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CALGARY – A group of 24 local Calgary food vendors have teamed up to create the first owner-operated food delivery service in the city. It’s a unique way to shop locally produced artisan foods on a single website, while increasing revenue for hard-hit Calgary small businesses.
Best of Calgary Foods launched on Tuesday and, judging by the initial reaction, is already a smash hit.
“I’ve already received 68 orders in 24 hours,” said Teresa Bestman of Glamorgan Bakery.
The idea came three years ago when Janeen Norman of Alpine Sausage and other vendors at a farmers’ market were chatting. It was put on the back burner after the market closed and everyone went their separate ways.
When the pandemic hit, local food companies were hit hard and many restaurants turned to third-party food delivery services.
“To consider using Skip the Dishes, Uber Eats or other food delivery services, the cost is so high,” Bestman said.
“We were contacted by all of them,” Norman said, “but the rates were up to 25%.”
Other third party delivery services such as distributors and wholesalers have taken an even greater cut.
“Up to 40 percent,” Norman said, “it just wasn’t sustainable.”
Some local vendors began offering their own delivery service, but soon found they had the same clientele.
“We had shared customers ordering from two or three different companies,” Norman said, “and every time they got hit with the shipping costs.”
It was then that Norman, who is also the president of Best of Calgary Foods, decided to revisit the idea of an online collective.
Best of Calgary Foods offers more than 1000 artisanal food products from 24 local stores for a flat delivery fee of $ 10.
Not only is the idea catching on in the city, it is attracting the attention of small businesses affected by the pandemic everywhere.
“We have already had two other Canadian cities and a US company contacted us to see how we can bring this idea to them,” Norman said.
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