This new grocery delivery service is local and delicious
You can now also do your weekly round of the butcher, greengrocer, baker and delicatessen shop online. Don’t ask how it works, but someone else will pick up your favorite treats from all those local shops, pack them neatly and deliver them to your home. That’s the promise of new delivery service De Lokalist.
You can’t really call it a trend anymore, but gosh, it’s so convenient to simply have your groceries delivered! During the coronavirus lockdown, I struggled with planning the groceries because we had to get tested and weren’t allowed outside, but we were still hungry and had run out of cat litter. On top of that, I needed comfort food because I didn’t feel ill but did feel miserable, thanks to the cotton swab in my head and the mandatory quarantine. So I could have kissed the supermarket delivery driver—not done, because quarantine—when he stood on the doorstep with the crates of groceries.
One small downside: no delicious goat’s brie, none of my favorite white wine from the nearby liquor store, and certainly no crisp, still-warm sourdough bread from the baker.
Candy store
De Lokalist solves that problem for you. It’s a complete grocery delivery service that searches all those charming little local shops for delicious olives, your favorite cheese to put in the basket, nuts from the nut shop and, of course, the toko for your herbs and boemboes. What a candy store!
They deliver throughout the Netherlands (except the Wadden Islands) and offer a choice from the selections of more than a hundred small shops. So whether you can’t do the shopping for a while or simply don’t feel like it: De Lokalist’s delivery drivers scour all the specialty shops for you and pick up exactly what you need.
Nightmare
A logistical nightmare, you might think. Because De Lokalist promises that your order will be delivered tomorrow if you place it before four o’clock today. How? Well, founders Paul and Richard figured that out. They are logistics entrepreneurs by background, so they know what they’re talking about. ‘We ran a test for a few months and it works. We can now connect every Dutch consumer with the friendly farmers and craftspeople who are affiliated.’
Plenty of inspiration
Your groceries are delivered in a sustainable reusable bag, and you can also use it to return your deposit bottles and batteries to the delivery driver. Looking for inspiration? The website features recipes by Karin Luijten, known for Koken met Karin and Koken zonder pakjes en zakjes. You can toss the ingredients straight into your online shopping basket.
