Last week, Convenience Store reported on a retailing couple who’d seen great results from their latest delivery service over the past six months.
The Spar Alloa Road store in Falkirk reported it had broken the £60k monthly sales barrier on rapid grocery delivery, following on from a record December performance and accelerated growth at the family-run convenience store.
Operated by Asiyah and Jawad Javed, the store revealed it had generated £63,424 in online sales from 2,830 orders via Snappy Shopper in December alone, as well as acquiring 349 new customers as delivery continued to gain momentum locally.
But the secret of the store’s recent success may well come down to more than just the pair offering delivery. Asiyah and Jawad are, it turns out, pivotal in their local community, with much of their work catering to the more vulnerable members of society.
As well as a healthy take up of their delivery service to a nearby hospital, the pair also provide for care homes and schools around Falkirk.
Speaking to Convenience Store, the pair said they were very pleased about the recent growth. Asiyah said: “Our hospital deliveries are really popular. That community side of the business is important to us - 100% - and we do quite a lot of charity work.
“During COVID, we did free hand care packages with gel and face masks for the NHS when they weren’t available at hospitals. We look after a few care homes as well, supplying goods for the people there. We go there for occasions like Easter and Christmas, with selection boxes and chocolates, or Easter eggs, and we do special birthdays for the residents. If it’s a special one then we buy them what they like - we take a birthday cake too, and we pay for it.
“We help schools as well. If they need any food for a trip with the kids, we supply them.”
With regards to the recent sales boost from deliveries, Jawad says partnering with Snappy Shopper has been a beneficial move. “We didn’t expect that boost and we did very well, and everything’s good right now.
“There are some hurdles, of course - it’s not like an overnight success. It’s also thanks to the effort from Snappy Shopper, our staff - everything like that makes a difference.”
In the immediate future, Asiyah says she’s looking forward to giving the store’s delivery vehicle a makeover. “We’re getting our car wrapped very soon. It’ll have the Snappy Shopper details and graphics on the car - it’s free advertising! We’re trying to get busier and advertise even more.”
Advertising may well help Spar Alloa Road, considering another local store is offering also Snappy Shopper’s services.
But Asiyah believes there’s enough demand for everyone. “We have another competing store nearby offering those services as well. There’s such a demand. I think most people prefer doing online shopping now to going out.
“The hospital deliveries are free of charge because we don’t like charging people who are in hospital.”
“Also, when there’s disabled people that can’t go out it’s a benefit to them that they can order from the house, and they really appreciate it. For most of the disabled and vulnerable people we do free deliveries anyway. Even the hospital deliveries are free of charge because we don’t like charging people who are in hospital.
“We also try to look after the elderly - we don’t charge them either, even if they don’t know how to work a smartphone. We still do deliveries to them free of charge, but over the phone.”
One final benefit from the increased sales figures is the new faces the store increasingly sees – which in a cyclical way is beneficial to the local groups it supports.
Jawad concluded: “We have locals that come in all the time, but there are also about 50-60% of customers who are new faces to us. They visit the shop because of what we do for the community. They just want to spend their money here because they know that most of the money is going back into that very community.”
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