By: Jennifer Burr
Long after the Covid pandemic has loosened its grip on the country, consumers are not only staying loyal to their home services and delivery apps, but they are actually using them at an increased rate each year. According to a recent survey from the personal lending site Lending Tree, the average delivery service customer spent $407/month in 2023 – a significant increase from $157/month in 2021.
In spite of current inflation, Americans are allocating more of their monthly budgets to having meals, groceries and myriad other items delivered straight to their doors. Consumers started using many of these services out of necessity during the days of quarantine, but many found they genuinely valued these conveniences, even after society had returned to normal. Industry experts don’t expect the popularity of home delivery services to decline anytime soon.
Convenient Services Worth Checking Out:
- Amazon: America’s favorite order-practically-anything app
- DoorDash or Grubhub: whether you’re craving your favorite fast-food chicken or an entire Italian meal for dinner
- HelloFresh: create a home-cooked meal, but make it streamlined
- Jim Massey Cleaners: the pick-up and drop-off service which transforms your dirty duds into clean stacks of laundry
- Quintessentially: all-inclusive lifestyle management services, such as dinner reservations, errand running, and gift buying
The Cost of Convenience
It might seem counterintuitive for Americans who are currently struggling with a sluggish economy, stagnant wages and rising prices of food and fuel to spend so much on the benefit of convenience. Although it’s wonderful to have more choices than ever right at our fingertips, the price must be considered. Delivery fees, app fees, memberships and driver tips add up quickly, and they often wind up totaling more than the item being delivered. A survey of 2,000 individuals conducted by QuestionPro for Lending Tree reported that a whopping 82% of consumers used convenient delivery services in the past year. Of those, millennials reportedly spent $575/month. Not unexpectedly, baby-boomers spent much less, at $153/month. The survey found that consumers willingly chose delivery options for convenience, claiming they didn’t mind spending more money in order to save time and effort.
Who Can Benefit?
- Remote Workers: Remote work has skyrocketed. During the pandemic, many industries realized that employees can work from home at a lower cost to the company and a higher level of morale for the staff. For the employee who routinely left the office, pre-Covid, for a hot meal at a restaurant, sitting in the kitchen with a PB&J simply won’t cut it. Thanks to convenient apps like DoorDash, receiving a delicious meal is quick and simple, allowing the employee to better focus on the work at hand.
- Busy Families: Double-income families are the norm now, and kids’ extracurricular activities are on the rise, which means the household chores can fall by the wayside. When the family calendar is maxed out, who has time for washing all the laundry? That’s where a laundry service such as Jim Massey Cleaners can help. Their laundry professionals provide pick-up and drop-off services, expertly caring for your bulky, delicate or everyday items along the way.
- Impulsive Grocery Shoppers: We’ve all tried to stop in at the grocery store for an item or two, only to find ourselves at the checkout counter with a shopping cart overflowing with junk food or random, last-minute choices that don’t add up to a complete meal. Shopping for groceries while hangry is dangerous! You can easily blow your weekly budget and still not come home with everything you needed to cook dinner. A convenient solution: using a grocery delivery service such as Shipt. Created right here in Alabama in 2014, this app allows you to order only what you need and avoid all those tempting end-cap displays. You can also easily re-order from past shopping trips, so there’s no need to try to remember that new brand of salsa you tried and loved.
- Literally Anybody: almost everyone has at least heard of Amazon, even if they’ve never used it. This delivery app giant puts almost anything you can dream up right at your fingertips. Need diapers? Dishwashing detergent? Christmas gifts? Amazon can deliver all these within just a few days, not to mention mattresses, clothes and school supplies. What started as a website to sell books in 1994 has exploded into an online marketplace some refer to as “the everything store.” It’s hard to beat the convenience of shopping for every type of product in one virtual location.
Local Niche Convenience:
In addition to popular, nationwide delivery services, there are also plenty of local businesses just waiting to make life much simpler and more convenient for families in the River Region.
Mobile car detailing has seen a rise in demand. Consider a knowledgeable and insured car care professional such as The Worx Auto Detail, LLC – they can either simply wash, or expertly detail, any vehicle at your home. If you have a lengthy project, owner Kyle Jenkins also has a large workshop to service automobiles offsite.
Don’t think that local entrepreneurs have forgotten Fido, either. Mobile pet grooming can save animal lovers loads of time. Instead of driving around town to drop off and pick up your pet for grooming services, simply schedule with a reputable company like OzCutz, owned by Jonathan Oswald. Consider this: mobile pet grooming isn’t only about saving time and effort. Some pets struggle with car sickness, in which case a trip to the groomer could be traumatic for pets and humans alike!
Love home-cooked meals, but you’d rather not spend all your time in the kitchen? Give beloved Montgomery gem Pepper Tree Steaks N’ Wines a try for exquisitely prepared foods such as casseroles, appetizers and specialty salads. Owners Kathy Holmes and Jeff Verner also offer a curated array of wines and fresh-cut steaks to enjoy.
If anyone in your household routinely wears dry-clean-only clothing, this is yet another errand you can now check off your list. Jim Massey’s Cleaners & Laundry offers convenient pickup and delivery, which can save lots of time and effort. Customers are provided with personalized bags to ensure no clothing mix-ups and deliveries are confirmed via text messaging the day before. Talk about convenient!
So much about our world has changed since the Covid pandemic: the way we work, the way our children attend school and the way we run our households. With so many Americans taking advantage of home delivery services and apps, it’s no wonder that the business of convenience has become an industry unto itself. Despite the added price of such convenience, a vast number of consumers across the country agree that sometimes, the benefit simply outweighs the cost.
