SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Residents will no longer have to get off the couch to get a meal from their favourite restaurant, flowers for an anniversary, or medicine from a pharmacy.
Yellowknife entrepreneur Edward Dithurbide is hitting the streets with Jerrie's Delivery Services, starting today. - Thandiwe Vela/NNSL photo |
Yellowknife entrepreneur Edward Dithurbide hits the streets today with his new all-purpose delivery business, picking up almost anything within city limits for a few bucks.
"Now people can order from wherever they want in Yellowknife," said Dithurbide, listing corner stores, flower shops, coffee shops, department stores, grocery stores, and fast-food restaurant pick-ups among his services. "They just phone me and I'll go pick it up."
Jerrie's, named so as to combine the names of Dithurbide's two sons, Jeremy and Riel, will deliver almost everything, with the exception of alcohol, which the NWT Liquor Board has informed him is illegal.
"So I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to jeopardize my family's business to deliver somebody a case of beer," Dithurbide said. "It's not going to happen."
Anticipation has been building for the delivery service online and through word of mouth, Dithurbide said, leading up to today's opening.
"I can't tell you how many people have told me they wish A Taste of Saigon would deliver," he said, gauging the demand for such a service in Yellowknife. "Now they can. Call A Taste of Saigon, tell them you want an order for pick up, then call our service and we go get it. It's just that simple."
The small business has garnered the attention of a number of Yellowknife restaurants, enlisting partnerships with businesses across town, including Tim Hortons, which is contracting some of its own delivery services to Jerrie's.
One of a Thai owner Sousanh Chanthalangsy said the delivery business will help service the Thai restaurant's clients who can't make it to the Curling Club for lunch or supper during the winter.
"I think they'll do well, especially with the fast food," she said. "Nobody wants to leave their house when it's cold."
Without a storefront, Dithurbide said he has seen relatively low overhead costs opening and operating the business, mostly limited to his small delivery sedan and liability insurance.
"It's a small town and I'm driving a small car so I'm not going to burn much in gas," he said.
"It was a lot easier to start a business like this as opposed to say, for me to open a restaurant or something like that. It would've cost me a heck of a lot more."
Similar operations are run elsewhere in the country, including in Sydney, N.S., where Dithurbide first got the idea working for a delivery service business there.
"The company I worked for in Sydney at any given time had 19 drivers. And they're doing the exact same thing that I'm starting," he said.
Jerrie's plans to hire additional drivers in the future, depending on demand, he added.
