Rushden Robo-Co-op revs up for home delivery service

A Rushden Co-Op store will become first shop in north Northants to offer robot deliveries – from store to door – as the popular service is rolled out across the county.

Co-op has partnered with Starship Technologies to introduce the autonomous robots and revolutionise home deliveries, starting Thursday (July 14) from their Grangeway store.

The robots are designed to deliver food, groceries, and packages locally in minutes with automatic systems being able to be over-ridden by humans, who can take control at any time.

Chris Conway, eCommerce Director, Co-op, said: “Co-op is committed to exploring new and innovative ways to increase access to its products and services.

"Our members and customers lead busy lives and ease. Speed and convenience is at the heart of our approach. We are delighted to be able to extend the service in the area, as a convenience retailer, the ability to come into stores will always be important to customers.

"We also know that shoppers want flexible and convenient options online, and so we are focused on providing what our customers want and need, however and wherever they choose to shop with us.”

Starship Technologies introduced the robot deliveries in Hardingstone and Wootton, Northampton in partnership with Co-op last year – now 11 town stores offer the service.

Customers who live within a three mile radius of the convenience stores have been able to order groceries to be delivered by a robot on the same day.

The robots use a combination of sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning to travel on pavements and navigate around any obstacles.

Computer vision-based navigation helps the robots to map their environment to the nearest inch as customers can watch in real-time on an app while the robot makes its journey to them.

Once the robot arrives, customers receive an alert and can then meet and unlock the robot through the app.

Co-op became the first UK supermarket to use autonomous robot deliveries when the service was introduced into Milton Keynes with grocery orders picked fresh and delivered quickly, locally.

Starship Technologies’ zero-emission robots make more than 100,000 road crossings every day and have completed more than three million commercial deliveries globally.