Personal Shopper Program
Shopping for those in high-risk demographics
These are chaotic times that require all hands on deck. Every day over the last few weeks has brought major, scary challenges across the board. Now more than ever, people across our medical, political, and economic leadership are being stretched thin – and that includes the employees at our own Summit Store. As community members, with free time, we stepped forward to shoulder some of that responsibility to help our own.
We have gathered a team of incredible volunteers who are working to make these uncertain times a little safer for those most at risk.
We are currently looking for more volunteers to be personal shoppers.
Our Story
It all started with a phone call. As the shelter-in-place orders started to go out, one of the community members contacted Ben to offer help.
A small group met at the Store to hash out the details – with adequate social distancing involved (see picture to the right). The original idea was for customers to call in or order online, using some online payment system (think Venmo, PayPal, Zelle). Summit Store employees would fill the order and have it ready for pick-up. It quickly became clear that a different solution was needed. Summit Store employees would not have the bandwidth to be personal shoppers. The store was seeing incredible amounts of demand for products – every day is like Christmas Eve. In addition, Store employees have to do extra work sanitizing and cleaning on a daily basis. They also have challenges sourcing product.
This is when the volunteer idea came in. A proposal was made to have a separate volunteer group run this whole program, without impacting the Summit Store Staff – allowing the store employees to focus on what they need to do. It would be a partnership!
It took just a couple of days for Sanjay Khandelwal, Kevin Arnold and Kayleigh Khandelwal to put together the basic framework, processes and tools in place. All of it was created from scratch – we needed to build something that could scale. Along with Ben Abeln from Summit Store, the group posted messages on social media, as well as on the 95033Talk forum announcing the service and asking for volunteers. People quickly signed up. The first order was taken on March 19, and the first 4 orders were delivered on March 20. In its first 3 weeks, the program had 60 volunteers who delivered over 300 orders to 195 customers.
Since our group is not affiliated with the Summit Store, we have had discussions of expanding the service to other outlets or stores. We decided against this as we are not looking to compete with Doordash, Instacart or other services.
Feedback to the service has been overwhelming and positive. Customers love and appreciate how fast this program was up and running. As one shopper said, “Thank you for what you have done for our community. You are amazing to be capable of organizing this extraordinary program. What a huge contribution at a time when this is so desperately needed.” Another wrote, “Ten thousand thank yous for bringing me groceries while isolating myself for the safety of the community. It is VERY much appreciated. You and your volunteers are amazing!!!!”
We call ourselves the Personal Shopper Program. We are unaffiliated with the Summit Store, LPCF or any other organization. We are simply volunteers – doing what we can.
Contact Us
info@95033.org
Phone
(408) 384-8769
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q. What is your mission / reason for existing?
A. We have it pretty well laid out, we think, on our home page. As stated there – For those who are confined to their homes during the Covid-19 outbreak, e.g. the elderly, the immuno-compromised and others in high-risk demographics, we provide a volunteer-run service, providing groceries and supplies from the Summit Store.
While we are partnering with the Summit Store, we are separate and distinct from them. Simply put, we are a group of local organizers and public servants, here to help people who can’t help themselves safely during this pandemic.
Q: Who do I contact with questions:
A: Send an email to info@95033.org
Q: Do you deliver to my area?
A: We only deliver to the local 95033 zip / Loma Prieta environs. We do cover Redwood Estates and currently have a driver willing to go to the Las Cumbres/Castle Rock areas on occasion. If you are outside of our delivery area, and are concerned about shopping, feel free to take advantage of our touch-free pick-up.
Q: How quickly can you fill an order?
A: Orders placed by 3 p.m. will be fulfilled the next day.
Q: What is Summit Store’s inventory? What are the prices? What is in store?
A: We freely admit that this will be a challenge for people expecting Safeway or Nob Hill online shopping. Summit Store does not have their inventory on-line. There is no real-time inventory. Also, as people continue to panic buy, inventory changes on a daily, even hourly, basis. We recommend you order what you think you want and our volunteer shoppers will do the best they can.
If this is does not work for you, we regret that we may not be the right option.
Q: Wait, you are not Summit Store’s online ordering option?
A: Summit Store does not have online ordering. We are not related / affiliated with the store; although we are working in close partnership with them (its the only real local option for many in our mountains).