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French supermarkets team up with couriers to offer one-hour home delivery

Four French supermarket chains have teamed up with couriers Deliveroo and UberEats to offer home delivery services within one hour.

Published: 13 April 2020 09:48 CEST
French supermarkets team up with couriers to offer one-hour home delivery
Supermarket shopping can be delivered by courier. Photo: AFP

With many people unable to go out shopping because of illness or lockdown restrictions and supermarket delivery slots rapidly filling up, four French supermarket brands have begun offering one-hour deliveries of a limited number of items.

Carrefour and Casino supermarkets have teamed up with UberEats, while the chains Franprix and Monoprix are partnering with Deliveroo to offer delivery of smaller orders to the home within one hour – although at present the service is generally only on offer in cities.

More usually concerned with delivering takeaways, Deliveroo and UberEats have branched out to offer the new service via their websites.

There are some limitations to the new service though.

Firstly it's not available everywhere.

Carrefour launched last week in around 15 stores in Paris and the Paris region and hopes to roll it out nationwide in the coming weeks.
 
 
For Casino, it is present in 17 cities including Aix, Brest, Marseille, Montpellier, Saint-Etienne and Toulouse, Monoprix is running the service in 38 outlets in 15 cities including Paris, Marseille and Nice while Franprix has it in 32 stores with a target of 80 by May.
 
Secondly there are limits on what you can order.
 
Many couriers are on bikes so there is a weight limit to the baskets and a maximum number of items per order – the service is not intended for people getting their entire weekly family shop.
 
The supermarkets allow you to choose from between 50 to 100 everyday basic items to make up your basket, while several also offer ready-made baskets, including an organic fruit and veg basket from Monoprix, an everyday basics basket from Carrefour and an apéro basket – beers or wine, cheese and hummus – from Monoprix.
 
And thirdly it is more expensive – not only do you pay the UberEats or Deliveroo delivery charge on top of the cost of the items, some items seem to be more expensive than those on the shelves of the same supermarkets.
 
Carrefour has told French media that “order preparation costs” are a factor, while acknowledging that this is an additional (and therefore more expensive) service.
 
 
 
 

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COVID-19

French government votes to allow return of Covid tests at border

The French parliament has passed the controversial health bill which updates France's emergency provisions for Covid - and allows the return of negative Covid tests for all travellers at the border, if the health situation requires.

Published: 26 July 2022 09:56 CEST
French government votes to allow return of Covid tests at border

The Loi sanitaire was eventually approved by the Assemblée nationale on Monday after several variations and amendments added on its passage through the Assemblée and the Senate. It was voted on and passed Tuesday, May 26th. 

The bill replaces the State of Health Emergency that has been in place since March 2020 and puts in place provision for government actions should the health situation deteriorate or a dangerous new variant of Covid emerge.

The original text had a provision for the return of the health pass at the border, but this has now been scrapped and instead the government has the right to make a negative Covid test a condition of entry for all travellers.

At present negative tests are required only for unvaccinated travellers, and the new test requirement would only be put into force if a dangerous new variant emerges.

The government will be able to implement the testing rule by decree for two months, but a further parliamentary debate would be required to extend it beyond that.

From August 1st the State of Health Emergency will be formally repealed, which means that the government no longer has the power to introduce major limits on personal freedom such as lockdowns or curfews without first having a debate in parliament.

The bill also allows for an extension of data collection required for the SI-DEP epidemic monitoring tools such as the contact tracing app Tous Anti Covid until June 30th, 2023 and Contact Covid until January 31st, 2023. 

The most controversial measure in the bill was the reinstatement of healthcare workers who were suspended for being unvaccinated – this actually only involves a couple of hundred people but medical unions and the medical regulator Haut Autorité de Santé (HAS) have both been against it.

However the bill allows for the eventual lifting of the requirement for Covid vaccination for healthcare workers, when the HAS judges it is no longer necessary and once the requirement is lifted, the suspended healthcare workers will be reinstated “immediately”.

The bill was approved on Monday evening with 184 votes to 149, the result of a joint committee that was able to harmonise the versions of the Assembly and the Senate.

The final vote passed the Senate on Tuesday.

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