivery requires someone present. For perishables it usually should.

Where online genuinely wins

Speciality and imported goods that local shops do not carry, and buying direct from a producer, where the margin that would have gone to a retailer sometimes goes to you instead. Bulk staples with a long shelf life also work well, provided you have storage.

Where it wins less: everyday groceries you could pick up anyway, where delivery cost and minimum-order thresholds usually eat any saving.

Before you order

Check the per-unit price against your usual source. Check the shelf life and the dispatch schedule for anything perishable. Check the delivery threshold, since adding items to reach free delivery is only a saving if you wanted them. And check whether food is returnable at all — for most sellers it is not once dispatched, which makes the first order with any new seller worth keeping small.