In New York City, where every second counts, rapid grocery delivery service Gorillas hopes to shave minutes from your day.
"Very few people want to spend all Saturday in the grocery store, in line, and dealing with the crowded aisles and all this different stuff," Gorillas director of U.S. operations Adam Wacenske said. "We kind of take that whole what used to be a day-long process and condense it so that people enjoy the rest of their lives."
Gorillas launched in May 2020 in Berlin, with a promise of delivering groceries in minutes. But it's not just time it can save consumers. Because people are ordering things when they need it, the company believes it can help the environment by eliminating unnecessary food waste.
"I'm not ordering an entire bunch of bananas and watching them go bad on my counter," he said. "I'm ordering what I need for real-time. The bigger we can get, the more people start to adopt that sort of real-time ordering, the lower their waste becomes, the lower their carbon footprint becomes."
The way it works it that Gorillas' system takes an order and sends it to a nearby warehouse, which is usually within one mile of the delivery address. A picker gathers the items that were ordered and brings them to a delivery rider, who then bikes the order over to the customer.
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Because the company owns the items, it can price items at retail without any additional markups. It stocks items based on customer demand through previous orders, which means it has everything from fresh groceries and canned goods to USB cords and even vibrators around Valentine's Day. A delivery fee of 1.80 euros or $1.80 is added to every order.
So far Gorillas has expanded its operations to a number of other countries including the Netherlands, the UK, France, Belgium, Italy, Denmark, and Spain, and quickly has become Europe's fastest-growing unicorn, or a private company valued at more than $1 billion dollars. It entered the U.S. market through New York in May 2021 and has been making deliveries ever since. While Gorillas didn't provide specific numbers on its U.S. business, it said it received 10 million global orders in 2021.
"Everybody across the world wants their time back," Wacenske said. "It is the most valuable sort of resource. I think the U.S. represents a huge market or market opportunity for us, and we're trying to capture that through New York as a first step."
Of course, the business plan isn't flawless. There have been concerns about riders injuring themselves while trying to get orders to customers as quickly as possible. To keep people safe Wacenske said the company puts limits on electric bike speeds depending on the season (for instance, slower caps during the winter when road conditions are a concern), and also owns and checks all the equipment twice daily.
"We're not pressing on the time so much," he explained. "Our system is set up in a way that gives them enough time to get to the door, right?"
Delivery rider Adam Carter, who worked as a bike messenger for a decade before joining Gorillas, pointed out that the company actually hires its employees instead of just using freelancers. He gets benefits, including health insurance, accident insurance, and paid time off. He's delivered up to 16 orders in 24 hours and appreciates that he can count on a paycheck every week.
"The biggest thing is this consistency," Carter said. "I feel like I'm a valued member of a team."
Wacenske thinks once people try Gorillas, they won't go back to normal grocery shopping.
"To be able to have the pasta before the water boils is like an insane thing," he said.
