We tested PnP Groceries on Mr D — with impressive results

MyBroadband tested Pick n Pay and Mr D’s collaborative grocery delivery platform, and we were impressed with the service’s performance.

Pick n Pay and Mr D owner Takealot launched their grocery delivery pilot on Tuesday, 4 October 2022.

The pilot is limited to specific areas in Cape Town and Johannesburg, but the two companies intend to expand the service to 300 stores nationwide by December 2022.

The companies said the platform would service all areas Mr D currently covers and some new ones.

Mr D CEO Alexander Wörz said the Takealot-owned delivery platform’s customers would have access to over 10,000 food and grocery products at the same price as in-store, with delivery in under an hour.

“It really ups the convenience factor for customers,” he added.

Wörz explained that in-app prices are aligned with Pick n Pay’s in-store pricing and lets customers earn Smart Shopper points and eBucks on their orders.

“Customers place the order on the Mr D app, Pick n Pay does the picking in its stores, and Mr D’s delivery partners then collect and deliver the order to the customer,” he said.

To test the delivery performance of PnP Groceries on Mr D’s platform, we ordered a few items and tracked the delivery of our groceries.

We ordered six items for R316.24, including the R35 delivery fee.

The performance was impressive, with Mr D completing the delivery 20 minutes after the order was paid for and accepted from a Pick n Pay store 1.2km away.

Our order was placed at 10:10 on Monday, 24 October 2022, and arrived shortly afterwards at 10:30.

A timeline of the delivery is summarised below.

MyBroadband compared the prices on the Mr D-based PnP Groceries and Pick n Pay’s asap! delivery service following news of the new platform’s launch.

While most items were priced similarly, we found two discrepancies in our list. These were for a 500g to 800g pack of PnP free-range chicken breasts and a 200g pack of Eskort streaky bacon.

The chicken breasts were significantly cheaper on Mr D’s platform at R58.10 compared to Pick n Pay asap! ‘s price of R94.39.

On the other hand, the 200g pack of Eskort streaky bacon was slightly cheaper when ordered on Pick n Pay asap!.

However, it appears the two platforms have addressed these discrepancies and upped the pricing on some of their products.

A pack of PnP free-range chicken breasts is now specified to weigh between 450g and 850g, and the price has been increased to R100.29 — R42.19 more than PnP Groceries on Mr D’s earlier price.

At the same time, the price of a 200g pack of Eskort streaky bacon has risen to R52.99 on both platforms — up from R44.81 and R47.99.

PnP Groceries on Mr D and Pick n Pay asap! limit the number of products per order to 35.

A summary of the items purchased in our test is provided below.

Now read: Uber Eats increases courier earning rates — promises no price hikes for customers