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Metro extends online grocery with new e-commerce hub store

Pickup and delivery services expand in Quebec and Ontario

Russell Redman

August 27, 2020

3 Min Read
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Metro plans to expand it hub store model to offer pickup service in about 30 stores in Quebec and Ontario in 2021.Metro Inc.

Metro Inc. is pushing ahead with its omnichannel strategy with the opening of its ninth e-commerce hub store in Quebec.

The Canadian food and drug retailer said online grocery service kicked off yesterday at the Metro Plus Plouffe supermarket in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Serving that community and surrounding areas, the new hub store will give more than 73,000 households and over 160,000 consumers access to online grocery shopping and pickup service.

Metro noted that the Plouffe hub store extends its e-commerce reach in Quebec’s Eastern Townships and builds on online grocery deployments in the greater Montreal area and Quebec City and Outaouais regions. Launched in 2016, Metro’s online grocery service is currently accessible to more than 61% of Quebec’s population.

The Montreal-based company also is growing its online grocery presence in Ontario. Plans call for a third store to offer the service in the greater Toronto area (GTA) this fall. In addition, the company aims to expand it hub store model to offer online grocery pickup service in about 30 Metro stores in Quebec and Ontario next year.

“Today, the popularity of e-commerce is at a level we had expected to reach in the next two or three years. Over the past few months, we have been working very hard to meet unprecedented demand, and the addition of a store in Sherbrooke is part of our growth plan,” according to Christina Bédard, vice president of e-commerce and digital strategy at Metro. “Customers in the region will certainly appreciate this service, which the [store owner] Plouffe Group will offer with the same high standards of quality for which they are renowned in the region.”

Related:Metro sees online grocery sales jump 280% in third quarter

With a mantra of “Fast and Fresh,” Metro’s e-grocery delivery service transports customer orders in a truck equipped with Tri-Zones temperate, refrigerated and frozen compartments to maintain food freshness. Products ordered for delivery or click-and-collect also are held in Tri-Zones inside the store as orders await pickup. In-store employees, too, are trained to select the freshest foods for customers, “as they would choose if they were shopping for themselves,” Metro said. The company added that delivery and pickup service is supported by Metro.ca and allows metro&moi loyalty program members to use their benefits online.

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Metro noted that it trains its associates to pick the freshest foods for customers, “as they would choose if they were shopping for themselves.

In Metro’s third-quarter earnings call this month, executives noted the company’s efforts to accelerate its plan to increase online grocery capacity. Online food sales jumped 280% in the quarter, and the hub store model is expected to help the retailer better meet surging demand.

Related:Metro grocery stores join InComm prepaid payments network

“We have learned a lot in the last four years, and we will be deleveraging the investments we made in building teams and expertise in the delivery of a full fresh basket to the homes of Quebecers and Ontarians, including robust technologies and competencies and customer web interface, picking and home delivery,” President and CEO Eric La Flèche said in the call. “In the short-term, after adding a second hub store in Quebec City earlier this year, we have just added a new hub store in Sherbrooke, Quebec, bringing to nine the total of number of stores in Quebec offering our online service. In Ontario, we will be adding a third hub store in Scarborough in October to serve the East End of the GTA.”

In late April, Metro unveiled a partnership with on-demand grocery service Cornershop to provide same-day grocery delivery in Quebec and Ontario. Orders are picked and packed by a personal shopper in a Metro store and delivered in one to two hours.

“We are pleased with the results so far,” La Flèche told analysts in the third-quarter call.

Overall, Metro’s retail network encompasses about 950 food stores under the Metro, Metro Plus, Super C, Food Basics and other banners in Quebec and Ontario, as well as 650 drugstores mainly under the Jean Coutu, Brunet, Metro Pharmacy and Food Basics Pharmacy banners.

About the Author

Russell Redman

Senior Editor
Supermarket News

Russell Redman has served as senior editor at Supermarket News since April 2018, his second tour with the publication. In his current role, he handles daily news coverage for the SN website and contributes news and features for the print magazine, as well as participates in special projects, podcasts and webinars and attends industry events. Russ joined SN from Racher Press Inc.’s Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers magazines, where he served as desk/online editor for more than nine years, covering the food/drug/mass retail sector. 

Russell Redman’s more than 30 years of experience in journalism span a range of editorial manager, editor, reporter/writer and digital roles at a variety of publications and websites covering a breadth of industries, including retailing, pharmacy/health care, IT, digital home, financial technology, financial services, real estate/commercial property, pro audio/video and film. He started his career in 1989 as a local news reporter and editor, covering community news and politics in Long Island, N.Y. His background also includes an earlier stint at Supermarket News as center store editor and then financial editor in the mid-1990s. Russ holds a B.A. in journalism (minor in political science) from Hofstra University, where he also earned a certificate in digital/social media marketing in November 2016.

Russell Redman’s experience:

Supermarket News - Informa
Senior Editor 
April 2018 - present

Chain Drug Review/Mass Market Retailers - Racher Press
Desk/Online Editor 
Sept. 2008 - March 2018

CRN magazine - CMP Media
Managing Editor
May 2000 - June 2007

Bank Systems & Technology - Miller Freeman
Executive Editor/Managing Editor
Dec. 1996 - May 2000

Supermarket News - Fairchild Publications
Financial Editor/Associate Editor
April 1995 - Dec. 1996 

Shopping Centers Today Magazine - ICSC 
Desk Editor/Assistant Editor
Dec. 1992 - April 1995

Testa Communications
Assistant Editor/Contributing Editor (Music & Sound Retailer, Post, Producer, Sound & Communications and DJ Times magazines)
Jan. 1991 - Dec. 1992 

American Banker/Bond Buyer
Copy Editor
Oct. 1990 - Jan. 1991 

This Week newspaper - Chanry Communications
Reporter/Editor
May 1989 - July 1990

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