Speedy grocery deliveries come at an environmental cost

We’re living in a time where panic buying seems to be a way of life, whether it’s toilet roll, pasta or fuel. Our shopping habits have undeniably changed. Our high expectations are just consumerism on steroids, and they have only worsened during the pandemic.

When getting groceries was difficult during the height of lockdowns, a gap in the market was filled with fast deliveries from the likes of Gorillas, Zapp, Weezy and Dija, to name a few. They don’t just offer dry goods, but fresh and frozen food, dairy items, pet food, cleaning products and alcohol too. Most promise what feels like an impossibly fast delivery time of just 20 minutes, and some even 10 minutes.

Of course, this new-found convenience comes at a price – but it’s not for the consumer. It comes at a cost to the environment. The idea of these fast delivery apps is to use small warehouses to store food and have deliveries made mostly by cyclists.

Some apps, such as Weezy, say up to half of their orders are made up of fresh food. This is stored in mini warehouses, kept chilled (using lots of electricity), and shelf lives are short as space is tight. Gorillas suggests this process actually avoids food waste, as the “big shop” is done a week or so in advance and “plans can change”, but I’m dubious.

During the pandemic, some supermarkets joined forces with Deliveroo in order to deliver around 20 or so items within an hour, including Sainsbury’s. Last month, Co-op partnered with Amazon – the third retailer to do so, following Boots and Morrisons. Like other grocery apps, Amazon deliveries offer minimum spends of around £15, with a delivery charge of £5. But these Amazon partnerships are not solely using cyclists to deliver, as some use cars or mopeds. Considering the low minimum spend that these services offer, deliveries could be as small as a pint of milk, toilet roll and a packet of chocolate digestives, spelling disaster for the company’s carbon footprint.

Granted, we all need to shop and are entitled to access the products we require. But convenience needn’t be the most important element of our consumer experience, especially when it comes at an environmental cost. Shopping in this way is unsustainable, and instead we must be more conscious consumers. We should learn to wait again.

So be patient and wait a few days for your online order, or join a queue in a shop – it is the British way, after all.

Yours,

Emma Henderson

IndyBest editor