Christina and I have been thinking a bit about how to make sure people respect social distancing when supermarkets open in a few days. Here is what we have come up with and which we have shared with a few key people:
Opening supermarkets again
Mauritius is currently under tightened lockdown and all supermarkets are currently closed. As a result, some households are running out of food stocks. Consequently, Government is considering re-opening supermarkets as from 1st April 2020. An important issue is how to minimise the risk of transmission of the coronavirus due to concentrations of people in the supermarkets.
A number of studies have shown that one of the strategies to decrease risk of transmission of the coronavirus is social distancing. The objective of this proposal is thus to provide for a process to minimise the number of customers in a supermarket at any given time.
This requires having a process for the management of bookings for shopping slots as well as a process to be followed by customers while they are within the supermarket and doing their shopping.
One solution for the booking process
Under the previous system, the 9:00 – 10:00 slot was reserved for senior citizens and the disabled and Government may choose to maintain this.
For the other slots as from 10:00, the following method, which has as objective to reduce the number of people in the supermarket in any given time, may be used.
A slot is a period of one hour to be spent for doing shopping in a supermarket. This period of one hour includes arriving at the control point of the supermarket, getting inside the facility, doing the shopping, proceeding to the cashier, paying and leaving the premises.
The number of people allowed during one slot of one hour will depend on a number of factors. For example, a large supermarket can accommodate more people at the same time compared to a smaller one. This means that, prior to the launch of the service, all participating supermarkets will have to register and indicate, after discussions and the approval from authorities, the number of clients they can accommodate concurrently.
People will be able to book a one hour slot in a specific supermarket using a mobile-friendly website where he/she will be asked for the following information: name, national identification number (NID), name of supermarket (to be chosen from a list) and the time slot (he/she will be shown slots with availability). This means that the system will work on a first-come first-served basis.
[An update following a comment: for those people who cannot access the website for one reason or another, it is also possible to call a phone number to do the booking. This means that there will be a call center where the operators will use the same website for booking slots on behalf of people calling.]
All bookings will have to be done at least one day prior to the date of shopping.
As soon as the person submits his/her booking request, the system will do a booking:
- the person will see a message indicating that a booking has been done in his/her name. The message will contain a unique code which the person will be able to keep (copy & paste) and share with the authorities in case of dispute. The system will record this code as one of the attributes of a booking.
- the system will record that this person (with this unique NID) has been allocated a slot to come to the designated supermarket at this given time. This list of people (containing NIDs together with all the other details of the person (including the code) will then be shared to the police and the supermarket to control entry. This means that people coming to the supermarket have to show their ID card.
The importance of the code is in case someone makes a slight mistake when entering his/her ID on the booking system. This code can be used as a secondary check to allow the person to get in the supermarket. The code will just have to be a relatively long (e.g. 8 digits) random number. This number does not need to be unique, only sufficiently random.
The system will not allow someone who has already booked a slot in one supermarket on a given day to do a second booking on the same day. This is to prevent people from monopolising access to supermarkets while also decreasing the risk for contracting and transmitting the virus.
The system will not ask the person to indicate the closest supermarket to his/her place of residence. This is because a person may need to do shopping for his/her elders and these may live in another locality.
One solution for the shopping process
An example of a slot is 13:00 – 14:00.
A person can decide to come a bit earlier in order to secure a parking spot but he/she will have to wait in a queue with a distance of at least 1m between each person. Everyone should wear a mask. People who come later than 13:00 will be allowed in but they will have to have finished by 14:00 (like all other people in the same slot).
Clients will have to go through security to be allowed in (to be provided by policemen or security staff). At the middle of the slot (e.g. 13:30), a speaker will announce that people should start proceeding to checkout. One quarter hour before the end of the slot (e.g. 13:45), the speaker will announce that everyone should proceed to checkout and anyone not having paid and left by 14:00 will have to leave their products at the supermarket, irrespective of whose fault it is.
