The luxury supermarket Marks and Spencer have engaged the services of grocery delivery service Togle, to deliver their food to customers, in the latest play in the supermarket ‘time wars’.
Customers in west and south-west London, the Kensington and Chelsea areas, are now able to have M&S food delivered to their door within 40 minutes of purchasing online. Togle, who are relative newcomers to the sector of high-speed delivery, currently serve these areas, but they are hoping to use this move to expand their reach into Central London.
AmazonFresh, which delivers groceries to Prime members within the hour, and services such as Jinn, which offers anything delivered within the hour (both so far only within London), are putting pressure on more traditional retailers to compete; this news from M&S follows the recent announcement of Tesco’s one-day delivery service and same-day click-and-collect option, and Morrisons’ new delivery partnership with Ocado.
It also comes as Morrisons, Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s – known as the ‘big four’ supermarkets – launch a price war, driving food costs down. This means, perhaps coincidentally, that shoppers now have more to spend on quicker delivery, as Britain becomes more addicted to instant gratification.
We strongly believe that nowadays, people shouldn’t be waiting long for their groceries to be delivered,” Togle co-founder Abay Kuzhagaliyev said. “M&S do not offer delivery but as a top supermarket we believe delivery is something people want.”
