The company said it will give shoppers another way to access essential grocery and household items during the COVID-19 crisis.
“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,” said Clodagh Moriarty, Chief Digital Officer at Sainsbury’s. “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.”
Sainsbury’s said its on-demand service had temporarily closed while it focussed on stocking stores and its main online grocery business. But its has 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.
in a mission to prioritse those in need, the company says it has booked more than 320,000 slots for elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers. Thanks to the expanded efforts, it says it has the capacity to deliver 472,000 orders per week.
Customers can shop of up to 20 grocery products through the Chop Chop app and have them delivered to their doorstep in as little as one hour. Nearly 400 essential grocery and household products are available on the service.
The service is available to Londoners living within 3km from Sainsbury’s Blackfriars convenience store, but Sainsbury’s says it will further expand the Chop Chop service if demand is high.
“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,” Moriarty said.
Sainsbury’s has temporarily closed a handful of convenience stores which have seen significantly fewer customers in recent days as people are working from home. By consolidating its operations Sainsbury’s will be better able to serve and help customers where they most need it.
By using closed local stores Sainsbury’s can maximise the number of customers it can serve through the service, tailoring the layout of the stores so it can stock more essential products and can be picked more easily. 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.
