Much like home delivery, collection will be assigned a specific time slot.Payment is online prior to collection, so there is no need for contact between staff and customers.

Woolworths will now be offering a "drive-through" service at 15 of its stores, where it promises customers will never have to get out of their cars.

Instead, staff will deliver orders straight to the boot, at specially designated parking bays.

For the stores where it is available (see list below), such parking-lot delivery will be added as an option to click-and-collect orders, online orders that previously had to be collect in store.

Woolworths, like many of its peers, has been struggling with unprecedented demand for home delivery of food and essentials during the Covid-19 disaster. The group says it has increased its delivery capacity by half again since the start of South Africa's lockdown. However, slots for delivery remain nearly impossible to book, snapped up as soon as they become available.

A drive-thru service is expected to scale better than home delivery.

These are the Woolworths stores where click-and-collect orders will be brought to your car by staff.

Kyalami

Fourways Mall

Morningside

Broadacres

Linksfield

Farramere

The Club Waterkloof

Ballito Junction

La Lucia

Greenacres

Palmyra Road

The Sanctuary

West Coast Mall

Plattekloof Village

Durbanville