More supermarkets are going into direct competition with fast grocery delivery services like Gorillas and Flink, by signing alliances with food delivery firms.

Albert Heijn said this week it will start testing fast delivery services in two Amsterdam stores next week, after signing agreements with Deliveroo and Thuisbezorgd. The three firms already had a deal to deliver AH To Go products.

Spar is also working with Thuisbezorgd’s bike couriers using supplies from 15 of its own stores. If the service catches on, the experiment will be expanded, Spar said on Thursday.

Jumbo started the trend earlier this year when it signed up to work with fast grocery service Gorillas, but the deal is different to the AH agreement, in that the products will come from Gorillas’ own dark stores.

Jumbo also pledges delivery times of 10 to 20 minutes, compared with 30 minutes for AH.

Online grocery shopping is becoming increasingly popular with Albert Heijn, Jumbo, Picnic and HelloFresh now included on the list of biggest online retailers.

Dark stores

But superfast delivery firms are running into problems in the way they organise their businesses, particularly the location of their mini distribution centres or dark stores.

The NRC reported in February that The Hague, Groningen, Arnhem and Amstelveen are following Amsterdam and Rotterdam in preparing measures to regulate super fast delivery services such as Getir and Gorillas.

Nevertheless, the number of people using fast grocery delivery services more than tripled in the second half of 2021, according to a survey by market researcher Kantar.