Grocery delivery demand soars
Trevor Nicholls gets up extra early these days.
Nicholls, whose business Milk and More delivers Oaklands Farm milk around Nelson, is ‘‘flat out’’ with increased demand.
‘‘We’ve had a lot of sign-ups, it’s been a little disruptive. People who don’t want to line up with other people at the supermarket.’’
As well as adding another 40 customers to his rounds over the past week or so, Nicholls is dealing with the demand of existing customers stuck at home.
Some, self-isolating after returning from overseas travel, were going through extra bottles at home.
And employees of small companies now working at home want their milk delivered to their door instead of the office, which split one order into several orders.
Milk and More is one of several home delivery businesses experiencing an increase in the number of customers.
Smartass general manager Fraser Hanson said demand for his company’s tree-free tissue products had ‘‘spiked’’, with four times as many subscribers as usual.
The company offers a subscription service, allowing customers to schedule regular deliveries of the bamboo and sugarcane toilet paper, tissues or paper towels.
‘‘People staying at home and having one less thing to worry about.’’
Existing customers were also buying extra supplies, Hanson said. However, some of the stocking up was altruistic.
‘‘A lot of people and community groups are buying more and have been distributing it to others themselves, which is a really cool thing.’’
Like others, Hanson had seen the photos of supermarket aisles denuded of toilet paper. However, he had no concerns about his own supply. ‘‘We’re not worried: our supply chain is really good.’’
Fresh2U owner Lucy Maxwell said she’d had a few more people signing up for her weekly vegetable box delivery service. ‘‘But not a deluge,’’ she said. However, she was preparing to scale up. ‘‘I’m putting in place measures that mean I can expand if I have to.’’
That meant organising more drivers, and people to pick produce.
‘‘Maybe people who don’t have jobs because of what’s going on.’’
With growers now unable to sell at markets, there is plenty of food in the field, she said. ‘‘Growers don’t want anything to go to waste. We have got so much good food here, we’re going to be able to eat like kings. Growers will carry on planting enough for us to eat.’’