Click and collect convenience

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/05/2020 (1958 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Red River Co-op launched an online click-and-collect pick-up program at its Grant Park location Monday, giving members and customers another option during a time when in-store shopping has given many customers pause and anxiety.

The program wasn’t thrown together in a matter of weeks as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Kelly Romas, the co-op’s director of marketing. For a few years, it had been planned to launch by spring 2020; it just so happened that the timing for its rollout was impeccable and much-needed by Red River’s clientele given the current crisis.

“We had been looking at an online option for a few years, and trying to find the right way to deliver,” Romas said. “It’s definitely not something we (did) in response to COVID. It was set to launch this spring, and we were happy we could do that.”

The service, which can be found online at shop.crs, launched in five co-ops across the country Monday, including North Central Co-op in Edmonton, Central Alberta Co-op in Red Deer, Saskatoon Co-op, and Sherwood Co-op in Regina.

For the past few months at the Grant Park location, pickup hasn’t been able to meet demand: customers have been using the parcel pickup spot outside the main doors in the busy mall parking lot. The launch of the pickup service — which comes with no added fees — looks to expand the co-op’s reach while preparing for the future of in-store shopping, which already feels like an option fewer Canadians want to explore.

In March, pollsters at Angus Reid and Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab polled Canadians about their grocery-shopping habits. Among a sample of 1,014 respondents, 65 per cent said they were concerned about risks at the grocery store. The province most concerned was Ontario (73 per cent), and the least was Saskatchewan (44 per cent). All other provinces fell somewhere in the middle.

At that point, only three per cent of respondents had opted to buy groceries online since the beginning of the pandemic owing to their concerns. However, by May, when the report was updated, that proportion had grown to five per cent. The report’s authors noted that while that may not seem like much of a climb, a two per cent jump is indicative of a significant shift in habits: since the beginning of COVID-19 restrictions in Canada, the proportion of online grocery shoppers has tripled.

The May report also asked Canadians how their food-related habits will change once pandemic restrictions are lifted, and not surprisingly, online shopping is expected to be an attractive option for all age demographics. Eleven per cent of those between 18-34 and 35-54 years old, and five per cent of those 55 years and older, plan to order food online more post-pandemic than pre-pandemic, when only two per cent of Canadians used online food-shopping options.

Part of that increase is due to necessity, while part of it is tied to preference over the in-store experience: at Co-op and many other big stores, one-way traffic has been implemented, while increased sanitization and cleaning are being promoted heavily throughout the aisles.

The researchers at Dalhousie found 81 per cent of shoppers are using extra sanitizer while shopping, 42 per cent disinfect their haul when they return home, and some 30 per cent wear either a face mask or gloves. Sixty-four per cent of shoppers are still going to the store, but the new reality has made online options more appealing.

Red River Co-op’s online service also seems well-suited to the new grocery experience: purchases must be a minimum of $50, which dovetails well with the Angus Reid-Dalhousie finding that Canadians are buying more per stop to avoid frequent visits. Online, users can reserve a day and a time slot, during which they will be able to park in one of four designated spots before calling a staff member to deliver groceries straight to them.

Other grocers across the country, such as Sobeys, Save-On Foods and the Real Canadian Superstore, have been deploying click-and-collect for considerably longer, but have nonetheless been promoting the service as more Canadians shift their spending habits. Co-op hopes its lack of pickup fees is an enticing option to harried shoppers.

For Red River Co-op, the plan is to pilot the click-and-collect program at Grant Park before expanding it to their St. Vital store, plus the in-construction St. Norbert location as well as the Seasons of Tuxedo location, which is set to break ground this fall.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca