WASHINGTON D.C., DC — Grocery stores have been battling to keep up with the demand during the pandemic and with new social distancing policies in place, lines have become long. That has left some customers who worry about coronavirus concerns avoiding grocery shopping altogether.
"I haven't gone to a grocery store locally in a month," Danielle Milazzo said.
As an alternative, Milazzo said she has started using the meal kit delivery service Hello Fresh.
"I'm using it because of coronavirus," Milazzo said. "I was like well, grocery stores are gonna be a mess, let me just get a food delivery."
Milazzo isn’t the only person switching to a delivery service to avoid grocery stores during the pandemic.
The founder and CEO of Gobble, a dinner kit company, said the demand they have seen in the last month is more than they projected to see over the next three years.
"A lot of stores have lines around the corner, and you're waiting in line for 30 minutes just to get into the store," Gobble CEO/ Founder Ooshma Garg said. "So we've started offering breakfast, lunches, snacks, you name it, so that people can safely get things direct to the home and avoid, leaving shelter in place. That especially makes sense for the elderly and immunocompromised, so we're seeing a lot of our customers send gobble as their way of showing love and providing for their parents in this especially uncertain time."
Marylander Ginny Hinders is one of those people. She said she is using food delivery services to get food to her 96-year-old grandfather.
"I've been using Misfits Market before the pandemic and so that's how I knew about it," Hinders said. "When my grandfather was cut off, I immediately thought that was the way I could get him produce without being able to go to his home in Springfield."
She said getting meat to him was a challenge, so she opted to send an Omaha Steaks package to his house. She said the company was backlogged for a few weeks, so she's already reordered his next shipment to come in another few weeks.
She said she has also run into trouble with delays with Misfits Market.
"Today's my normal delivery day, and it hasn't even shipped yet," Hinders said. "My grandfather's signed up for Wednesday deliveries, and he normally doesn't get them untl Saturday. So we just know that's the typical delivery delay, but we plan around it, and I'm just grateful he can get it, to be honest."
Garg said Gobble has also been navigating the waters of shipping delays, and let customers know in early March that there may be a delivery delay and offered them the ability to move their ability if they had the flexibility.
"We have spun up a variety of couriers in every geography, because this right now is all about backup plans," she said. "You need backup suppliers, backup delivery folks, and backup team members. Contingency plans for quarantine everything."
Hello Fresh acknowledged that they too have seen an increase in demand during the pandemic. In a statement, a Hello Fresh spokesperson said they have also been preparing.
"We are working very closely with our network of suppliers and partners to ensure we continue delivering fresh and reliable meals to our customers. While there are no major disruptions to our service, some customers may temporarily experience slight shipping delays and some limited meal choices," the statement said.
FedEx has posted on their website letting customers know there are temporary service adjustments. FedEx and UPS have suspended their express service guarantees during the pandemic.
"It is apparent who can who can ship right now and who can't," Garg said. "We've been able to, as an essential food company, ask for more assurances, more trucks, more drivers and more pickup slots, so that all of the deliveries are getting on a truck and to the customers."