What is in this article?:
- Retailers Expand Tests of Curbside Pickup Model
- Drive-Through Model
"With a dedicated drive-through area and dedicated employees bringing it out to the car, the time equation is being addressed in a more meaningful way.”
— Neil Stern, senior partner at McMillan Doolittle
CHELMSFORD, Mass. — Customers at the Stop & Shop supermarket here might not know it, but their store offers a mode of shopping that is currently all the rage in Europe.
The store offers a service that has been around for almost as long as the Internet — order your groceries online, pick them up at the store — but Stop & Shop and an increasing number of European retailers have improved upon that by adding a dedicated drive-up area alongside the store and a segregated order-storage area within the store.
Neil Stern, senior partner at McMillan Doolittle, Chicago, said the retailers that have implemented this offering have elevated e-grocery to a new level of convenience.
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“In the old days, you had to park, go into the store, pick up your stuff, and the consumer was saying, ‘How much time did I really save?’” he said. “Now, with a dedicated drive-through area and dedicated employees bringing it out to the car, the time equation is being addressed in a more meaningful way.”
In addition to the Chelmsford Stop & Shop, parent company Ahold, based in Amsterdam, also offers the service at two Giant-Carlisle locations in Camp Hill, Pa., and Willow Grove, Pa. Customer ordering is done through Ahold’s Peapod e-commerce platform.
“Our companies are currently looking into expanding the convenience of pick-up points as a format, tapping the expertise of Peapod,” Tracy Pawelski, vice president of external communications, Ahold USA, told SN. “We continue to evaluate pick-up sites and will have more to announce later this summer.”
