I recently stumbled upon an interesting concept that’s currently in play in London that had me pondering: digital grocery shopping at the airport.
At the moment, Supermarket giant Tesco and the north terminal departure lounge at London’s Gatwick Airport are in the middle of a 2-week trial allowing travelers to use digital booths to shop for grocery items (such as bread, milk, etc), which would be delievered to them at home on the day that they return.
The booths contain large digital screens whereby the traveler can browse and purchase groceries simply by scanning the item’s barcode with a smartphone using the Tesco app. Travelers can then pay for their shopping order right there through the application and set a delivery date.
This launch was inspired by Tesco’s successful virtual supermarket model in South Korea where commuters have the ability to buy groceries in subways and at bus stops throughout Seoul simply by pointing their smartphones at billboards.
Personally, while grocery shopping is one of the last things on my mind when I’m just about to hop on a plane, seeing this statistic ties it all together: the average passenger spends about 70 minutes sitting at the terminal waiting to board their flight.
Some people might find grocery shopping to be a productive way to pass the time, eliminating the stress of having to worry about restocking the fridge after traveling.
However, here are some rhetorical questions that ran through my stream of thought:
- How much does this service cost? I can imagine a hefty “convenience” fee. From what I know, home delivery is never really a free service. Would the fee off-set the cost of the grocery items?
- What if your return flight is substantially delayed or canceled, leaving you unable to receive the home grocery delivery? Is there a way for Tesco to be communicated that information? Is there a way to attach your return flight information to your order?
Feel free to share your thoughts. Is this something you’d see in the future of our airports? Would you utilize this service?
Delivery fee by Tesco is between £3-£6 per delivery. I’d personally book a delivery slot long after I was home so I could be at home to get my shopping.
What would be more convenient is a Tesco Metro shop inside the terminal that could provide real competition against the cartel of companies at the airports at the moment who seem to keep prices high for the littlest things….
This is a great idea. As you said, when I am leaving on vacation with my family the last thing on my mind is grocery shopping. However, that is the first thing on my mind when coming back home. Usually when we go on vacation for more than 1 week we make sure to empty the fridge so we don’t get spoiled food when we get back. However, that means that as soon as we get home we have to unpack, do laundry, etc.. and most important, refill the fridge with fresh milk, yogurts, fruits, bread, etc… The problem is that right after arriving from a long flight and with lots of things to do at home the last thing I want to do is to go shopping for groceries. Thus, a service like this from Tesco would be perfect. We have some supermarkets in our area that do offer home delivery and they charge a flat fee of $9.95 regardless of size. However, you have to buy online from their website and have to be home at the delivery time you selected when ordering.
If the fee was reasonable, then yes, I would give it a try.
I think this is a great idea. One of the things I dread most after a long trip is having to go to the grocery store to pick up basic perishables just when I am most exhausted. If it really were to work seamlessly, though, there must be a means to communicate real-time status of one’s return home.
In the US Peapod has done a similar thing in a Philly subway station. I work for an affiliate of theirs but I am not sure how successful it was in terms of actual shopping vs awareness. I know the push with apps (don’t have to use them just at the billboard) is for people to start populating their grocery list whenever they have an idle moment. They could choose to then hit send, or in some of our locations they could take it as a list to the store and the app is mapped to the aisles so your list would be resorted to the order of the store.
FreshDirect.com & many other NYC supermarkets have offered online shopping & advance scheduled deliveries for @10 yrs now.
Before my flight home, I often place an order to ensure I replace the perishables tossed before my trip.