TORONTO -- A variety of grocery delivery services in the Greater Toronto Area are working hard to fill gaps in the supply chain left behind by COVID-19 panic buying.
With restaurants closed and many staying at home, demand is surging for everyday foods and household items.
For those trying to stay safe at home, INABUGGY is one company that works with retailers, travels to the grocery store, picks and shops for items and brings the items to your home.
“[Business] is going up right now 15, 20, even higher times normal sales volume right now,” CEO Julian Gleizer told CTV News Toronto on Wednesday.
In a statement, Walmart Canada said there is a very high demand for pickup and delivery services.
“Our associates and partners are working hard to fulfill every order,” said a spokesperson in an email.
“We are communicating with customers about the status of their orders because there is a lot of pressure on the system. We appreciate everyone’s patience.”
On Wednesday, CTV News Toronto was given a tour of the facility where Grocery Gateway fills its delivery orders.
The company, owned by Longo’s, said demand is so high right now that it will take a week for an order to be complete. And while Grocery Gateway said that it’s beefing up staff to bring that wait time down, there is still plenty of food.
“The supply chain is stressed, the grocery supply chain is stressed,” Joseph Longo, vice-president of e-commerce and real estate said,
“However it’s important to note, there is no shortage of product. It’s just going to take more time to get the product back on our shelves,” he added.
Longo said that for some of the most in-demand items, things like paper products, water, canned vegetables and rice the company is ordering up to three times the amount of product.
Delivery organizations helping vulnerable families
Second Harvest is an emergency service that rescues surplus food and delivers items to places like food banks and shelters.
CEO Lori Nikkel said a task force has been started, and wants vulnerable people and laid off workers to know food is coming.
“If you’re a food business or an organization that’s staying open, I really recommend that you sign up [to the task force], because we are working with major donors, major retail, major manufactures to plug that food into that system so that nobody goes without," said Nikkel.
She said the organization has been cancelling fundraising events and is facing a more than $1-million revenue loss.
“That’s okay, we’ll weather the storm with everybody,” she said. “Collaboration and the food is going to be there, I really don’t want people to worry,” Nikkel said.
