Waitrose ramps up delivery service as it combats coronavirus
Waitrose is more than trebling the number of delivery slots available each week through its Rapid service.
By the end of next week at least 40% of these new slots will be reserved exclusively for the elderly and vulnerable. The retailer says that it will contact customers on the government's list of vulnerable people to inform them that they have priority access to Rapid slots.
The service, which enables shoppers to have up to 25 grocery items delivered within two hours or less or on the same day, has been trialled from eight London stores, as well as in Hove, East Sussex. From today it will be available in the areas surrounding an additional 20 stores across London.
This will increase the number of available slots from 2,000 to 7,000 each week and means the service is now available to more than 2.5 million households. Waitrose will also offer an additional 10,000 online grocery collection slots, taking the total number available each week to 30,000, by introducing its online collection service in around 70 additional stores across the UK by the end of May. 40 of these are expected to offer this by the end of April. Further info here.
“We are now making more online deliveries than Christmas week, every week, and have increased slots to reach 20% more customers than usual. We know there is demand for more slots and we are doing all we can to give as many people as possible the opportunity to get the essentials they need - especially those who need them the most,” says Ben Stimson, Waitrose.com Director.
“In addition to opening up more channels through expanding Waitrose Rapid and increasing the number of stores where online orders can be collected, we have recruited hundreds of drivers and increased the number of extra people-hours picking Waitrose.com orders by nearly 50%.”
