Tesco to give 75,000 vulnerable shoppers priority access to booking deliveries
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TESCO has pledged to give 75,000 vulnerable shoppers priority access to online booking slots during the coronavirus crisis.
The supermarket says it’s started making contact with these customers, as UK supermarkets continue to be placed under extreme demand during the spread of COVID-19.
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The retailer says it's matched 75,000 people as Tesco customers from a list of 110,000 people given to it by the government on Thursday, April 2.
These people, which include elderly customers and those who are socially isolated, had all asked the government for help getting food supplies.
In an update today, Tesco CEO Dave Lewis said the supermarket has also increased the number of online delivery slots by 145,000 in the last two weeks.
He confirmed hundreds of thousands more slots are due to become available, but stopped short of saying how many would be created.
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Mr Lewis said: “We know it’s still difficult to get an online delivery slot at the moment due to high demand.
“We ask those who are able to safely come to stores to do so, instead of shopping online, so we can start to free up more slots for the more vulnerable.”
To help cope with increased demand, Tesco is also adding nearly 200 new vans, as well as recruiting an extra 2,500 drivers and over 5,000 pickers.
Tesco stores will also now be opening later to allow time for pickers to put together deliveries.
Instead of opening at 6am or 7am, stores with online grocery arms will now open from 8am.
Shops will also continue to close by 10pm at the latest - something Tesco introduced at its 24-hour stores a few weeks ago to give staff more time to stock shelves and clean.
Tesco has almost 4,000 stores in the UK - use the online to find the opening times of your nearest branch.
Tesco last week placed an 80 item cap on click and collect and home delivery orders to stop customers stock-piling.
Its limit of three of each item will also remain in stores and online.
Plus, this Tesco shopper has shared a supermarket aisle guide so people can buy their groceries quicker – and not miss anything.