Labor Day Special

It's Labor Day again. Time for the end to summer heat and for the kids to head back to school (or, as my wife calls it, "the most wonderful time of the year"). We've got a nice sale on those back to school supplies that you've known you needed, but did not buy all summer long. I've still got to pick mine up!

For those of you who are spending this weekend in the city, either because you are saving some cash or because your Hamptons house is recovering from Irene, we're running a new special for this weekend only. If you want to stock up a bit, you can get $25 off your orders over $200 (plus free delivery, of course). Don't forget to use the coupon code LABORDAY to get the discount.

Not only is this a nice savings to get and gives you a good deal, but I always enjoy seeing if we really can pick, pack, verify, deliver $500 worth of groceries to someone in under 60 minutes. We always manage to do it, but it always amazes me when we do.

Have a happy Labor Day everyone and welcome to the most wonderful time of the year.

Win a Free Steak

We are running a survey on our facebook page to see which cuts of meat people like best from Ottomanelli Butchers.   Whoever picked the winning choice will get a free steak with their next order.

Just go to our facebook page and vote before August 5th.

Only 2 days left for Buy More, Save More

Only 2 days left for the Buy More, Save More program that gives you $10 off orders over $100 and $25 off orders over $200

I've decided to keep the free delivery levels lowered back to $50 as we have had great feedback from our customers about the decision to lower it.

Let me know what you think - do you love free delivery at the lower level?

Gloomy Weather

Weather looking overcast and gloomy today.  For most people, weather like this can make you miserable, but I am happier than a duck on a pond on stormy days like this.

Nothing makes the benefits of our service more clear than a few raindrops on the window when you realize you are out of milk or want a fresh steak.  You can stay in and stay dry while we schlep around in the rain with all of your goods. 

(And, for those of you who worry about the rain for our staff or your orders, our staff is given high quality rain gear and your items are protected in waterproof bags during transit)

So, the next time you see the rain clouds looming, you can probably blame it on me; I've spent years perfecting a large variety of rain dances and other rituals.

Moving into Summer

The heat waves are starting in NYC now.  With that comes all of the usual small business headaches that we have to deal with.  Air conditioners that need to be upgraded, loading up on cooler bags for delivery, changing the product mix to make sure we keep ice pops in stock.  And, dealing with slowdowns in volume as half of NY takes off for the Hamptons each weekend...

At least there is some good news going on also. The new discounts are working very well and we are getting great feedback from customers about the large order discounts.  With those, people no longer have to trade off low price vs top quality service - we can give both.

I have to run and get back on the phone with the architects about the new air conditioners being installed soon (assuming we can satisfy the NYC dept of buildings).

Free Delivery Level Lowered to $50

In my ongoing efforts to make Max Delivery both amazingly convenient AND economical, we just lowered the threshold for free delivery from $75 to $50.

Combining that with our Buy More, Save More program, you can easily save money while doing your daily shopping.

Spend $50, Get Free Delivery

Spend $100, Get $10 Off

Spend $200, Get $25 Off

Compare that to other online grocers with their $6+ delivery fees plus fuel surcharges (whatever that is supposed to be), and you'll see that Max Delivery is an economical way to do your shopping, as well as being the fastest and easiest.

Porterhouse Steaks are too good

As I've said a few times on this blog, in addition to owning the company, I am also a big Max Delivery customer (though, surprisingly, not the biggest user, but that's another story).

I used to order the meats from Max Delivery, but, to be honest, I did not love them.  They were organic and healthy, but not dry aged and the cut wasn't my favorite, so it did not grill up nicely. I would occasionally sneak one from Whole Foods or a local butcher to meet my carnivorous desires.

But, Ottomanelli has changed all that for me.  I ordered one of our Porterhouse steaks last night, added just some salt and pepper, and grilled it up.  The night before, I got the lamb chops and did something similar.

Sugar Sweet Sunshine used to be my favorite Best of NY, but Ottomanelli has now taken over for me.

Now, I never have to leave home again!

Extending the sale

Due to the overwhelming positive feedback on the large order discounts, we are extending them.

So, order over $100*, and get $10 off.
Order over $200*  and get $25 off.

When you add these discounts in, combined with the free delivery discounts at that level, you can save as much or more with Max Delivery than even the most bargain-basement next-day online service.

Our goal, in general, is to give the best service around, not necessarily be the cheapest.  But, with our delivery efficiencies, we can afford to also give back these discounts for our customers who are stocking up, so we are going to continue it.

Let us know what you think.

* Due to legal consideration, these discounts do not include products ordered from Artisan Wines or Bacchus Wines.  

