Supermarket without customers opens in Auckland

Wednesday, 15 April 2020

An inside look into Countdowns first dedicated online store in Penrose Auckland.

Countdown has opened the country's first dedicated online store in Auckland in response to rapid growth in online sales.

The 8800 square metre store in Penrose, Auckland is like a traditional format supermarket but there are no customers.

Instead, 200 full and part-time personal shoppers will fill online orders for delivery from Countdown's 10 busiest stores.

Countdown said there had been a significant rise in demand for online shopping before the spread of the coronavirus, but it had exploded under lockdown.

Countdown's digital general manager Sally Copland said there had been a significant rise in demand for online shopping before the spread of the coronavirus, but demand had exploded under lockdown with visits to its website rising 300 per cent.

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'We are seeing ten times the amount of customer registrations than we normally would each week, and additionally we have now delivered groceries to tens of thousands of New Zealanders who registered for our priority assistance service.'

In response to Covid-19, Countdown temporarily closed six stores to cater to the demand for online shopping.

The Penrose store will operate 24-7 and will have the capacity to fulfil more than 7500 orders a week.

Sally Copland, Countdown's digital general manager says the dark store will free up space in Auckland's traditional stores.

Click and collect orders will continue to be fulfilled and collected from local stores, she said.

The supermarket giant estimated it would be able to triple the number of pick-up orders processed at the stores.

'This is crucial in these challenging times when we know so many people are relying on online shopping,' Copland said.

The fulfilment centre, also known as dark stores or 'shadow warehouses', would also free-up space in supermarkets, she said.

The store will service online delivery orders from Countdown supermarkets in Mt Wellington, St Johns, Three Kings, Mt Eden, Botany, Manukau City Mall, Meadowlands and Manurewa, with Grey Lynn Central and Ponsonby to be included at a later date.

Online shopping is increasing in popularity as how Kiwis shop under Covid-19 changes.

Countdown had also partnered with Boston-based startup Takeoff Technologies to introduce a partially-automated 'micro fulfilment' process later this year, which would see personal shoppers able to buy packaged goods without walking up and down store aisles.

Senior lecturer in marketing at Massey University, Andrew Murphy, said it was too early to tell whether online shopping habits would significantly change after the Covid-19 crisis.

'Clearly what is happening now is pushing a lot of people to shop online, if they are able to,' Murphy said.

Technological issues and availability of slots had proved to be barriers for shoppers, but that could be eased by the development of the dark store, Murphy said.

The amount spent online on grocery in New Zealand was only around 3 per cent to 4 per cent prior to the spread of Covid-19. That was likely to change, Murphy said.

'If New Zealanders like the experience they are having, they will continue to do it,' he said.