Colruyt offers discounts for off-peak shopping

The supermarket Colruyt is carrying out a pilot project in one of its branches offering extra discounts and points to clients who shop during off-peak hours, with the aim of reducing the long lines and parking lot traffic jams of the post-work, evening rush.

The project, which will run til June 2016, is part of a programme by the Flemish Institute for Mobility (VIM), together with De Lijn, Comeos, Colruyt and the cyclist’s union Fietserbond, aimed at investigating ways to encourage people to do their shopping at non-rush hours and by using public transportation.

Today, two out of three people in Flanders take the car to supermarket, even if the shop is only one kilometre from their house, according to VIM.  “Flemish people are creatures of habit,” retail expert Jorg Snoeck of Retail Detail told De Standaard. “Getting them to shop outside the rush hours is not so easy. Today clients have seven hours less free time than their parents did. The pressure has increased tremendously, and we are constantly in a rush. We have to make up for that lost time, so that’s why we take the car.”

Beyond discounts, Johan Boonen of VIM says supermarkets can also promote alternative forms of transport by providing bicycle carts to clients.