sainsbury's chop chop

Sainsbury’s is expanding its one-hour bike delivery service beyond Wandsworth to an additional 35,699 London postcodes.

From tomorrow, customers in areas including Wimbledon, Southwark and Paddington will be able to use the supermarket’s Chop Chop app to place an express order for a flat fee of £4.99.

A team of 40 shoppers and cyclists will fulfil the orders from the two participating branches - the original site of the trial in Wandsworth and its Pimlico branch.

There will be no minimum order but, as the orders are delivered by bike, they will be limited to a maximum of 20 items. A double charge will apply if items are particularly large or heavy.

Sainsbury’s first trialled the Chop Chop app, available for free on the Apple App Store, in Wandsworth in June.

At the time, Sainsbury’s said the trial was part of its strategy to enable customers “to shop with us whenever and wherever they want”.

Sainsbury’s would not give out figures on uptake, but said the three-month trial had “made us want to trial the service with a bigger population”.

Jon Rudoe, Sainsbury’s director of digital and technology, said customers in Wandsworth had been using the service to buy forgotten or emergency goods, or when inviting guests on the spur of the moment.

“If it proves popular we might introduce it to other areas of London,” Rudoe said. “It complements our same-day delivery service, which is available at selected London postcodes through our online groceries service.”

Sainsbury’s began offering same-day delivery from three stores in and around London in July for a price of £5 to £7, and plans to extend this to 30 stores by Christmas if the trial proves successful.