A new same-day delivery service for groceries is being trialled by Sainsburys at three stores, with the potential for 27 more by Christmas, if it is successful.
The stores taking part to begin with are Sainsbury’s Streatham Common, Richmond and Brookwood in Surrey, with 900 jobs expected to be created by Christmas if everything goes ahead as planned.
A spokesperson for Sainsbury’s said: “As our online sales grow we are seeing an increasing proportion of orders placed for next day delivery, so this trial is a natural next step in delivering our strategy to help customers shop whenever and wherever they want.”
It comes not long after Amazon Fresh was launched, which sees same-day deliveries in London offered by Amazon, the online retail giant, in a deal with Morrisons. This has added more pressure onto Sainsbury’s, Asda and Tesco, especially with the continued growth of discount chains Lidl and Aldi, as the price war sees them each compete for an increased market share.
Sainsbury’s has also just received the all-clear from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to carry out a £1.4bn takeover of Home Retail Group, owner of Argos. The deal will see Sainsbury’s become one of the biggest sellers of general goods in the UK.
