You've probably heard of grocery delivery companies like Instacart, Shipt and DoorDash — all expanding quickly amid the pandemic and surging consumer demand for shopping convenience.
But Maumee-based Walt Churchill's Market figured it didn't need to strike a deal with one of the food-delivery giants when a local company could do the same job: Black & White Transportation.
The Toledo cab company began dropping off groceries for Walt Churchill's customers a few weeks ago, said Black & White's co-owner Scott Potter and Kunal Dawar, the grocer's vice president of operations.
“You've got two family-started businesses that are looking to offer a good, honest service," Mr. Potter said.
Mr. Potter, who has known the Churchill family for years, said he pitched the idea that his drivers and vans could serve as the grocer's delivery service. Black & White had already been dropping off prescriptions for Walt Churchill's customers over the past few months.
For now, Mr. Dawar said, it's a pilot project. Only customers at the grocer's Perrysburg store can get home delivery. They must order 24 hours in advance, with limited hours when deliveries occur. Mr. Potter's drivers are still learning about properly handling groceries, he said, and coolers need to be added to vans.
But both men said if there's enough demand, they want to scale up the operation — including adding the home-delivery option for Walt Churchill's Maumee location. They didn't offer a timeline on such a decision.
Mr. Dawar said Walt Churchill's has always focused on its brick-and-mortar shopping experience. It did not get into the online ordering game until last year, he said, as demand grew for curbside pickup options at the height of the pandemic. Now the company has a website and app ordering system where customers can order ahead — or select delivery.
“It’s not a major part of our business — we’re definitely a brick-and-mortar operation," Mr. Dawar said of online ordering options. "But there are customers who are looking for that convenience factor.”
Like the rise of online grocery shopping and delivery, Mr. Potter's transportation business also has been upended in recent years by companies such as Uber and Lyft that rely on gig-economy workers. Adding grocery delivery to his company is a nice "add-on," Mr. Potter said, and he expressed confidence his company can offer better customer service than Instacart and other companies.
"It’s not like the gig economy, where most likely they will never see (the delivery driver) again," he said.
The new service from the two companies rolls out at a good time: With rising coronavirus case counts and concerns over the delta variant, Mr. Dawar said online orders at Walt Churchill's are growing again. So are customer inquiries about home delivery.
First Published August 18, 2021, 7:38 p.m.
