Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s: one-hour supermarket delivery services

Getting your food delivered straight to your front door has understandably been an in-demand option during the pandemic, but you don’t necessarily have to book days in advance.

A host of supermarkets are now introducing same-day services, and even deliveries within just one hour.

While it's easy to see the appeal of superfast deliveries, it's worth noting that most of these involve delivery by bike/motorbike, so there will be weight and size restrictions in place.

As such, one-hour deliveries are unlikely to be suitable for your family's regular weekly shop.

Also, note that some supermarkets are still in the process of getting their services up and running: if you're happy to do your grocery shop on a phone or tablet, you should take a look at these superfast grocery delivery apps that are available today. 

With those caveats out the way, here’s how the big names and their rapid delivery deals shape up.

Asda is trialling a new one-hour delivery service called Express Delivery.

The service certainly isn’t cheap, as it costs £8.50 per delivery, though users can take advantage of the full line-up of Asda’s products, which the supermarket reckons runs to as many as 30,000 products.

The initial trial is open to shoppers who live within a three-mile radius of stores in Halifax, Poole and Rotherham.

You can order up to 70 items for the one-hour delivery, while if you need to go for a bigger shop then you’ll need to select a four-hour window.

Morrisons has partnered with online giant Amazon in a bid to get its groceries to your door that bit quicker.

Its goods are available for Amazon Prime members, and you can pick a one-hour or two-hour delivery slot for the range of Amazon Fresh items. 

There’s a minimum spend of £15, while if you go for a one-hour slot there’s a delivery fee of £3.99 to pay, rising to £6.99 for deliveries of under £40.

The partnership has also seen the launch of click and collect services in certain locations.

For the delivery service, you can order through the Amazon website or on its app. 

Ocado has a ‘Zoom’ service, which promises to deliver your groceries “in a jiffy”, or else during a designated same-day slot.

Shoppers can choose from around 10,000 products, and place their orders through the dedicated Zoom app. 

There’s a minimum spend of £15, while deliveries come from the courier firm Stuart, with delivery costs starting at £1.99. 

Sainsbury’s has gone for a slightly different route, offering its groceries on a rapid delivery basis through both Uber Eats and Deliveroo.

Each of the delivery services cover orders for 100 stores each, with a host in London as well as other cities like Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool and York.

Shoppers have hundreds of products to choose from, encompassing everything from ready meals and store cupboard staples to fresh fruit and vegetables.

Orders are placed through the delivery firms’ apps, rather than with Sainsbury’s directly. As a result, the actual cost of the deliveries will vary depending on your location and how far away you are from the store your groceries are being picked from.

Tesco is trialling its own one-hour delivery service, Whoosh.

The trial is taking place in the midlands, with shoppers in selected customers around its Wolverhampton Willenhall Express store able to take advantage of the service.

Shoppers can place their orders through the Tesco website or via its app, with deliveries costing £5 and being delivered by bike, moped or car. While there isn’t technically a minimum spend, if your order comes to less than £15 you’ll be charged an additional £2 fee.

There’s no minimum or maximum number of orders ‒ instead, the weight and size of your order is tracked, and so if your basket is too heavy you’ll be notified. 

Your groceries can be delivered between 7am and 10pm all week. 

Shoppers are provided with a ‘guide price’, since the actual price of certain items like meat and cheese can vary.

There are no product substitutions, and you can track the progress of your order through the app. 

There are plenty of rapid delivery services which will pick up your groceries and deliver them to you in under an hour, but which aren’t run by the supermarkets themselves.

Instead, the service means that your shopping can be picked up at any convenient retailer, whether that’s a supermarket or a local convenience store.

Beelivery is a good example here, promising shopping delivered in between 15 minutes and an hour, with delivery costing just £3.50.

There is a £12 minimum spend, and you can order through the website or app.

Another option is Grocemania. It only operates in London and Brighton at the moment but has partnered with names like Londis, NISA, Budgens and Spar.

There’s no minimum spend, a delivery fee of £2.50 and your items should be with you in as little as 30 minutes.