Supermarket sweep

Quick update on my supermarket post.

Two weeks ago I mentioned that Forest had received an email from a smoker who had ordered tobacco online and when the supermarket couldn't deliver her preferred brands they wouldn't offer any substitute brands which she would have been more than happy to accept.

A reader subsequently noted that he had 'experienced a lack of substitutes when ordering rolling tobacco':

It has happened on a several occasions. None of my delivery drivers were aware of a policy as such, but one did say, when I commented that surely the supermarket hadn't run out of all rolling tobacco, that they certainly had not.

Since then we have contacted five of the UK's leading supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Asda and Morrisons – to find out what their policies are on providing substitute tobacco brands and the results, such as they are, are as follows:

Tesco and Sainsbury’s say they will offer substitute tobacco brands as long as the customer ticks the substitute box at the time of order.

Waitrose however say they have a 'national policy that does not allow for the substitution of any tobacco products'.

No reason was given but, according to a further written reply, the policy 'also applies to analgesics and pet food'.

We are still waiting to hear from Morrisons and Asda but we did get an email from Asda this morning bizarrely inviting us to 'answer a few questions about the service we gave'.

What service? We're still waiting for a response to our query!!

So far Morrisons have been the most tardy in terms of response time. We emailed customer services on January 27, and again this week, without reply which is ironic because Morrisons were the cause of the original complaint.

In contrast we received a written response from Waitrose within three days, with a follow-up query answered within minutes (at the weekend too).

The customer service people we spoke to at Tesco and Sainsbury’s were equally friendly and helpful.

Anyway, I'll let you know if and when we hear from Morrisons and Asda. It would be good to have the full set but according to our initial research there shouldn't be a problem with tobacco substitutions if you choose your supermarket carefully.

On the information to date however you should avoid 'middle class' Waitrose while the jury remains out on Morrisons and Asda.

Update: The Asda customer services team has responded (via Twitter), saying, ‘We will offer a like for like [substitutions] where possible.’