People should be sensitised to the fact that 1 hour is short and that they need to be efficient and practical in their shopping if they want their shopping to finish by the end of the slot.
Given that the police and/or security has the list of people who are allowed in a slot, it is also possible to control people when they leave so as, for example, to check whether there is anyone still inside the supermarket at the end of a slot. But this is not a mandatory part of the process as it would require more personnel.
Additionally, the police and/or security can also exercise their discretion in case of, e.g., a technical problem at checkout causing a delay. For example, if there is a problem with the credit card payment system, it is obvious that people will have to wait longer (thereby possibly exceeding their 1h limit) and this can be exceptionally allowed, while allowing the next batch of people to enter the supermarket.
The implementation
The website with the functionalities described above will have to be developed. This can be done by the developers at the Government Online Centre and/or Mauritius Telecom working in collaboration with the community of developers in Mauritius. Hosting the website will have to be done at GOC. Proper coordination between all parties is essential for timely delivery and for strict compliance with all requirements. We are agreeable to be the coordinators between the various parties.
We are interested to receive constructive criticism on this proposal.
[Update: During a press conference on 31 March 2020 at 11:30, Government announced a number of measures for the opening of shops and supermarkets as from Thursday 2 April. These represent a vast improvement on the previous system. Having listened to the official announcement attentively, Christina and I asked ourselves a number of questions.]
Hi Avinash and Christina,
It’s a great proposal but what about people with no access to the apps/website. I’m pretty sure it will be more than 50% of shoppers so you need to cater for an offline bookng option in this system. Another problem is indiscipline and or maybe genuine delays leading to people from one slot spilling into a second which would just spiral, I would suggest an additional 20% – 30% of expected time per person per slot be considered, if not required atleast the staff get some more time to rest before the next batch.
Do you think having the possibility to book a slot by phone, instead of using a website, would work? This will require some kind of call center where, basically, people will use the web application we have proposed. This surely makes the development much more simple.
Hi Avinash,
I believe this is a very good proposal but I still believe we should provide 3 options to the population. The first one being what you are proposing above, the second one is to allow for home delivery to limit physical interactions and the third one is to use some of the major call centres to accommodate for the older generation who are not digital savvy.
We also need to ensure that all supermarkets have a back-end access to the system to ensure they can provide how many people they can accommodate per slot plus any other notifications they would like to relay.
As far as the home delivery option is concerned, we absolutely need to rope in logistic firms, food distribution companies, Mauritius Post, Freight Forwarders and even the Police Force to assist in the delivery. In this scenario, each supermarkets will need to work out the contents of their package with a few options. No online payment should be entertained as this will definitely have an impact on number of concurrent transactions that the payment gateway can handle. All payments should be via Juice, MyT money or IB. The client will need to input their order number while doing the banking transaction to allow for easier reconciliation.
As for option 3, it is the same as above except that we may need to consider cash on delivery for the exact amount.
Thank you and regards,
Awad
Hi Awad, I agree with you about, ideally, having some kind of home delivery system.
But, to do that, we’ll have to have all the products on the website (which means that supermarkets will have to provide this information and update it when needed). I can’t see that happening easily throughout the country. Or am I missing something?
Right now, having such a booking system where some people use the website and some call to book seems simple enough to me.
The shopping process is still manual but with a more stringent control on the number of people inside a supermarket and the amount of time they are allowed in.
It is understood that online shopping and delivery should also be up and running to reduce the number of people who go to the supermarkets. It is up to these platforms to strengthen their respective systems.
This proposal is for supermarket shopping in addition to existing online shopping. Obviously, ideally people who can do the online shopping should continue to do so.
The objective is to reduce crowds both in front and inside supermarkets.
Hi Avinash,
The idea with home delivery is to provide backend access for each supermarket to upload their pre-defined basic packages and complimentary add-ons. The data entry can be done by key players of the BPO sector to reduce administrative burden on supermarkets so that they can focus on their core competencies. There is no need to update the list once the content of each package has been confirmed. There need to be a disclaimer about availability of products and the use of the closest substitute. And there is no need for supermarkets to itemise all their products which would not be manageable with the current situation.
