Iceland has put ‘emergency turkeys’ outside Tesco, Asda, and Morrisons stores in a cheeky stunt promoting its 450,000 newly available Christmas delivery slots.
The prop turkeys are in boxes with a glass front, to be broken “in case of emergency”.
“Or just book your Christmas delivery at Iceland.co.uk,” the message on the glass adds.
Iceland said it had found in a survey that shoppers were frustrated with other supermarkets making Christmas slots available early, with 84% believing it encouraged a panic booking frenzy.
Some major supermarkets began offering delivery slots for the week leading to Christmas from October this year, amid early signs of heightened demand. Tesco held off until November as usual but, like others, soon became booked up.
Iceland – whose 450,000 slots are available from today (13 December) – said its research found 43% of shoppers feared they would not get a slot. A third had been forced to forgo a traditional Christmas dinner in previous years over the issue, opting instead for chicken and in some cases pizza.
Iceland has dramatically expanded its online capacity during the pandemic, using its 1,000-strong estate to quickly ramp up store picking, as well as growing its fleet of vans.
Jen Bartle, Iceland head of delivered sales, said peak delivery capacity had grown 375% as a result, and a further 130 vans had been laid on for Christmas.
“With our help, there should be no need for an emergency turkey dash this year,” Bartle said.
Iceland did not say how many shoppers were surveyed.
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