Home

   Back to
   Home Business Ideas

I hate grocery shopping.  When I moved to this country
in July 2000, one of the first things I did was start using
HomeGrocer.com.  Alas, HomeGrocer.com was acquired
by Webvan.com and things went downhill in a hurry with
that company shutting its doors earlier this year.  So, now
I'm back to the Saturday morning grind along with, it seems,
at least 50% of the population.  After all, if you work
full-time, when DO you shop for groceries?  On the weekend
or in the evening.  Either option is equally unpalatable in my
book.

Here's where you can come in.  There are many, many
people like me who would be quite happy (delighted, in
fact!) to pay someone a reasonable fee to take care of
this chore for them.  You could offer a grocery-shopping
service for busy professionals in your local area.  All you
need is a car.

Here's one way to go about setting up a simple system.
Set up a website where your customers can enter their
weekly grocery orders and pay you by PayPal (why pay to
set up a merchant account if you don't have to?).  I
recommend that you require an advance payment in
excess of your commission plus what you anticipate the
total bill will be.  You can always easily refund the difference
to your customer via PayPal without cost. 

In fact, if you get really organized (and can pair up with a
good web designer), you could even include a database of
frequently purchased items and their approximate prices
so that the amount will be automatically calculated when
the customer finalizes the order.  Add say 10% to make
sure you're not short and refund the difference.  You can
send the customer an email receipt of the actual amount
of the bill (even scanning the actual bill and including that
in your email).

If your business really takes off, you can leave the
grunt work to independent contractors and focus your
energies on building the business.  Once you have a
client base, it'll be easy to add on related errand
services such as dry cleaning drop-off and pick-up and
taking Fido to the vet.

Recommended Reading:

=> How to Start and Operate an Errand Service
by Rob Spina
http://www.ahbbo.com/soes.html