Puerto de Sagunto market to get 24-hour pickup lockers for online orders
From 1 October, shoppers at the Puerto de Sagunto municipal market will be able to collect their orders at any hour thanks to new refrigerated lockers under the Click&Collect service.
From 1 October, anyone shopping at the Puerto de Sagunto municipal market will no longer have to fit in with stallholders' opening hours to collect their order: a system of refrigerated lockers, installed on the side of the building facing Calle del Trovador, will let them pick it up at any hour, day or night.
The new service, branded Click&Collect, splits buying and collecting into two separate moments: first, the customer places the order directly with the stallholder; later, once the order is ready and kept chilled, they can come and collect it whenever suits them. To open the locker, they simply identify themselves as the customer on the touchscreen and type in the order number; the system then opens, one after another, every locker needed to complete the delivery, showing on screen how many remain at each step.
This is not the first time Sagunto City Council has tried this approach: similar lockers already operate at the market in the historic town centre, and it is precisely that earlier experience that has led the council to extend the model to the Puerto de Sagunto market. The Department of Trade and Markets frames the installation as part of a wider plan to bring digital tools and new services to the town's municipal markets.
Natalia Antonino, the councillor in charge of the area, argues that the new lockers expand shoppers' options without giving up what makes a neighbourhood market special. As she explained, close contact with sellers, direct dealing and product quality remain essential, and the lockers simply add a layer of scheduling flexibility for those who need to collect their order at another time. The councillor also frames the installation within a wider municipal strategy to improve what the markets offer and give vendors new tools, and argues that the demand already shown by the first lockers justifies extending this service to more municipal markets.
The system does not require downloading an app or creating an account beforehand: shoppers simply go to the locker in person and enter the order number given to them by the stallholder at the time of purchase, which makes it simple to use for customers of any age and removes the need for an internet-connected phone.
The Association of Vendors of the Puerto de Sagunto market has welcomed the change, calling it good news for a market that had long been asking to be modernised. Vendors say the lockers offer convenience for their customers and let them adapt to schedules and needs that were previously out of the market's reach, and they hope the extra flexibility will bring in shoppers who currently avoid the market because it does not fit their work or family schedule.
The Puerto de Sagunto market is one of the reference points for local, small-scale trade in the coastal district, a space the City Council is trying to support through promotion and digitalisation campaigns aimed at small local businesses, including social-media outreach led by the Department of Trade itself. For those working shifts that do not match stallholders' usual hours, the change opens up a way of using the market that did not exist before.
For a municipal market competing daily with the flexible hours and pickup services of large supermarket chains, keeping and even growing its customer base means offering similar options without giving up what sets it apart: direct dealing with the seller and the chance to choose the product in person before buying it.
The refrigerated lockers add to that effort without giving up what, according to vendors themselves, still makes the difference: a direct relationship with the seller. According to El Periódico de Aquí — Sagunto / Camp de Morvedre.
← Back to today’s edition