Private Customers Have Replaced Businesses
“I started ‘ Shukrun’ in 2016 as an online store for delivery of high- quality fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, based in the Mahane Yehuda market. I buy most of the produce myself from wholesalers, and then we sort and package it here in the storage facility for delivery to clients. Before the coronavirus, most of the consumers were employees in offices and high- tech companies who would be given fresh fruits such as nectarines and peaches next to the espresso machines, and the rest were private customers. I would take the orders and do a morning delivery run to the offices and companies, followed by a second one in the afternoon to private homes.
“When the first lockdown began, all the office staff were told to work from home, and they disappeared from one day to the next. Luckily I began to be overwhelmed with orders from private customers who were locked down in their homes, and that made up for the shortfall in income. I had an advantage over the large retail chains with online delivery— while they were only able to commit to deliveries within two or three weeks because of the strain on their infrastructure, I was able to provide fresh, high- quality produce from one day to the next. The workload even meant that I had to take on three additional workers within a single week, because working with private customers is more complicated and challenging.
“During the second lockdown there was a flow of work and customers, but not to the same extent as during the first one. If you ask me, during the first lockdown people were scared of the virus and didn’t leave their homes, whereas now they’re only afraid of the fines. If before people tried to spare themselves having to go shopping in the supermarkets, now they see it as an opportunity to leave the house and get some fresh air. When I set up my business, the original idea was to reach private customers, but I didn’t have the time to invest in all the marketing and advertising. Now, due to the coronavirus, I’ve gone back to my original plan, and I’ve launched an upgraded website focused on home deliveries, because nobody can say when companies will go back to working from their offices.”
The writer is the owner of “Shukrun – Bringing the Market Home”, Jerusalem Tel: 054- 5258144, shukrun. co. il