Aldi UK bins Deliveroo tie up and focuses on Click and Collect service
Aldi UK has ended its relationship with Deliveroo and pulled 130 stores nationwide from the food delivery platform.
The two first partnered in May 2020.
Aldi said it would offer a rapid delivery service from a store in Nottingham, before extending the trial to seven more locations across the East Midlands in June 2020.
Giles Hurley, CEO at Aldi UK & Ireland, said: “This is a new and exciting venture for us and we will be constantly reviewing how we can best serve our customers and continue to provide them with the high quality products they are used to in store.”
By the end of 2020, the partnership had been expanded to 130 stores.
Richard Thornton, Communications Director at Aldi UK, commented: “We’re finding customers really value having more ways to shop at Aldi, particularly at the moment.”
“That’s why we’ve been keen to extend our trial with Deliveroo to stores in more new areas, and plan to launch our trial of Click and Collect in more than 200 additional stores between now and Christmas. We will continue to monitor feedback of the service closely.”
Fast forward to the present day and the great rapid delivery experiment is no more.
“We have decided to end our trial with Deliveroo to focus on our Click and Collect service, which remains on offer at more than 200 of our stores nationwide,” an Aldi spokesperson told RTIH.
A case of shopping patterns returning to normal in a post-Covid world? Answers on a postcard, please, to the usual address.
Autonomous stores
Earlier this week, Aldi UK launched its first checkout-free store.
The Aldi Shop&Go concept store in Greenwich, London has opened for public testing, having been tested by staff members in recent months.
Situated on Greenwich High Street, it enables customers to complete their shop without scanning a single product, or having to go through a checkout.
They can download the Aldi Shop&Go app, which will allow them to enter the store, pick up their items, and then walk out when they have completed their shop.
Once a customer leaves the store they will then be automatically charged via their selected payment method and a receipt will appear in the app.
The system, provided by AiFi, uses specially positioned cameras.
Those people wishing to buy alcohol, or other Challenge 25 products, will be able to use facial age estimation technology, provided by Yoti, to authorise their purchase.
Hurley said: “This is the culmination of months of work, not least from the team here in Greenwich and I’m looking forward to seeing how customers react to our trial.”
“This store utilises the very latest in retail technology offering Aldi’s award winning products and unbeatable prices to customers in a new and innovative way. The team are really excited about seeing customers come in and experience Aldi Shop&Go.”