Get $10 off a $100 order

As we try to reward our large shoppers, we have set up a sale for Memorial Day that lets you save $10 on any order over $100.  Plus you get free delivery on any order of that size, so the savings really add up.

With this discount and the free delivery, compare similar orders for us vs even the lowest priced online competitor and we stack up very well.

Use code: MEMDAY

Thanks for your continued business and Happy Memorial Day

Peach Season

Peaches are in stock now.  Grab a luscious, juicy organic peach and bite into it.  Nothing screams summer coming better than that.

Since peaches are highly perishable, only purchase the amount that you need for the next few days.

O Ottomanelli & Sons Are So Nice

You have to meet the 4 Ottomanelli Brothers to really understand how great this meat shop is.  They are incredibly friendly and they work the counter themselves giving you personalized service with a huge knowledge base.

I am so happy to have them as part of our Best of New York partners.  They continue the tradition of finding the best small stores around town and bringing it to my door.  But, they also continue in the tradition of Deb/Peg from Sugar Sweet Sunshine, Jason/Amy from Artisan Wines, Roni from Roni-Sue all the others in being great people to work with.

There is something refreshing about dealing with good small business people.  They know their business, they are honest, and agreements are easy to come to because all sides are looking to make it work for everybody, not to cheat each other.

Looking forward to more of this long-term relationship with another great local business.

Steaks on Sale

The new steaks from O Ottomanelli & Sons are truly wonderful.  As part of our effort to get people to try them out, we have a limited time Buy 1 Get 1 Free steak program for the Ribeyes and Strip steaks.  Try one out and then let us know what you think.

O Ottomanelli & Sons Meat Market

I am overjoyed with the addition of O Ottomanelli & Sons Meat Market to Max Delivery.  From a customer's perspective, having super-high quality, affordable steaks, lamb, and other meats is great for me - as one of Max Delivery's biggest customers, having better meat will make me very happy.

From the business owner's point of view, this partnership gives us another unique product line that saves our customer's time and energy and gives them another reason to use us.

From a New Yorker's point of view, I love supporting the small businesses around town and avoiding the "big box store" crazy mentality that has gripped the rest of the world.  I love our small shops full of people like the Ottomanelli brothers. Drop by their store on Bleecker St in the West Village to say hi.

Orange Returns!

The biggest concerns with the new web design had to do with colors and fonts.  Specifically, many of you told us that you wanted the orange back and hated the new muted grey site.  So, we've heard you and the orange border is back along with a number of small, subtle color adjustments that should make the site more vibrant to look at and feel more like the old site.

We're still working on a few more enhancements to the home page and other pages, so stay tuned to see what is coming next and please keep the feedback coming at our survey.  

New Site Design - Cont'd

We have been working furiously to try to incorporate the latest comments from all the people who have taken our survey about the new design.  Thank you all for the wonderful comments - there have been some great suggestions.

A few of the new suggestions are being implemented/tested now, including slightly larger fonts and bringing back the orange menu bar (instead of the more muted grey), and just adding a little more color to the pages.

Please let us know your thoughts as the site changes/evolves to (hopefully) make your shopping faster and easier than ever.  Feel free to take the survey a second time if your opinion changes...

Thank you all again for the great feedback and keep it coming!

New Site Design - Mixed Reviews

I've been monitoring the feelings about the new site design and there is definitely a mixed feeling about it.  Some of you love it; some of you hate it.  For now, I have left the link back to the old design on the site, so those of you who do not like the new one can get back to shop the way that is most convenient for you. 

The major reason for the redesign was that the old design was clunky and not standardized and was hard to browse in many ways.  I shop at MaxDelivery all the time and rarely did i click through the categories and "walk around" the store.  Instead, I searched for everything that I needed, as did many other customers.

The goal is to make it easier to browse, as well as looking nicer and prettier.  We'll see how well it works out.

I had some further tweaks made to the new site based upon the comments in the survey, but please keep the comments coming.

New Web Site

The new design of the web site is up and live now.

I hope you like it. We took a complete look at the site, spoke to many frequent customers to see what they wanted, and designed it again from the ground up to make it work better and just look a little prettier.

Personally, i love the new menu driven interface and the overall look, but i'd love to hear your thoughts.  We have a survey open for detailed comments, or just post a comment here.

I hope you love it.

--Chris

Ordering Lunch

No matter how many headaches are involved in running a business like MaxD, I just love having the service available as a customer.  I injured myself playing sports last night, and I am currently having my lunch, an ace bandage, and some office supplies brought up to my apartment.

I visit other places and can't understand how they can live their lives without knowing that everything you need is at your fingertips in a few minutes.

