The Tesco Extra store in Bradley Stoke is set to launch a Click & Collect service next week, enabling customers to collect pre-ordered groceries from a ‘pod’ (kiosk) in the car park of the Willow Brook Centre.
The pod has been constructed over the last few weeks at a location on the northern edge of the car park, to the left of the main access road when driving into the centre (not far from the Waves car wash unit).
The facility has been installed despite objections from Bradley Stoke Town Council, which argued at the planning application stage that the proposed site was “too close to existing houses” and “against the spirit of the original planning permission for the [Willow Brook Centre] site, which was to ensure that retail units did not impact on surrounding houses”. Eight letters of objection were also received from local residents.
Tesco’s first planning application for the kiosk, made in March 2013, was withdrawn and superseded by a second, in June 2013, this eventually being approved in August 2013.
According to information supplied in support of the second planning application, the unit will be able to serve 24 customers over each two hour period, meaning that a maximum of 936 customers will be able to collect their shopping each week, given the permitted opening hours of 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm on Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday and Bank Holidays.
A total of 13 parking spaces are understood to have been lost through construction of the unit, but Tesco points out that up to 936 fewer shoppers will need to leave their cars in the Willow Brook Centre car park each week.
Willow Brook Centre Manager Andy Wynn welcomed the imminent opening, saying:
“We are delighted that Tesco have built the Click & Collect point at the Willow Brook Centre. When it opens on 19th February, it will give our customers the opportunity to order online and pick up their weekly shop or bulky items at the time that best suits them.”
“One of the issues people sometimes have with ordering online is picking a delivery slot and then waiting in during the allotted time. With the new Click & Collect point, a customer can strike the happy medium of ordering online for convenience from the comfort of their home and arranging to collect it on their way home from the school run or from work.”
Related link: Tesco ‘Click & Collect’ service
You have to laugh at the delay in construction of this based on neighbourly complaints that it would be a disturbance to nearby housing. Popped up in no time and hardly seems like it will be in any way more disturbing than a giant carpark and concorde road.
Nice little addition to the local services 🙂