Waitrose has announced that the number of delivery slots available each week, through its Waitrose & Partners Rapid service, is now set to more than treble, giving over 2.5 million households the option to use the service to get the food and essentials they need.
The supermarket has also confirmed that at least 40% of these new slots will be reserved exclusively for the elderly and vulnerable. 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 shops, as well as in Hove, East Sussex. It is now available in the areas surrounding an additional 20 shops 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. To check if the service delivers in their area, customers can enter their postcode on the Waitrose & Partners Rapid website.
Waitrose has also announced that it will 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 shops across the UK by the end of May. Forty shops are expected to offer this by the end of April. Customers can check if the service is available to them by typing in their postcode on the slot booking page at Waitrose.com.
As with Waitrose.com delivery slots, at least a quarter of collection slots will be also reserved for the elderly and vulnerable.
Grocery collection has already launched in its shops in Kingston, Sevenoaks, Wimbledon, East Sheen, Westfield White City, Northwood and Bloomsbury, with more being rolled out in the coming weeks.
Ben Stimson, Waitrose.com Director, 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%.”