This post was suggested to me by @glondon on a linked in discussion, based on an article in “The Grocer” magazine. I’ve linked the original press release to bypass “The Grocer’s” signup/paywall
Gregg asked me what I thought–well here are those thoughts.
- This has been in limited pilot since 2021, outside of London.
- It seems that Tesco has done the development to take orders and get store to pick (leveraging their very mature grocery ecommerce capability); last mile delivery is contracted out to Deliveroo. Unclear what class of stores are used for picking (local convenience, smaller supermarkets, or mainline stores). I suspect they are using whatever gets a viable catchment (and Tesco plan their ecommerce catchments very carefully, using loyalty scheme data)
- CoOp (national blue) launched a similar service around the same time. Anecdata from an acquaintance who works in a CoOp is that orders are often refused because they don’t have enough staff working to fil the order and operate the store as a store. Tesco tends to staff a bit more deeply.
- Tesco is a bit late to the party, Sainsbury has offered their qcommerce in select areas for a bit longer, as has Ocado. Deliveroo also has a picking and delivery relationship with Waitrose I believe.
- Tesco seems to have had a limited wholesale tieup with competing service Gorillas, i.e. Tesco reselling some of their stock (Tesco does have a small wholesale department. mostly ex-UK/IE), and the “Booker” side of the business is primarily a food wholesaler to independent and franchise shops and also food service.
All in all Tesco Whoosh has passed me by a bit since it hasn’t been available where I live (not sure even now), and as a household we are pretty good in planning our regular deliveries (from Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Ocado). I have a Tesco convenience store very close if I need a topup and a full Waitrose in walking distance to get anything special that I can’t cheaply/easily get otherwise (also a Sainsbury’s and a M&S Simple Food, and artisan butcher and a famous deli).