Iceland has opened 450,000 Christmas delivery slots while criticising its rivals’ “panic booking frenzy”.
In a survey, the retailer found that almost four in 10 shoppers had not managed to book an order in previous years.
Around one in three (32%) were forced to shell out a premium for slots during the Christmas week.
It comes a month after Tesco customers, trying to book early through the £96-a-year Delivery Saver scheme, found themselves in a queue of 300,000 people.
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The vast majority of respondents (84%) said that opening slots too far in advance encouraged panic booking.
At previous Christmases, around one in 10 of those left without a slot supposedly ate pizza for their big meal, while a third opted for chicken.
Iceland has supposedly expanded its delivery capacity by 375% in the last year, and hired an extra 130 vans for the festive season.
“We’ve managed to ensure that we will have 450,000 delivery slots to answer increased demand by customers,” delivered sales boss Jen Bartle said.
“With our help, there should be no need for an emergency turkey dash this year.
“However, we do remind customers that although we can get the turkey to your front door, we can’t be held responsible for any accidental over-cooking”.
Iceland has already tried to take advantage of Christmas fears this year, having launched “turkey insurance” after news of dwindling stocks.
The first 150,000 people to sign up to the scheme were guaranteed a turkey by Christmas Day.
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