Sainsbury’s brings back its one-hour bike delivery service Chop Chop to get groceries to customers from its closed convenience stores amid coronavirus lockdown
- Chop Chop was halted while shops refilled after a stockpiling frenzy last month
- But the service will be relaunched for Londoners within 1.8 miles of Blackfriars
- It is also expected to be rolled out across the country if it is popular in the capital
Sainsbury’s has brought back its one-hour bike delivery service to get groceries to customers from its closed convenience stores.
Chop Chop was halted while shops refilled shelves after customers went into a stockpiling frenzy last month.
But the express service will be relaunched for Londoners who live within 1.8 miles of its Blackfriars store and is expected to be rolled out nationwide if it is popular.
Chop Chop (pictured) was halted while shops refilled shelves after customers went into a stockpiling frenzy last month
The central London site was one of 12 local shops to be closed last week and will be turned into a ‘dark convenience store’ holding 400 essential products.
Sainsbury’s is expecting to cater for up to 3,500 people a week from its Blackfriars grocery as riders are sought to help with deliveries.
The demand on supermarkets has skyrocketed since the coronavirus lockdown was imposed on the country on March 23.
But the express service will be relaunched for Londoners who live within 1.8 miles of its Blackfriars store and is expected to be rolled out nationwide if it is popular
More customers have turned to shopping online to obey social distancing rules and limit their chances of catching the killer bug.
Sainsbury’s chief digital officer Clodagh Moriarty 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.
The central London site was one of 12 local shops to be closed last week and will be turned into a ‘dark convenience store’ holding 400 essential products. Pictured: Harry Webb, a delivery boy for Sainsbury’s, with his tricycle in 1913
‘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.’
Chop Chop has no minimum basket spend but costs £4.99 for delivery which the supermarket says will be within an hour.
Stores dealt with record levels of demand in March with combined grocery sales rising by 20.6 per cent in the last four weeks, figures from Kantar revealed.
Sainsbury’s became the best performer of the traditional big four supermarkets after experiencing a growth in sales by 7.4 per cent.