Online supermarket Picnic has 50,000 people on its waiting list who want to become a customer of the store with the free home delivery service, the Financieele Dagblad said on Monday

Picnic is now seeking 1,000 runners (who deliver the boxes in distinctive electric delivery vans) and 1,000 shoppers (who pack the boxes) to meet demand, the FD said.

The company began offering food delivery in Amersfoort two years ago, but its app-based service is now available in 50 locations nationwide.

A survey by GfK last April revealed that Picnic had the highest number of dissatisfied customers among online supermarkets: 47% of all Picnic customers made a complaint that year up from 41% a year earlier. Most complaints were related to the freshness of food, co-founder Michel Muller said.

Muller pointed out that consumers organisation Consumentenbond awarded Picnic its highest rating, well above the online services of market leaders Albert Heijn and Jumbo. None of the online supermarkets are profitable.

In March, Picnic said it was expanding its services into Germany.