Sainsbury’s revives Chop Chop delivery service from closed c-store

• The offer has been tailored to those self-isolating and the vulnerable and elderly

• The retailer expects to be able to serve up to 3,500 customers a week from the one store

• Sainsbury’s is no longer accepting new customer registrations on its website

Sainsbury’s is trialling the use of its fast delivery service Chop Chop to boost online capacity and get a small basket of groceries from a handful of closed convenience stores to customers during the coronavirus battle.

The supermarket had suspended its on-demand service, which guaranteed the delivery of up to 20 items in less than 60 minutes, to focus all efforts on stocking stores and meeting surging demand for online.

Now, Sainsbury’s has now turned its Blackfriars Local outlet in London, which was temporarily closed last week along with 12 other c-stores, into its first ‘dark’ convenience store for the trial. It’s the first time Chop Chop has operated from a convenience store.

The offer had been tailored to those self-isolating and the vulnerable and elderly, Sainsbury’s said. A refreshed list of about 400 essential grocery and household products is available on the service, which is available to Londoners living within 3km of Sainsbury’s Blackfriars Local store.

Sainsbury’s said it would roll out the Chop Chop service to other closed Local stores in cities across the UK, as well as London more widely, if it proved popular.

The retailer 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.

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. 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.”

Demand for e-commerce has been unprecedented since Boris Johnson ordered a lockdown of the UK and encouraged shoppers to buy food online. Supermarket websites have been unable to cope with the levels of traffic and delivery slots are sold out for weeks in advance.

Sainsbury’s is no longer accepting new customer registrations and is prioritising elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers for its online delivery slots. Over the past two weeks it had booked more than 320,000 slots for these customers, it said.

After expanding capacity, Sainsbury’s can now deliver 472,000 orders a week and has also increased click & collect slots from 41,000 to almost 100,000 a week.