Concerns continue to mount among residents and businesses across the country given the ongoing CUPW strike, forcing some Grande Prairie businesses to look to other means of delivery, especially during the holiday season.
Grande Prairie Downtown Association Executive Director Wendy Bosch explains that most downtown businesses tend to not deal in e-commerce, so the lack of delivery has gone largely unnoticed; however, the businesses that do depend on their online presence have been forced to look at other options.
“Some of our businesses do online, and some don’t, so they’re each handling it differently,” she says. “The one good thing is, this may force people to go to the brick-and-mortar locations to pick up their products.”
One of the other options local businesses have looked to in order to ensure delivery options remain available for shoppers is Grande Prairie-based delivery service “Turbo.”
Turbo Delivery Owner Fisnik Veliu explains most of the work his service is completing for businesses is paperwork delivery; however, he expects to see an uptick as Christmastime quickly approaches.
“We have had a few businesses reach out to us, just in terms of paperwork and stuff like that, they need to be delivered to a specific spot in Grande Prairie,” he says. “Every year we do a lot of gift delivery so I expect this year it will probably be a bit more than that, so we’re trying to get prepped with more drivers.”
Still, Veliu maintains his company’s position as a local delivery service, so he doesn’t expect to replace any of the national players any time soon.
“For us, because we don’t do much town town-to-town type of deals, most of our stuff is in town, the only spot where I think we’ll benefit is some people tend to send gifts even in town with Canada Post or DHL, and UPS, so I think that’s kind of where we’ll benefit,” he says. “I think we’ll see more as Christmas comes along.”
When it comes to GP’s downtown businesses, Bosch says she is hopeful that residents will consider shopping locally this holiday season.
