More than 130 years since Sainsbury’s first offered a home delivery service by bicycle, the retailer is preparing to trial the service again with customers living in central London, via its IOS Chop Chop App.

Chop Chop enables customers to order up to 20 items from the grocery chain, via an IOS App, and have them delivered by bicycle within one hour, for a flat fee of £4.99. Customers pay via the App, and can track their order. 

Following a successful small trial in the Wandsworth area, from tomorrow (Wednesday September 28) the supermarket group will add 35,699 more postcodes to its App and start operating the service from its Pimlico store.  

To run the service, Sainsbury’s has recruited a team of 40 shoppers and cyclists. As soon as an order is placed, staff in either the Wandsworth or Pimlico store will receive the information on an App and shop for the products. Another staff member will then deliver the order by bicycle.

Sainsbury’s says is the first UK supermarket to test an on-demand, one hour, grocery delivery service, giving customers a new way to shop.

Jon Rudoe, Sainsbury’s director of digital and technology, commented: “This trial is part of our strategy to give our customers more options to shop with us, whenever and wherever they want. Speed of delivery is important to some customers, so we have brought back our bicycle service to test demand further.

“In Wandsworth, customers are using the new one-hour delivery service to buy forgotten items or emergency goods when they cannot leave their home, or have invited guests on the spur of the moment.

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

Sainsbury’s first offered home delivery from its Croydon branch in 1882. Customers placed orders at the store which were then delivered by carts, pulled by horses, or even delivered by hand. Bicycles and tricycles came into use at the turn of the century and in 1915 Sainsbury’s purchased its first Model T Ford van.