The existing online platforms including Winners have not been designed to scale and handle such high volume of traffic. I believe it is quite unlikely that they will b able to upgrade their existing system and this is why I believe we need to have a central ordering system hosted at GOC or MT datacentre with load balancing of traffic at both networking and server level.
That’s what I believe too. I’ve spoken to the GOC people and they do have the infrastructure to host a web app which can be used by thousands of people at the same time… provided, of course, that the software has a sound architecture and follow best practices.
If the government is agreeable, I can check with my Development Directors to see if we can get one or two of our best developers to work on this initiative. This is a very simple development work. We can also mobilize some of our staff in the Support team for the data entry and any backend process handling.
The most important piece of the puzzle is to rally all the relevant stakeholders for the home delivery by region. I understand that Vidia has already spoken to the President of MCCI to see what can be done.
We’ll have to wait and see. The PM has just announced that Government will communicate on a protocol for the opening of supermarkets tomorrow.
Booking platform first come first might crash due to heightened traffic – it has to be super stable, as in people have to look for their IDs and key in the right number etc … there must be no time out sessions and the likes.
Re. national identification number (NID) – You might want to consider already formatting the NID field so as to reduce risk of missing out a number … “ok / validate button” become active only when a valid NID format is keyed in.
Another consideration: letting people in / out by waves creates a small “panic” behavior. Most people shop in the same “sequence/order” from one extreme of the supermarket for dry and non-perishables, working their way through cans and fresh produce and finally finishing with frozen foods … btw that’s why supermarkets order their aisles in such a way (and also logic to get frozen foods last) …
But you might consider letting, or encouraging people to enter the “shopping area” (what’s behind the till) by different entrances, e.g. line them up inside the store already in front of the 25-30 tills in a big one like the one in Trianon … and let them in like this … the chance that people actually start closer to where they enter is then bigger … although it makes for an erratic shopping journey …
Something that could be done here is till entrance and till exit assignment … people are assigned a till to enter through and to exit … someone is assigned till 25 to enter and must pay at till 1, and vice versa, and someone entering at till 12 pays at till 13 … (see below another use of this)
Also asking / making people go to tills at 15 min before end of the hours is not enough depending on number of people coming in … I never really timed, but I would be amazed if it takes less than 7-8 minutes for a cashier to process a full cart, including unloading, payment and reloading of cart … for reference, I only do online shopping – so all my shopping is already sorted in boxes when I go collect it … my car is parked 5 meters from the till (the collection point is in the car park) and I only need to give my name, get my boxes, pay and leave … if I’m the only customer there it still takes 10 minutes …
Now typically, a huge supermarket (like the one in Trianon will have 25 tills and can accommodate 200 people at any given time in order to respect social distancing … An idea could be to divide number of people allowed in the slot (say 200) by the number of tills (say 25) and assign a till number to people … they can only pay at the assigned till … this also could cater for the reverse order of shopping, someone starting at frozen and finishing at the postcards section still has a till near him/her… that still means 8 people per till multiplied by 7-8 minutes … you see the problem? 1 hr of check out …
I think 1.5hr-2hr slots will be more in order with 200 people in a big supermarket and 5 spare (unassigned) tills empty ready to be manned and absorb excess traffic … and the last customers must leave 15 min before the new wave is let in … in order to let staff regroup, have a quick look and clean up the inevitable milk or yogurt spill …
Something that (some) supermarkets have done here is to stop all promotions, everything at normal price … of course supermarkets are having a field day because they’ve never shifted so many units as today and everything at full price … but they claim (and there is a little bit of truth to that) that promotion management requires extra manpower, from setting up a gondola end with the promo, replenishing shelves, prices that do not match at the tills, complaints etc …
Another thing to consider is maybe a special treatment to people who are in “essential” jobs, such as firemen, policemen, nurses and doctors etc … to either give them special access, also 9-10 … but there the risk with old people is actually accentuated thus maybe being counter productive … if not give them some extra flexibility in accessing the supermarket, as in they can show up and enter the supermarket whenever they want (they sometimes are not sure when their shifts really ends).
