Tesco will open its sixth 'Dark Store' in October as demand from time-poor shoppers for online food delivery takes hold.
The 'store' - actually delivery warehouses - will be Tesco's second in a year after the last outlet in Crawley in West Sussex officially began delivering in January.
That followed sites in Enfield, North London last year; Greenford, Middlesex in 2010; Ayelsford, Kent in 2008; and Croydon, South London - which opened in 2006.
According to figures released by the Office of National Statistics last week, online food sales in June increased 17.5 per cent and accounted for 3.3 per cent of total food market sales.
Tesco this week started recruiting 650 staff for the centre. The stores are actually delivery warehouses nicknamed dark stores because they are laid out like supermarkets to make it easier for staff to pick the stock.
However, over time they have become more automated and less like the stores they originally mimicked as the process of delivering online food has become more demanding and required greater efficiency.
Most of Tesco food deliveries are made from its supermarkets where shopping is manually picked from shelves by staff.
Former multichannel director at Tesco Laura Wade-Gery said in 2009 that she expected dark stores to fulfill 15 per cent of online orders by 2014.
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