Destrehan entrepreneur Lisa Wallace is one step closer to making the sometimes-daunting task of grocery shopping easier for local residents.
In October 2008, Wallace launched Select Grocery Delivery Service, a business geared towards shopping for and delivering groceries to those living in St. Charles Parish.
Wallace says that her personal challenges with everyday healthy eating are what aided the basis of her business plan.
“I either had time for the grocery shopping or the cooking, but not for both,” she said. “And the local restaurants do their best to cater to our individual needs, but for me, it wasn’t enough.”
After searching for local grocery delivery services, Wallace discovered that while other parts of the country have prospering grocery delivery businesses, the New Orleans area has very few and all seemed limited in some fashion.
“As a consumer, I wanted a reliable person to make everything magically appear without me having to worry about it,” she said. “But what I found in my research was that grocery delivery, which was at one time a standard service, wasn’t being offered in our area.”
Wallace soon began to realize that she wasn’t the only person who would benefit from a home grocery service. The elderly, the disabled, overworked mothers and even local businesses would have something to gain by allowing others to shop for them.
“Since everyone eats, almost every St. Charles Parish resident can benefit from our service,” says Wallace. “The elderly and disabled use us to maintain more independent lifestyles, and time-starved clients use us to free themselves to engage in more meaningful activities.”
As a small business owner, Wallace gets the flexibility she needs to run the delivery service in a stress-free manner.
“My background is in systems design and implementation so the logistics of grocery delivery didn’t scare me,” Wallace said. “And nobody is more motivated than me to bring fresh, good food to local doorsteps.
“Our service compliments the grocery stores by offering services they can’t while bringing them business they might not get otherwise,” she continued. “My clients get the products they want, the grocers get added business and as my own loyal customer, I get deliveries every single day. Everyone wins.”
Here’s how it works. Wallace and her team of shoppers shop at specified stores, purchase the items on a customer’s list and deliver them to their home or place of business.
And to make the experience even easier, there are four ways in which you can place your order – by phone, fax, email or online.
“Order forms are available for download on our Web site and an electronic grocery list lets you maintain your shopping list and submit it electronically when you’re ready,” Wallace said. “We contact you when the order is received to review the purchase and then confirm the delivery time.”
While delivery is the end result, Wallace points out that shopping is their service.
“Your experience can be as simple as submitting your shopping list and accepting delivery or you can work closely with your personal shopper to design the best ongoing experience for you and your family or business,” she said. “We can shop on-demand or replenish the shelves regularly using lists that we develop together. We know what’s on sale and can help plan your menus and shopping accordingly.”
Added services include clipping coupons for favorite products and notifying customers when their chosen items are on sale.
“We pay the same attention to your shopping preferences that we do to our own,” Wallace said. “Our goal is to keep everyone supplied with fresh, healthy food so that customers that want additional services can tell us. If we can accommodate them we will because we want their happy and healthy grocery experiences to be the foundation of our success.”
Wallace and her team of shoppers charge customers $7.50 per store along with an 18 percent shopping fee. The fee is based on the total of the grocery receipt.
“The 18 percent is roughly the same amount that you would tip your waiter and the $7.50 store fee enables us to visit as many stores as you want us to,” Wallace said. “This sounds expensive to many, but these fees can be greatly reduced with the use of coupons and promotions.”
Select Delivery Grocery Service will purchase and deliver anything sold at a customer’s chosen store, although alcohol, tobacco and lottery tickets must be ordered, received and signed for by someone 21 years or older. State law prohibits a delivery fee to be charged for lottery tickets.
“We’re new, so our customer base is still growing,” Wallace said. “But the reaction has been great and community support has been encouraging. Residents are calling to say ‘thank you’ for offering such a valuable service and several businesses have called to offer encouragement and ideas.”
For more information on Select Grocery Delivery Service, visit www.selectgrocerdelivery.com or call 985-307-1062.
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