Sainsbury’s Chop Chop move will have limited appeal

Sainsbury’s revival of its bicycle home delivery service Chop Chop shows compassion but expansion opportunities are limited, says GlobalData.

The retailer pulled the plug on Chop Chop while it concentrated on stocking stores and its online business amid the coronavirus outbreak. It has now turned its Blackfriars outlet, which, along with 11 other central London Local locations, recently temporarily closed, into its first ‘dark’ convenience store for the trial.

The service is currently available to those living within 3km of Blackfriars, but if it proves popular Sainsbury’s will roll it out out to other closed Local stores in cities across the UK as well as London more widely.

Blackfriars is stocking 400 essential grocery and household products, including milk and toilet roll. Customers will be able to order up to 20 items for same-day delivery. 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.

Thomas Brereton, Retail Analyst at GlobalData, believes that the move demonstrates inventiveness in utilising all Sainsbury’s stores to fulfil the hike in demand for grocery home delivery.

“While it only offers deliveries with a maximum product order of 20 items, and only within 3km of the store, it will help alleviate concerns of eligible customers – particularly those within vulnerable demographics – in receiving essential products quickly,” he says.

Sainsbury’s will, however, find it difficult to replicate this model across more of its 807 convenience store estate.

“The Blackfriars Local store had already been closed due to a drop-off in demand from its usual base (of people buying food on the go and grocery shopping during work hours); given that the number of other stores closed due to similar conditions is – in Sainsbury’s own words – a handful, scope for quickly rolling out Chop Chop on an effective scale appears constrained,” Brereton concludes.