Online shopping just got tastier

By Danielle Gagnier

Two local grocers are offering a click and collect service allowing shoppers to purchase their groceries online and pick them up without having to leave the comfort of their car.

Employees at Zehrs in Tecumseh and Malden Village can now be shopping for the customers and bring the bags of groceries out to their cars which will be parked in reserved parking spots.

The new service was scheduled to launch March 17 but there were issues with the server that needed to be addressed, pushing the start date to March 29. The Zehrs in Tecumseh had between 15 and 25 people ordering online each day during the first week and the store in Malden Village averaged between six and eight, making it a successful first week according to Paul Dawson.

“People are using the website a lot already,” said Dawson, manager of the click and collect department at the Tecumseh location. “We’re very happy with the response from the public so far. Our goal is to hopefully have two per cent of store sales be online shopping within a year.”

Each location also hired at least 10 new employees to shop for online customers. If the service goes well, Dawson said they may be hiring more employees to keep up with business.

Before making the website public, the employees were able to use the service for themselves to test it. According to Rachel Zaleski, manager of the click and collect service at the Malden location, there have been nothing but good reviews so far.

“There was a lot of positive feedback from customers I talked to,” said Zaleski. “They thought this was a great idea, a great program that was being launched. They’re really looking forward to this service.”

Employees have been scanning every item in the store in order for them to be available for customers to order on the website. Dawson said there are over 15,000 items already on the website and they plan on adding another 1,000 items.

Kristine Beaton, a newly hired employee, said although she will not be using the click and collect service, she understands how it can benefit the public.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Beaton. “It’s kind of neat that it offers people who don’t have the ability to come in, or just are too busy to come in, a different option.”

Shop.zehrs.ca requires customers to create an account that will remember the location of the store where they shop, their favourite items, and their PC Plus card. There is no limit on how much a customer can spend as long as it is more than $30. The cost for the service is $3 throughout the day unless it is prime time, between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. or on weekends, in which it will cost $5. Customers are able to pay with cash, credit, or debit at the store or online.