Sainsbury’s has started using its bike-based Chop Chop service to transport essential groceries from a closed convenience store in London in an effort to bolster its delivery service during the coronavirus outbreak.
The Chop Chop on-demand service had temporarily closed while the retailer focussed all its efforts on stocking stores and its main online business. However, Sainsbury’s has now turned its Blackfriars convenience store, which had temporarily closed, into its first ‘dark’ convenience store for the trial. It’s the first time Chop Chop has operated out of a convenience store.
People who are self-isolating or unable to get to a local store will be able to order a top-up shop of up to 20 grocery products through the Chop Chop app and have them delivered in under an hour. The offer has been tailored to those staying at home with a refreshed list of around 400 essential grocery and household products.
The service is currently only available to Londoners living within 3km from Sainsbury’s Blackfriars convenience store. However, if it proves popular with customers, the retailer said it will roll out the service to other closed Local stores in cities across the UK as well as London more widely.
Sainsbury’s expects to be able to serve up to 3,500 customers a week from the one store and is working with its delivery partner to recruit more riders to help deliver orders.
Sainsbury’s has closed some convenience stores in areas where shopper numbers have plummeted due to the government’s coronavirus lockdown.
As with other supermarket chains, Sainsbury’s has faced a spike in demand for its main groceries delivery service amid the health crisis. The group has now expanded capacity to be able to deliver 472,000 orders a week. It has also increased Click & Collect slots from 41,000 to almost 100,000 per week.
Clodagh Moriarty, Chief Digital Officer at Sainsbury’s said: “Demand for home delivery has reached unprecedented levels and we are doing all we can to find new ways to serve more of our customers.
“We are pleased to use our Chop Chop service as an extension of our groceries online offer to enable our customers to quickly get food and other essential items delivered to their homes. While we are starting the trial in London we hope to be able to bring this fast delivery service to other cities in the UK very soon.”
