Metro's online grocery service comes to Quebec City

Nearly a year after launching its online grocery shopping pickup service and home delivery in Montreal, Metro has expanded the program to Quebec City.

Metro shoppers can place an order for pick up at a location in the city's Beauport borough or opt for home delivery, providing they are within the service area (from Lévis to L’Ancienne-Lorette, and from Quebec City to Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures). Metro said it would continue to launch the service in other cities across the province before introducing it to Ontario. A timeline was not given.

"We are pleased to now offer online grocery shopping to the people of Quebec City so that they too can make no compromise with respect to the freshness of the food that they order and find everything they want online as they would in-store," said Marc Giroux, senior vice-president at Metro, in a press release announcing the launch.

Teams of employees have been trained to select the best in-store produce for online orders. Those products are then stored until delivery or pick up in the appropriate Tri-Zones area of the store—a term the Montreal-based grocery giant has coined to delineate the storage of temperate, refrigerated and frozen items.

Additionally, members of the grocer's Metro & Moi loyalty program can use personalized coupons and redeem rewards via the new online service.

Metro said the online service is part of its overall digital strategy to position it "as the retailer offering the food experience best suited to consumers’ needs and behaviours."

Metro's service expansion was announced the same day Walmart introduced its grocery pickup program to seven locations in the Montreal area. Launched in 2015, Walmart's pickup program is also available in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Calgary and Edmonton.