Delivery giant Deliveroo has launched its first physical grocery store in the UK, in partnership with Morrisons.
The company’s “first-ever public-facing kiosk” launched earlier this week, featuring over 1,700 products ranging from fresh food, drinks, toiletries and tobacco.
The new Deliveroo Hop store, which is located on London’s New Oxford Street, is the first partnership with former Big 4 grocer Morrisons, launching a service which promises to deliver goods in “under minutes”.
Customers can order on the app and either have goods delivered to their address or collect them in store. They can also use the kiosks to order on-site, with Morrisons own-brand items available alongside many FMCG giants including Pepsi, Nestlé and Walkers.
The back of the store, which is not open to customers, is set up like a typical grocery store, making it easier for workers to grab and scan the items. A Deliveroo spokesperson told Grocery Gazette that inventory is updated in real time when an item is scanned by the employees working, with any out-of-stock items instantly removed from the ordering menu.
Exclusive look at the back of the store
According to the spokesperson, the store is re-stocked daily, with surplus fresh food being sold at a discounted price via the Too Good to Go app.
Deliveroo said the new store is the “future of how people shop”, revealing that people use the store for weekly shops and last-minute grabs. Apparently, “bananas, milk and avocados are the most popular items” being sold so far.
However, prices are slightly steeper than what is on offer from Morrisons online supermarket – as an example, 150g Morrisons Cheese Puffs retail at £1.49 at the Deliveroo Hop store and £1.25 on Morrisons website.
There is even a dedicated area for Deliveroo drivers to pick up orders at the back of the store.
Grocery Gazette also tested out the new Hop store by ordering three items. Once the order had been made and paid for, the whole process took just 1:30 seconds to be picked, bagged and collected.
Although the speedy service and the amount of products is game changing, it takes longer to find what you are looking for when searching through the amount of products on offer as the kiosk fails to facilitate a search bar.
The shop is probably not ideal for a big family shop but might attract the generic office worker who needs to grab some last minute ingredients whilst waiting for the bus.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
