Waitrose is set to treble the number of rapid deliveries available every week and increase click-and-collect slots by 50% as it works to support older and vulnerable customers.
The grocer said that from today it would be trebling its Waitrose & Partners rapid delivery service to give over 2.5 million households the option to use the service to get the food and essentials they need.
From the end of next week, Waitrose said it would ensure that 40% of the new rapid delivery slots would be earmarked for older and vulnerable customers and would be contacting those people registered as such with the government to inform them of priority access.
The service, which enables customers to order up to 25 grocery items within two hours or less on the same day, has been trialled across eight of Waitrose’s London stores, as well as in Hove, East Sussex, but has today been expanded to an additional 20 stores across London.
Rapid delivery slots will increase to 7,000 a week, up from 2,000, and will be available to 2.5 million households.
Waitrose have also introduced an additional 10,000 online grocery collection slots, increasing the number available from stores to more than 30,000 a week. At least a quarter of these slots will be reserved for elderly and vulnerable customers.
Director of Waitrose.com Ben Stimson said: “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.
“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%.”
No comments yet