Following the news that Sainsbury’s is launching cycle home delivery service Chop Chop from its first convenience dark store:

Thomas Brereton, Retail Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view on the situation:

 “Sainsbury’s revival of its Chop Chop delivery trial (first launched in September 2016) demonstrates inventiveness in utilising all its stores to fulfil the hike in demand for grocery home delivery. While it only offers deliveries with a maximum product order of 20 items, and only within 3km of the store, it will help alleviate concerns of eligible customers – particularly those within vulnerable demographics – in receiving essential products quickly.

 “However, Sainsbury’s will find it difficult to replicate this model across more of its 807 convenience-store estate. The particular Local store selected to fill in as a fulfilment centre (Blackfriars, Central London) had already been closed due to a drop-off in demand from its usual base (of people buying food on the go and grocery shopping during work hours); given that the number of other stores closed due to similar conditions is – in Sainsbury’s own words – a handful, scope for quickly rolling out Chop Chop on an effective scale appears constrained.”