This
summary of some of the independent grocery delivery apps and services provides
an overview of the offerings, benefits and drawbacks:
Tree Sweets (Android and iOS app)
Usually requires ordering the day before, for Johannesburg only. Delivery is free, but minimum order of R200 required for suburbs surrounding Linden. A minimum order of R300, with free delivery, applies to suburbs a little further away. The ease with which one is able to order and the quality of the food more than make up for a limited range and highly specific quantities. Response to queries is almost immediate.
Zulzi (Android and iOS app)
Started by Vutlharhi
Donald Valoyi in 2016, Zulzi includes a wide range of retail outlets from which
one can order groceries and medicine, delivered the same day. However, it can
work out more expensively than other services, as it has both a R45 delivery
fee and an admin fee based on the size of the order – and which can take the
service cost over R150. The app also needs work on ease-of-use and providing
information on where one is in the processes, as well as for notifications.
Bottles (Android and iOS app)
Bottles
started life in 2016 as an on-demand alcohol delivery service via app, after
founders Vincent Viviers, Enrico Ferigolli and Martina Mondelli spotted the gap
while chatting over a braai. Last month it quickly pivoted to groceries when
the lockdown began and alcohol sales were banned. It entered a partnership with
Pick ‘n Pay but, given its tie-in with one of the biggest supermarket chains in
the country, it has limited options on many categories of groceries, and many
basic items are simply missing. However, delivery within four hours of ordering
is the massive plus, along with the fact that there is no mark-up on in-store
prices. Bottles charges a flat delivery fee of R45 and a service fee of R15.
OneCart
Founded in
2018 by Lynton Peters and Ariel Navarro, OneCart services both Cape Town
and Johannesburg. It uses various retail outlets and has an excellent ordering
process. However, prices are well above those in-store, and it charges a concierge fee that goes up with the
size of the order as well as the number of outlets used. As with Pick ‘n Pay,
it allocates delivery slots and, last week, was up to 5 days away.
Numerous smaller players are providing phone and WhatsApp ordering options, ranging from Nels Farm Supplies to Moishe’s kosher butchery, but these are highly area-dependent. At the other end of the scale, fast-food apps like Uber Eats and Mr D have converted their operations to grocery delivery from outlets around the country.
When the
COVID-19 crisis is over, many of these providers will find that their new
customers will not be willing to go back to the old ways of shopping. Online
groceries will be one of the many so-called “new normal” activities that most
of us would never have considered before.
• Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World
Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter and
Instagram on @art2gee
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