Deliveroo has opened a physical grocery store in London

By deliveroo hop.jpg

Food distribution is changing, bringing with it new business models to fit in with our increasingly busy lives. Now, the restaurant delivery giant Deliveroo has decided to branch out from so-called dark kitchens to a full-fledged grocery store, taking some of the strain out of food shopping for Londoners.

Food distribution is changing, bringing with it new business models to fit in with our increasingly busy lives. Now, the restaurant delivery giant Deliveroo has decided to branch out from so-called dark kitchens to a full-fledged grocery store, taking some of the strain out of food shopping for Londoners.

From milk and flour to ready meals. The new grocery store that's the talk of London is just like any other, except for one detail. Here, customers can't wander the aisles and choose their own products. Instead, they shop using digital terminals at the entrance of the store, located on the busy New Oxford Street, in the heart of the British capital. An employee is then in charge of picking the items from the shelves before handing the bags of shopping over to customers. And the latter are sure to recognize the signature color scheme if they're already users of meal delivery services, because in this new grocery store, the distinctive turquoise blue of Deliveroo is immediately apparent. The British restaurant delivery giant has just opened its very first bricks-and-mortar food store. Far from its model of dark kitchens -- the hidden kitchens where burgers and other small restaurant dishes are prepared and sold only via Deliveroo's mobile application -- the London-based company is coming out of the shadows to engage with customers in a new way.

For this, the delivery giant has partnered with Morrisons, one of the UK's largest supermarkets. In the shelves of its small grocery store, Deliveroo has stocked more than 1,750 items, mostly essentials for cooking or for eating on the go. The store is open from 8 am until 11 pm, every day. Indeed, the brand is keen to meet those last-minute needs that arise when you haven't planned in advance for the day's meals.

People in the UK can already order last-minute groceries via the Deliveroo app, which made its first foray into the world of rapid grocery delivery last year with its Hop service, again launched in partnership with Morrisons. This digital functionality has since spread throughout the UK. In addition to this, the new grocery store further increases Deliveroo's presence in users' daily lives.

The firm is thus stepping on the toes of Amazon, which also targets consumers who want to get their grocery shopping done quickly. For its part, the e-commerce behemoth has chosen a different business model to enter the very competitive food distribution market. Jeff Bezos' company is banking on real, walk-in stores where shoppers can pay at the checkout via smartphone, by logging into their Amazon account. In the United States, shoppers are currently trying out the experience with Amazon Go, while in the United Kingdom, this falls under Amazon Fresh brand.

For its part, Deliveroo is not hiding its ambitions to branch out. Last May, the restaurant delivery company opened its first real restaurant by taking over a pizza place in London.

© Agence France-Presse