COVID-19 changed the game when it comes to how people get their groceries.
Many shoppers decided it was too risky to go to the store and so they started ordering their groceries to get delivered to their homes. And many stores in Burnaby ramped up their services to include delivery, or at least letting people order groceries online and then drive up to have them put into the trunk of their vehicle.
Other companies like Fantuan – which got its start as delivering meals from restaurants – also added some services to deliver groceries for people as a third-party service.
Now there’s a company that is planning a move into Burnaby with the goal of disrupting how groceries are delivered.
Vancouver-founded Tiggy is using its almost $11 million in venture financing to rapidly expand the geographic footprint of its business that delivers groceries to customers within 15 minutes of ordering.
“We’re raising more [money] right now,” Tiggy CEO Eugene Bisovka told Glacier Media in this more in-depth story about what is planned.
Tiggy operates six commercial sites in Vancouver and one in North Vancouver. But the company has also earmarked Burnaby as one of the next spots in its speedy expansion.
The locations tend to be around 3,000 square feet, and each is stocked with up to 2,600 different kinds of food, or sizes of food – what is known in the industry as store keeping units (SKUs.)
Tiggy’s grocery depot sites stock items such as pastries from local bakeries and brewed coffee made on site.
Customers order food via Tiggy’s smartphone apps.
The public is not allowed in Tiggy’s grocery depots. Instead, Tiggy employees work at the locations filling customer orders.
There are no delivery fees so the company embeds those costs into its prices.
With people finding they like grocery deliveries, this will be an interesting new option in Burnaby when it's finally up and running.
- With files from Glen Korstrom, Glacier Media
