Online grocery service buys & delivers from local shops

Longtime Springwise readers may recall Poptotheshops, the UK firm we covered back in 2007 that lets consumers order online from local stores for free delivery. Adding further evidence that the concept has merit, we recently discovered Beelocal, a new, like-minded venture in the Lake District that offers something very similar. Beelocal is a local food and grocery service that delivers fresh meat boxes, organic fruit and vegetable boxes, wine and other local foods to residents and tourists in Northwest England’s Lake District. Consumers begin by registering online and then shopping directly from their favourite local shops and producers. Each shop involved then packs up its portion of the consumer’s order for collection by the Beelocal team. Once all the pieces are collected, Beelocal sorts the order into a single shopping basket and delivers it to the consumer’s door, though consumers can also pick up the aggregate order from Beelocal’s offices if they prefer. For deliveries, consumers pay a fee of GBP 3 on top of the cost of their order. Also available from Beelocal is nationwide mail-order delivery of locally made meat boxes, toffee puddings and more. Demand for anything (still) made here shows no sign of slowing down, particularly when combined with the organic food movement. Next, how about emulating something like this but making deliveries using pedal-power instead…? (Related: More near-instant e-commerce delivery — Organic soups, delivered weekly by bicycle — Connecting buyers and sellers of locally grown food — Farmers use vending machines to sell local produce — Farmers’ market targets commuters with $5 bags — Waitrose using bicycles & carts for greener grocery deliveries — Local produce, delivered by bicycle.) Spotted by: John Burgess