But there is a question that I ask myself … why would you with your intellect and IT savvy not actually programme a top of the line online shopping solution for Mauritius’ supermarkets, interfacing with the different supermarkets and accessing stock info and prices and getting this damn online shopping on track on the island … and making a killing financially along the way … or actually devising bespoke online shopping solutions for supermarkets … (and smaller businesses).
Hi Kevin,
You cracked the code my friend. Indeed, we need to have a robust and scalable online shopping platform as a longterm solution that interfaces with all supermarkets and essential stores. However, as an interim solution we need to find a way people can order pre-packaged hampers until we sort out the logistics at the back allowing full blown online shopping.
Hi Kevin, thanks for your long list of suggestions. All of them are very interesting and potentially useful.
I agree that, in the long term, it would be great to have an online platform for buying anything. There are a number of complex aspects to solve (e.g. how to get a regularly updated list of products in the system, how to tackle delivery nationwide at a low price, how to make electronic payment a reality for everyone, etc.) but Mauritius is tiny.
I also agree that, once the supermarkets will be open, if care is not taken, people will flood in. There need to be some way to control the number of people around the supermarket and within it as you explained. Our proposal is just the simplest which we could think of which has a high probability of working while respecting social distancing.
Last night, the PM announced that supermarkets will open on 2 April and, today, 31 March, explanations will be given on how this will work. Let’s see.
Hi Avinash,
That’s a great proposal.
Two things I can think of:
1. The first come first serve approach is fine, but there should probably be additional restrictions, otherwise it doesn’t ensure that everyone has a chance of getting a slot. For example, if there are no slots available when someone tries to book a slot, that request could go in a queue, and get priority over new requests coming for the next day. Or I also see this working very nicely with the approach which the government proposed i.e. restricting by alphabetical order. Your proposal adds another layer of protection by ensuring that the number of people coming between 9am and 5pm is equally distributed. Will have to crunch the numbers to see if this would be able to accommodate everyone, assuming a shopping frequency of twice a week.
2. Regarding setting up a platform for online shopping, I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be possible to reuse things which already exist. E.g. Amazon or eBay. Haven’t really thought that through or done any research into it yet, but I’m wondering if it would be possible for supermarkets to simply create a seller account on Amazon or eBay, and thus leverage their existing infrastructure. Of course we would still need to cater for those who would have trouble getting access by providing the possibility to place the order by phone call.
Hi Cédric, your idea of having a queue, so that those who haven’t been given a slot, get one in priority the next day is very good. Thanks.
As for having a full-fledged e-commerce solution, maybe that’s what Mauritians ultimately deserve (given the size of the country and the purchasing power of the people). But, surely, this will take a lot of time and money to implement and, ideally, needs to be done by a private company. What do you think?
During a press conference on 31 March 2020 at 11:30, Government announced a number of measures for the opening of shops and supermarkets as from Thursday 2 April. These represent a vast improvement on the previous system.
Having listened to the official announcement attentively, Christina and I asked ourselves a number of questions:
Hi Avinash,
You have raised some valid points but I am still wondering what is the role of the Ministry of ICT in all this. We all know that technology alone will not be able to solve this as we also need the proper process and logistics in place. To be honest about it, I find that we are using trial and error to come up with unsustainable solutions. It is very sad that we, Industry experts are willing to give a helping hand but nobody wants to listen to our ideas. No wonder why Mauritius is sitting at the 82nd place out 129 economies surveyed in 2019 Global Innovation Index!
