Forget about going to the grocery store; the race for retailers is starting to get their food to their door at lightning speed.
Thanks to the pandemic that sparked a surge in online shopping, a number of new businesses are springing up across the UK claiming to have your food delivered in ten minutes – and now supermarkets are getting involved.
This month, Asda was the newest company, after Tesco and Sainsbury’s, to offer customers shopping in less than an hour.
The latest ultra-fast operators, including Zapp and Weezy, are distributing orders from so-called “dark stores” set up in retail spaces like railroad arches in densely populated areas after buying their inventory mostly from wholesalers.
A plethora of new companies claiming to have your food delivered in ten minutes are popping up across the UK – and now supermarkets are getting involved. So will the fast delivery of groceries revolutionize our shopping habits?
In the meantime, supermarket services usually use order pickers in their “local” stores and then distribute the goods via established fast delivery companies such as Deliveroo, Amazon and UberEats.
So will the fast delivery of groceries revolutionize our shopping habits?
To find out, TANITH CAREY ordered shopping basics from some of the best known in their North London home and set her stopwatch to see who would win the big food race. . .
THE SUPERMARKETS
Tesco whooosh
Promise: One hour
Reality: 30 minutes
Shipping costs: £ 5, with an additional £ 2 for baskets under £ 15
Available: Areas close to 12 stores in London, Bristol and Wolverhampton
After a test in the Midlands, Tesco is expanding the reach of its express delivery service Whoosh. But since it has a selection of 1,700 of Tesco’s most popular items, it’s meant to be recharged rather than a full shop.
In addition to the £ 5 delivery fee, there is also a price tag for this speed. An 800g loaf of Hovis Original 7 Seeds bread was £ 1.75 on Whoosh but only £ 1.60 on Tesco online.
Still, being able to shop at the supermarket so quickly is impressive – in this case, my supplies were delivered in half an hour by bike from a nearby Tesco metro.
To find out, Tanith Carey (pictured) ordered shopping essentials from some of the most famous ones in her north London home and set her stopwatch
Asda
Promise: 1 hour
Reality: 1 hour and 20 minutes
Shipping costs: £ 8
Available: If you live within three miles of the Halifax, Rotherham and Poole offices
With its new trial version, Asda is the last of the four big supermarkets to jump on the express delivery train.
But it gets big by being the first to give customers the opportunity to choose from a whopping 30,000 items – the largest selection yet – and all at their usual prices.
While other services limit order quantities because they are often brought by bike, Asda customers can receive up to 70 items within an hour.
Since this wasn’t available to me in London, Jill, who lives in West Yorkshire, tested it on the street. We were there from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
At 2:38 p.m. we received a text message that the driver was on the way and at 2:48 p.m. a man in an unbranded car handed us three shopping bags in good condition.
Aldi (via Deliveroo)
Promise: 30 minutes
Reality: 10 mins
Shipping costs: £ 4.99, plus a 5 percent service charge of your order for Deliveroo
Available: Via Deliveroo to customers within 6 km of 120 stores across the country
Despite being a large supermarket, the chain has amazingly beaten even its smaller rivals by delivering my purchases – which were picked up at my local Aldi less than a mile away – to me in just ten minutes.
You order via the Deliveroo website or app.
After I had placed my order at 12:57 p.m., a courier handed me my purchases in mint condition at 13:07 p.m.
However, buy the triple cooked chips this way and they’ll cost £ 2.15 – buy them online from Aldi and wait a day and they’ll only cost £ 1.79.
She found that Aldi (Via Deliveroo) stunned even its smaller rivals by getting their purchases – which were picked up by a local Aldi less than a mile away – to her in just ten minutes
COOP
PROMISE: Within two hours
REALITY: 2 hours
DELIVERY COSTS: £ 1.99 and tote bags of 20p
AVAILABLE: 600 branches across the country
When ordering via Co-op’s two-hour delivery service, there is a generous 6,000 product lines to choose from.
But the good news is that unlike some other supermarket chains, they are the same price as if I bought them myself.
To get my purchases within two hours, I had to spend at least 15 pounds. I ordered at 1:10 p.m., but since the next window had already expired, I had to leave between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. The groceries arrived shortly after 3 p.m.
. . . AND THE NEW CHILDREN ON THE BLOCK
ZAPP
Promise: Within 20 minutes
Reality: 14 minutes
Shipping costs: 1.80 € but free shipping from an order value of 30 €
Available: Areas of London and Manchester
This app offers a user-friendly grid with more than 1,000 curated offers with lots of snacks, ice cream and alcohol. In my case, there’s one in Hornsey, a little over a mile away.
After I pressed the confirmation button on my phone at 1:16 p.m., there was a knock on the door 14 minutes later – I’m happy that everything arrived safely.
WEEZY
Promise: 15 minutes
Reality: 19 minutes
Delivery fee: € 2.95
Available: Parts of London, Bristol, Brighton, Hove, Salford and Manchester
Weezy calls itself the “15-minute supermarket” and seems to position itself as the Waitrose of super-fast delivery services as it works with “reputable wholesalers” and sources its fruit daily from the New Covent Garden Market.
It sells meals from Pasta Evangelists for £ 10. But a four-pack of Budweiser beers costs £ 5, compared to £ 4 at Tesco.
And that took 19 minutes longer than the other apps – and four minutes longer than promised.
Sainsburys (via UberEats)
PROMISE: 20 minutes
REALITY: 39 minutes
DELIVERY COSTS: A total service charge of £ 2.08, a service charge of 10 percent of orders placed on Deliveroo up to a maximum of £ 2.99 and a small order charge of £ 3 on orders under £ 20
AVAILABLE: 55 stores across London and 37 other cities across the UK
There are two ways to do some quick shopping in Sainsbury’s. Either you use the Chop Chop app, which promises 20 items within an hour for a minimum purchase of £ 15 and a delivery fee of £ 4.99. Or if you want to shop faster you can use UberEats.
But because three of my items were sold out, my order was reduced from around £ 22 to just £ 17.90, which annoyingly meant I was charged a £ 3 small basket fee and a £ 1.79 service fee . Considering it came from a Sainsbury’s local about two minutes away, the 40-minute delivery was rather sluggish.
Waitrose (via Deliveroo)
PROMISE: 20 minutes
REALITY: 16 minutes
DELIVERY COSTS: Up to € 4.99 depending on where you live, plus a service fee of 5% of your order to Deliveroo
Available: At 86 Waitrose locations across the country
The challenges of starting an express food delivery were underscored by the fact that Waitrose has just closed its same-day service, Rapid. Instead, it switched to Deliveroo.
I placed my order at 12:25 p.m.
At 12:40 p.m. I received a message that my delivery driver was four minutes away – he arrived on his electric bike in just two minutes.
The foods were the best packaged of all.
Morrisons (via Amazon)
PROMISE: Same day delivery with a two hour time window
REALITY: 2 hours 46 minutes
Shipping costs: € 3.99 for orders under € 40 and free over € 40
AVAILABLE: In more than half of all postcodes across the country
Morrisons has chosen to partner with Amazon.
It’s not easy to see just how much choice there really is, even though Morrisons says there are 15,000 products – and that prices stay the same.
When I ordered 14 items for about £ 26, they arrived within three hours, courtesy of a man in an unbranded car who said it was from the Chingford store 12 miles away.
Additional reporting from Jill Foster