Shoppers bag a bargain with grocery service

TIME-poor shoppers keen to avoid supermarket aisles and checkout queues are turning to free pick-up services in droves.

The nation’s biggest supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles, have seen a massive uptake in grocery customers ticking off their shopping lists online before trotting down to the supermarket to pick up their goods.

Woolworths head of online Annette Karantoni said the supermarket giant introduced free

‘You can control the discretionary spend that you have’ Annette Karantoni, head of Woolworths online

pick-up services 18 months ago and more than 500,000 customers had jumped on board.

Woolworths allows customers who order at least $30 of groceries to collect their items for free in store.

“You can control the discretionary spend that you have and without a five year old tugging at your skirt who is going to throw things into the trolley,” Ms Karantoni said. “As you are shopping online, the basket at the top of the page shows how much spending you are committed to.”

She said if you were sticking to a

READY TO GO:

Anne Prasad picks up her online grocery shopping from Woolworths customer service manager Carmela Domingo. Picture: Tracey Nearmy budget, shopping online was an easier way to monitor your total spend, because as items were picked and dropped into your shopping basket, a running tally appeared on the screen.

Woolworths customers have three times each day when they can pick up their groceries from a nearby store.

Coles Online’s chief executive, Alister Jordan, said its online sales had climbed by 27 per cent in the last quarter. Customers need to spend a minimum of $50 at Coles supermarkets or $30 at Coles Express to be entitled to free pick-up.

The supermarket giant is completing its rollout of Click and Collect services across the country and it’s now available at more than 1000 locations.

“It’s growing in popularity as the network continues to grow and there is a great need for an easy, convenient and affordable shopping solution for busy Australians,” Mr Jordan said.

Aldi supermarkets do not offer pick-up services. MOTHER of three Anne Prasad, 30, regularly uses the free Woolworths supermarket pick-up service because “it’s convenient”.

“There’s no stress or impulse buying and there’s no extra cost,” she said. “I’m a busy mum so this is a quicker way of ordering everything I need online and then just going to the store to pick it up on the way home from work.”

Convenient for time-poor mum