Tesco share price: Retailer and peer Sainsbury’s ditch Click & Collect at Tube stations

Tesco (LON:TSCO) and Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY) have pulled out of a partnership with Transport for London (TfL), which offers commuters the opportunity to pick up their groceries from Tube station car parks, the Evening Standard has reported. According to inside sources, the reason for the companies’ withdrawal from the scheme is largely down to customers preferring to drive to car parks of individual grocery stores to pick up their orders rather than doing so just after they have commuted on the tube.

The Click & Collect service was introduced in 2013 and expanded last year. A Tesco spokesperson told City A.M. today that it had joined the scheme because it was “always looking for new ways to make food shopping easier”. “However, our London customers have told us they prefer the Click & Collect service at our stores and online grocery shopping,” the group said, as quoted by the Evening Standard. The UK’s largest retailer added that it would continue to offer the Click & Collect service in almost 400 of its outlets across the country.
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson also commented on its decision to end the TfL partnership: “We set up a few trial collection points with Tfl last year to see how customers used the service. Although it was popular in some areas, it wasn’t used in others as much as we’d like.” Sainsbury’s noted that it would also continue to offer Click & Collect and even planned to expand the service, adding around 100 sites to the existing 20 collecting points by the end of the year.
TfL’s head of retail, Stuart Anderson, said: “Tesco and Sainsbury’s have decided not to extend beyond their trial, but we continue to work closely with them to identify other suitable retail opportunities on our network.” He further revealed that fellow retailers Asda, Waitrose and Ocado remained committed to the scheme.
Shares in Tesco and Sainsbury have been trading in negative territory so far today. By 13:29 BST, the retailers have fallen 1.65 percent and 0.73 percent, respectively.
As of 13:57 BST, Wednesday, 17 June, Tesco PLC share price is 208.03p.