COMMUNITY FOOD DELIVERY tech innovation enabling SAME DAY home delivery of groceries to isolated consumers

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The Coronavirus crisis has highlighted a fundamental failure of the existing retail food distribution model in the UK, i.e. that the Supermarkets have surprisingly limited capability (in total household %) in providing easy and immediate access to home delivered food/groceries to the thousands of households who find it difficult, if not impossible, to make a physical visit to a supermarket or any other general grocery store. This project is a business innovation that marries both new and existing technologies and infrastructure in such a way that will enable us to mobilise the significant non-supermarket, regional food wholesale businesses to provide a more customer-focussed grocery delivery service. Our innovation will guarantee NEXT-DAY (pre-order) or SAME-DAY (speculative van stock sale) home-delivered groceries to isolated households/consumers. The market failure that we seek to address has been painfully and distressingly highlighted by the weeks-long wait for supermarket delivery slots in every region of the UK during the Coronavirus crisis.We operate a market-leading wholesale fresh foods business in the far SW of England. We understand food trading and logistics. We can demonstrate that our idea, with the right amount of focused investment, would be quick to prove itself commercially viable.We aim to provide the isolated and immobile/vulnerable consumers whose access is constrained by age, infirmity and/or geography with a business solution that imitates and improves upon the old-school 'knock on the door' type of community door-to-door 'monger van sales operations that were the norm 40+ years ago.Households that sign-up (nil-cost) to have the 'shop come to them' would receive text notifications of the arrival of the grocery van in their area on the scheduled day(s) of the week. All the customer has to do is click 'confirm' to the text.. and the 'grocer-driver' would schedule in a visit to the customer's property in the course of completing his round/route, to enable the customer to buy their assorted groceries. The entire transaction would take place without any direct contact or even close interaction between the driver and the householder. This innovative solution utilises technology to ensure that 'social distancing' requirements are respected.