Ocado's IT didnt scale well with them having to close down their mobile app earlier on
I didn't know this, I always use the main browser application. The worst I ever had was a queue. I think they gave different groups different levels of access. People classed as vulnerable or the elderly got priority, then existing customers who had been with them a while, then newbies - and I had an email from them saying they wouldn't be taking on anyone further for a while.
They would release delivery slots each day and so occasionally we had to try 2 or 3 days to get a slot but the time from order to delivery was always 48 hours or so. We only have one delivery a month so no issue for us. Some stuff is still in short supply because of people changing their buying patterns but nothing problematic.
Fresh fruit, veg, dairy etc all comes from local businesses, as you say many of them have changed their commerce models very quickly, there seem to be plenty of billing platforms available that integrate nicely with smaller web platforms.
