Yahoo Finance Grocery deliveries when you're not at home with Asda trial
Asda is to deliver groceries to customers when they are not at home in a major escalation of the supermarkets arms race for online shoppers.
Customers will be able to have groceries delivered by the supermarket while they are out in a box fixed to their home. Chilled and frozen items can be stored in the box and kept for up to four hours from the point of drop off.
Asda said it will trial two box sizes to allow delivery of up to four or six totes of shopping. The boxes include insulating materials to ensure the correct product temperature is maintained and items are unaffected by hot or cold weather
Drivers enter a one-time code that allows them access to the box to make a single delivery, before locking it securely.
The supermarket chain said the trial was part of its efforts to make home delivery more convenient after a boom in demand during the coronavirus pandemic and as people begin to return to offices or travel for work.
The trial is taking place in a few locations in Yorkshire, the North East, Wales and the South. Asda said that the boxes could be used for other deliveries as long as it does not interfere with its own.
Simon Gregg, head of online groceries at Asda, said: "As things begin to open up again, the boxes provide a convenient way for customers to take delivery of their regular shop while they are not at home."
Asda has increased capacity for its home shopping service from 400,000 to 850,000 slots a week since the start of the pandemic.
Supermarket bosses say they expect demand for online orders to slow as restrictions gradually lift but insisted the broader shift to online grocery shopping is permanent.
