On the move shoppers take note; leading UK supermarket giant Tesco is to launch the country’s first drive-thru store.

Aimed squarely at those short on time, the drive through facility will also cater to people who neither want to make the weekly shopping trip into the mall themselves, nor shop online and wait for the delivery.

Instead, the new service will allow customers to pay a flat fee of £2 to be directed to a dedicated store area at a specific time and collect their purchases without ever having to leave the comfort of their vehicle. The first of the stores will be run as a pilot and will debut at Baldock’s Tesco Extra store in Hertfordshire. If all runs smoothly, then Tesco will roll out the initiative nationwide, though as yet no time frame has been put forward.

The Tesco dotcom will oversee the running of the service, and customers will still order their groceries online as they do now using the Tesco internet shopping facility. The only different is that rather than select home delivery, they will instead choose the Click and Collect option. By doing so, they will be provided with a two-hour collection window during which they are able to collect their purchases at any time. All that needs to be done on arrival at the store is head to the reserved area of the carpark and show a staff member the reference details of their online purchase and their goods will be loaded directly into their vehicle.

Tags: Baldock, drive-thru, Hertfordshire, internet, mums, shopping, store, Tesco, time