Shoppers spending £25 or more will be entitled to have their shopping delivered within a five-mile radius of Manchester's city centre.
The service launches tomorrow (9 December) at The Co-operative on Piccadilly Gardens, and on Friday (10 December), at the Corporation Street store.
Sean Toal, commercial director for Co-operative Food, said: "Almost 800,000 people live in and around Manchester city centre, many of whom use public transport, bicycles or simply walk to get around. This service is ideal for those who may want to use their lunch hour to do their shopping, but don’t fancy carrying it all the way home on the bus, train or tram after a long day at work.
"Lots of shoppers like to go into a store and get ideas for what to make for dinner that evening. This service doesn’t take that away – it gives people the opportunity to pick out their own fresh ingredients, but simply removes the stress of getting it all home."
Toal added: "We expect that the service will be particularly handy in the run-up to Christmas, when everyone is busy and time is precious."
Customers spending under £25 in store, or those who live just outside the five-mile radius, will have to pay a £3 surcharge.
Around 330 branches in towns and villages already offer a home- delivery service, but the Manchester trial is the first city-wide service, and will extend to other cities if successful, bringing its delivery service into direct competition with the "big four" supermarkets.
In March 2009, the Co-op bought Somerfied, and as Co-op by the end of 2010.
earlier this year, and the group appointed TBWA\Manchester as its lead creative agency in January.
In October, the Co-op announced plans to, which the Office of Fair Trading has told the European Commission it wants to look into.
.jpg)
.jpg)