Grocery delivery is big business amid COVID-19 crisis

LAKE MARY, Fla. - As so many industries struggle with the economy sliding and COVID-19 running its course, there may be at least one industry really hitting its stride: the app-based delivery business.

"It's been like Black Friday but times three,” said Shipt Shopper Kimberly Hernandez. "It's booming! We're extremely busy."

Hernandez said she’s lost track of how many orders she’s filling for folks on most days. Even as she interviewed with FOX 35 News on Thursday her phone kept sounding the same alert tone every few minutes, indicating another Shipt customer calling on her services.

"I was in Super Target in Lake Mary not too long ago and there was five of us in their at one time,” she said.

Shipt is a grocery delivery service that allows people to order items from places like Target and have a local shopper go and fill it, then deliver it directly to their door.

Hernandez said at this time of social isolating to curb the spread of COVID-19 that many of her customers are truly heeding the advice of officials and not going out.

Drivers for Shipt and many other app-based delivery services like Doordash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub are regular sights among the incredibly thin crowds out and about right now. Shipt even reports a surge of hiring to fill the extra demand.Hernandez said unfortunately, filling all of the items on people’s lists right now is a bit easier said than done with many store shelves empty as some hoard supplies. However in her experience, she said customers have been understanding.

"They understand that there's a huge shortage, they see it on TV, so they're like, 'is that really what it looks like?' I'm like, 'yeah, that's really what it looks like out here,’” she said.

So she said with demand high she’ll keep shopping for those who want to stay in, while staying her distance from others in the aisles and keeping her hand sanitizer near-by.