Supermarket wars

April 18, 2020

When I was younger, one of the most frustrating things I had to do was to book a badminton court. You had to be ready two weeks before the actual day to spam the refresh key until the portal released the bookings. I was always so annoyed because I couldn't figure out how it was possible for people in their 50s to be clicking faster than me. Back then, simply using a fast computer and having multiple tabs would beat most people. But now everyone has fast devices so that edge is gone. Like every war, the key to victory is to have a strategy. And if you haven't realised yet, the next war has already started - supermarket delivery.

Last week, it became insanely difficult to get your groceries delivered because the delivery slots are so limited. All the slots would have been taken by the time you hit the checkout page. So, instead of constantly monitoring for available delivery slots, I wrote a python script to alert me when a slot is released. I'm using Pushbullet for desktop notifications but you can extend it to send SMS or email. The good thing about Pushbullet is that you can open links when you click the notification so you don't have to type in the url.

If you want to increase the odds, you can ping different supermarkets (Fair Price, Cold Storage etc.) and buy from whichever supermarket that has a delivery slot.

Fair Price demo.

CLI.

This strategy is best coupled with these practices:

Get your cart filled up with items beforehand

Save your passion card and credit cards for checkout

Do whatever that lets you sleep well at night. After all, this is war.