Countdown to open 'dark store' in Wellington as online demand booms

Sunday, 26 July 2020

Countdown opened the country's first dedicated online supermarket in Auckland during lockdown.

After opening its first customer-free “dark store” during the coronavirus lockdown, Countdown is already planning its third.

The supermarket giant has announced plans for a dedicated facility in Grenada North, Wellington, to help meet growing demand for online shopping delivery.

The 3500 square metre Wellington store will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

A team of 100, including 50 new employees, will fulfil more than 7000 online orders each week from customers in Tawa, Porirua, Aotea, Lower Hutt, Johnsonville and Kilbirnie.

Countdown has opened a supermarket with a difference, to help deal with the increased demand they're dealing with.

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Sally Copland, Countdown’s general manager of brand and its digital team, CountdownX, said that with 38 per cent growth nationwide even before the Covid-19 pandemic, the online trend isn’t slowing down.

A team of 100 will pick and pack groceries for more than 7000 customers across Wellington each week.

And demand in Wellington is growing faster than anywhere else in the country.

“Wellingtonians have really embraced the ease and convenience of Countdown’s online shopping service, and we’ve been working really hard to open up more online hubs and delivery windows to help meet the growing demand,” she said.

“Centralising deliveries from the e-store will mean we can really scale and provide more delivery times and better product availability for our online shoppers, plus reduce the load on our bricks and mortar stores in Wellington too.”

“Dark stores,” also known as “e-stores” or 'shadow warehouses,” are aimed at improving online shopping services and freeing-up space in supermarkets.

The MyCountdown app now allows for online shopping.

The Wellington e-store will have all the trappings of a traditional supermarket, including a bakery, deli and butchery, just no customers in sight.

A layout based on what Wellington online customers buy most often will help speed up picking and packing of groceries.

“We’re always looking for ways to make our shopping experience better for both our online and in-store customers, and we’re really excited to continue to provide innovation and better service through our new e-store,” Copland said.

Dark stores are common in Britain and the United States but Kiwis have been slower to embrace online grocery shopping.

However, that has changed since the opening of Countdown’s first e-store in Penrose, Auckland, during lockdown.

Within two months of the Auckland opening, Countdown announced plans for a dark store within its Moorhouse store in Christchurch.

Its Grey Lynn Central store in Auckland has also remained closed to the public since lockdown to continue to service online customers only.

As well as expanding its e-store network, Countdown has added online shopping to its mobile app.

On Tuesday, Copland said there had been more than 200,000 new registrations for online shopping over lockdown, prompting the company to step up its in-app shopping feature for nationwide use.

At the end of March, 7.9 per cent of Countdown’s sales were online, and for the last week of March, as lockdown began, it increased to 11 per cent of sales.