For years, consumers were in Germany, Offered by Online grocery retailers the cold shoulder, and bought meat and vegetables instead of the supermarket or at the discount store around the corner.

But since a few weeks, everything is different: The fear of the novel Coronavirus brings the Online delivery services of Rewe, Picnic, Getnow rates up to Amazon Fresh unprecedented growth.

But there’s a catch. Anyone who orders food online, often have to wait weeks for the delivery.

26. February will be the Run on the grocery delivery services erupted, said Thorsten Eder of Getnow – and at all sites of the Online super market, at the same time: in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Hannover, Essen, as in the area of Düsseldorf/Neuss.

The result is that the delivery slots are now fully booked 14 days in advance. “We can only process a small part of the demand. We are always on full load,” said Eder.

The number of orders had doubled abruptly. The number of new customer registrations had increased in some cities by 500 percent.

Also Online is hoarded

The Online dealer who obtains his goods at the Metro, had to deal with similar problems such as the stationary competition.

As toilet paper, noodles and canned goods were out of stock temporarily. But in the meantime, the time of the hoarding is over, said Eder.

The best sellers it was now apparently less about Hamsters, as to avoid when food shopping to be with other people as much as possible. “We hear a lot from customers.”

Also Frederic Knaudt, the Germany-chief of the Online super market, Picnic, the supplies in the Ruhr and in the Rhineland customers in 10 cities, said: “The demand has doubled for us as well.”

Picnic have been set since the end of February of nearly 200 new employees. Nevertheless, the company could barely keep up with the large demand. Otherwise would have been delivered the orders in as a rule, already on the following day, the customer will have to wait now until the next week. And also, just as a regular customer.

Who wants to shop for the first Time at the Picnic, lands currently on a waiting list. There are more than 70 000 households, as Knaudt said, however, already.

Picnic, come to think of therefore, in the future, the goods on Sunday to deliver. That would bring more capacity.

Long delivery times also in drug stores

In the case of dm, the customers have to wait can also be quite long for your orders. The head of the drugstore chain, Christoph Werner, told the ‘Handelsblatt’: “Because of the enormous demand, the delivery time is short term of two to three working days to nine to twelve days of high-rocketed.”

A test run for collection of Goods ordered in the store you’ve been exposed to, “because the quantities in the markets exploded”.

Self-Rewe can cope with the numbers of customers in its Online Shop, just tedious. Delivery periods of one to two weeks, are now not uncommon, said a company spokesman.

In Rewe with its in 75 cities available delivery service, one of the leading Online grocer in the Federal Republic of Germany.

And also the US Internet giant Amazon has to pay the customer rush tribute.

On the Homepage of its grocery delivery service Amazon Fresh, the group warns obvious: “the range and delivery may be restricted due to increased demand temporarily.”

Before Corona, little interest in food deliveries

The consumers in Germany had before the Corona-crisis little interest in the purchase of food products on the Internet.

A survey commissioned by the consulting firm AlixPartners showed last year that only one in four consumers has already placed an order food online.

Thus, the discounters and the co-operative were in the home country organised super markets, food as a product category at the end of the Online wish list. As the main reason for 54 percent of customers indicated their concerns about the quality and Freshness of the Goods when shopping Online.

However, this may change on a sustainable basis, is convinced the trade expert Peter Heckmann of AlixPartners.

“For the Online food trade, the current situation is a great opportunity to get out of his niche move. After the crisis of E-Commerce will play in this area, probably a greater role, because many customers will notice now that the offers are attractive.”

However, a prerequisite is that the Online retailers get their current biggest Problem: the long delivery times.

“Delivery periods of up to 14 days are much too long. This may now work in the crisis, because many consumers to avoid all contact with other people. But such waiting times are not acceptable,” said Heckmann.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)

*The contribution of “all of a Sudden popular: Corona, wings food delivery services” is published by FitForFun. Contact with the executives here.