According to the Countdown website yesterday, all delivery times for the next few days were fully booked in North Dunedin.
The website said due to high demand for online shopping, delivery slots were limited and customers were encouraged to shop in-store so deliveries could go to those most in need.
A student isolating, as a close contact of a Covid-19 case, said his flat had groceries delivered by Countdown which had taken a day to arrive.
Their experience had been ‘‘all right’’, but he had heard of some flats experiencing up to a few days’ delay.
Countdown director of corporate affairs, safety and sustainability Kiri Hannifin said demand for online delivery was increasing around the country as more people isolated.
Dunedin had seen a sharp increase in orders for delivery being made.
The company was doing as much as it could to manage this demand and would be opening up more delivery slots for Dunedin soon, she said.
Chloe Almey and Matt Mason were flatmates isolating as potential close contacts of a positive Covid-19 case.
Ms Almey said she got back to Dunedin on Saturday and did not even have time to go food shopping before she had to isolate as a potential close contact.
Matt said they had been ordering Uber eats, which was a bit of a pain because it was ‘‘quite expensive’’ but they had signed up for an Otago University Students’ Association (OUSA) food parcel.
Their landlord had offered to help them out with getting groceries too.
OUSA Student Support manager Sage Burke said more than 650 food parcels had been distributed.
