Lopez merely has to make up a shopping list, and the next day, his groceries are waiting at home for him after work, with the perishables in the fridge and freezer.
"I'm working all the time, and I'm just too busy. When I get home, I just want to be home and relax," said Lopez, 26, who lives in Washington Plaza, near Mellon Arena.
Lopez's magical secret is Michelle Harvey.
Harvey, 48, formed the Pittsburgh Town Shopper delivery service in September and works almost exclusively as a personal shopper and courier for Downtown residents who don't yet have a neighborhood grocery store.
"There's nothing here," said Lopez, who moved here from Los Angeles last summer. "At one point, I didn't even have a car, so that (Pittsburgh Town Shopper) was extremely convenient for me. I didn't have to find a way to go out and get food or order from Dominos."
Pittsburgh Town Shopper is hardly the first Web-based grocery delivery service, but there are few, if any, in the Pittsburgh area. New Wilmington's Groceries to You Web site says it is no longer in business. One of the more well-known national delivery services, Peapod.com, doesn't deliver here. Amazon.com's pantry will deliver anywhere, but only nonperishable items.
"I think I have a niche," said Harvey, who declined to disclose sales figures or the number of customers she has. She said her services, which cost $39 for an average delivery, are in demand and she hopes business will grow to the point where she has employees to shop as well.
Some see it as a signal of growth in the neighborhood.
"I think it's wonderful to have this service Downtown, and it also shows that Downtown living is on the rise, that entrepreneurs are starting these types of services and think they can profit from them," said Patricia Burk, vice president of housing and economic development for Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. "Maybe it will prove to some grocers that there's a market here."
More than 3,000 people live Downtown, according to the Partnership, and there are plans to put a grocery store on the main floor of the new Piatt Place. But Harvey isn't worried that grocery stores Downtown will steal away potential business.
"That doesn't hinder me at all. What we offer to folks is so reasonable," she said, adding that some people simply don't like the hassle of shopping and then lugging canned goods and heavy items home.
Vanessa Shrager is one such person. Although Harvey mostly limits her services to Downtown, she delivers to a few people in the South Hills, like Shrager, 33, of Bethel Park.
"This is the kind of service we've been looking for. I have twins. It's a nightmare to go to the store with them," Shrager said. "I never understood why the stores didn't deliver. Then we found (Harvey), and that was exciting."
"The grocery shopping is something I definitely just don't like," she said. "It takes forever. Then you have to wait in line, and they have all those self-checkout lines, which takes forever because inevitably one or two things don't scan."
The mother of 3-year-old twins has used Harvey's service about once a week since "discovering" it about a month ago.
"She pretty much is the grocery shopper. I'm so glad not to have to go to the store," Shrager said.
Rochelle Hentges can be reached at rhentges@tribweb.com or 412-380-5670.
[via pittsburghlive.com]
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