Online grocery delivery service Ocado has temporarily suspended its food delivery service due to high demand.
In an update on Ocado’s website, a message from Retail CEO Melanie Smith said the company was “working round the clock to keep up with high demand” and had taken the decision to suspend access to Ocado.com for “a few days in order to make some changes to our service”.
As consumers continue to source essential household items and food, Ocado said it had received a “a simply staggering amount of traffic” and “more demand for products and deliveries than we can meet”, adding: “We are fully booked and at full capacity.”
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The decision will not have been taken lightly, but Ocado hopes the downtime will enable it to serve its customers better, particularly the vulnerable and the elderly.
Any customers who have a delivery booked with Ocado for today (March 19) or tomorrow will still receive their orders; however, those with orders for delivery from Saturday (March 21) onwards will be contacted with details of how to edit their orders. All customers will be able to access Ocado’s website again from Saturday.
Collective effort
Supermarkets are also taking action to protect those in need during these uncertain times, with Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda preventing shoppers from buying more than three of any food item.
Measures have also been introduced to help the elderly and vulnerable, with stores offering priority delivery slots for online deliveries and ‘seniors-only’ shopping periods in stores.
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Via BBC News