One Hour Delivery

I took the kids to see "Gnomeo and Juliet" today.  I couldn't help laughing that when the gnome wanted his killer lawnmower delivered immediately, the "next day" option wasn't fast enough.  So, he chose "One Hour Delivery" from the site to satisfy his intense need to immediately destroy the Capulets.

Well, we don't have homicidal lawnmowers in stock, but we do deliver everything else fast enough to satisfy all of your desires....but, please take a walk around the block to cool off before ordering items intended to wipe out your neighbors garden gnomes!

Site Redesign

We have been working hard to come up with a new, better design for the web site that would make the ordering as easy and quick as possible.  We've got it ready to view and would love your feedback on the design.

You can see the new design by going here.  The new site is fully functional, so you can do all of your shopping on it, if you would want.  If you want to go back to the old site layout, there is a link on the upper right called "Show Old Site" that will take you back.

Try it out and let us know what you think by posting some comments below.

Football Playoff Season

I got a great reminder of how much I love our service last weekend when I had a gathering of friends watching the Jets-Colts game.  Just about halftime, with the Jets looking horrible, we ran out of salsa and were low on drinks.  Luckily, I live in our service area and, with a few quick clicks, we got some more Tostitos, some salsa, and enough drinks to satisfy the group.   All before halftime was over.

The Jets then came out and dominated the 2nd half to win the game.

I don't MaxDelivery want to take credit for the victory, but it sure was a lifesaver for the party.

Enjoy the games!

Snowstorm aftermath

As the snow comes down again today, it obviously makes me think about the recent blizzard that brought the city to a standstill.  We tried to brave the storm for as long as we could, switching from bicycles to subways and walking, but had to close for the day when the subways went kaput.  To all of our customers who needed a hot chocolate or some milk that day, i can only apologize and say that we kept going as long as we possibly could.

Before we shut down, we had delivered every order successfully and had done our best to provide you with as accurate a time estimate as we could.  Were we perfect that day?  No.  But, we communicated as best we could with our customers whenever we had an issue so they could know what was going on.

I was forwarded a link from one of the other grocery delivery services today with a letter from their CEO about the same storm and realized that, for some reason, they just don't seem to understand good service.  The letter starts out discussing the storm and how it caused late orders, cancellations, and, for some reason I did not understand, late responses to phone calls.  But, it then goes on to say that winter is a busy time of year and, as a result, customers should expect to have to work harder to get their daily needs met.

To me, my job is to look for those trends in business, including our "busy times", and to put additional staff or structures in place so that we can continue to give top quality service through those times.  If I see a spike in expected order volume (as happens every winter), we bring on more people, add more inventory, and prepare for it.  What we don't do is write a letter to our customers asking them to bear the burden of our internal issues.  We don't expect you to have to worry about our problems...we are supposed to worry about your problems and find ways to service you.  A service such as ours should have one goal - to make your life easier.

Feedback

We just ran a periodic survey that we offer to some of our customers to give us some feedback on how we are doing, what we are doing well, and what we are not.  It's always a scary experience to ask questions designed to get people to rip holes in the service that you put your blood, sweat and tears into, but it's also about the best way for me to adjust what we are doing in the company.

The latest results (though they are still coming in) are somewhat in line with previous results.  Namely, many people generally love the service, but are having trouble moving us from their occasional source for quick items to a daily part of their lives.

Some of the particulars brought up is that we need to stock more in the way of meats and poultry, watch certain product lines prices (e.g. for some reason, we had an issue where our eggs were overpriced), and make sure that we don't stock out as often.   There are many other insights in there and I take this feedback very seriously.

Most of what was brought up was being worked on already and, for the others, I've added it to our list of new initiatives to roll out.

So, if you were one of the people who responded to the survey...THANK YOU.  If not, please always feel free to let me know what you would like to see different and I'll work to make it happen ASAP if we can.

New Years Resolutions

Happy 2011!  It's a brand new year and a time for making resolutions and thinking about changes.

For me, the most obvious resolution is that I will start keeping up with this blog more often.  I had taken a few months off for some business initiatives and for some family emergencies which unfortunately occurred.

But, it's a new year now.  Time to look forward.

So, what do we have going on at MaxDelivery in the coming months?  A lot of new things are in the pipeline which should make MaxDelivery even better for our customers.  Some of the things in the pipeline include:
* New site design - You should be seeing this in beta form in the coming month.  I think you will love the new site.
* Added toys and quick gifts - We've recently added some toys and quick gifts to make it easier to pick up those last minute items for kids and others.
* New reusable bags - we've expanded the use of reusable bags to cut out waste from our process and have redesigned the bags to look more chic in case you want to use them for things around town.

Happy new year to all and I look forward to a great 2011!