Hi Guys,
Thanks for your contribution. The idea of Avinash & Christina sounds right if we want to mitigate the risk of contamination though human interactions. Bear in mind that the risk is still there unfortunately, even after total confinement ! This is another discussion…
Let’s come back to the technological assistance discussion, David is right, there could be a digital divide with the proposed system.
I would rather propose a solution based on the use of a SMS gateway rather than a website. In this way, all mobiles will be in the loop.
Let me elaborate the system step by step:
1. Government to publish a list of supermarkets with a 4 digits code per region
e.g : London Vacoas can be 4501. This gives possibility up to 9999 shops
2. This to be communicated by media and can be retrieved as well from the SMS service
3. MT & Emtel to set up a SMS portal which should process all incoming requests on specific no. (e.g 8090) free-of-change. [With a common back-end]
4. Booking request should be in the format : BOOK 9999 DD-MM HH
5. The back-end program processes the request (based on descriptions below) and send 2 possible messages to the sender:
(i) Booking done successfully at London Supermarket Vacoas – Date:03/04 Time:14:00 Ticket:125482
(ii) Booking cannot be processed ! Try a different slot…
6. How the back-end should work ?
(i) The list of shops should contain the max no.of persons allowed per slot.
(ii) Slots should be standard for all shops (i.e 9h00, 10h00, 11h00 etc…)
(iii) The list of shops should contain also the opening and closing time.
(iv) The program validates booking (using both static & dynamic data) according to the following rules
(a) The slot must not have reached the max. persons allowed.
(b) The mobile no. must not have a successful booking during the last x days (x to be determined)
(c) The shop must NOT have been flagged as risky by MOH.
(d) The starting alphabet of the family name (MT/Emtel should give permission for the program to access this information) should tally with the schedule of the government. In this way, one family CANNOT use various mobile nos available at home to do the booking.
7. The sms service may provide the list of shops by sending the following text : VIEW SHOPS VACOAS for example
8. How access is controlled at Supermarket ?
(i) The security/policeman asks the client (at least one meter from him) for the ticket no. He uses his mobile and send the following msg to the SMS service : CHECK 125482. The program checks the associated details and send back the following info to the sender : (a) Booking date 14/02 Time : 14h00 – Access granted or (b) Booking date 14/02 Time : 15h00 – NO ACCESS (assuming that the server time is less that 15h00)
No handling of ID Card, hence no contact between policeman and public
9. How can this data become useful later ?
(i) For contact tracing: If someone is hospitalized for COVID-19, we can use his phone no. to see who have been crossed by him in exactly which supermarket.
(ii) Gov can analyze movement of people per region during confinement.
(iii) This system may be used even after confinement.
Here is my modest contribution guys, let’s discussed.
@Avinash
As for having a full-fledged e-commerce solution, maybe that’s what Mauritians ultimately deserve (given the size of the country and the purchasing power of the people). But, surely, this will take a lot of time and money to implement and, ideally, needs to be done by a private company. What do you think?
I totally agree. I believe there is a big opportunity here for a private company. The fact that the supermarkets who have offered online shopping during this crisis have all been at full capacity booking wise is to some extent validation for the concept.
I believe it is futile sharing all these great ideas as nothing concrete will ever happen. We just have to live with the flow.
Hello
Since the aim of the reopening of the supermarkets is for the purchase of basic comodities, why not remove the manual shopping by the customer entirely and instead provide a system whereby a custom list is submitted(general list to be defined) by customers through the website for a specific chosen supermarket and the staffs at the supermarkets will be notified and in turn prepare all the items available from the list and package them to be collected by the customer ,who will be notified by sms of what was obtained, that the package is ready to be collected and charged only for items that were successfully obtained at the supermarket door step.
Benefits:
• This will avoid people roaming around inside the supermarket
• There will be no need for control inside
• There will no need for extra sanitary measures like wasting sanitisers on every single person entering the supermarket
• The items inside the supermarket will be in contact with the supermarket staff only who will be following strict sanitary measures
• No accumulation of crowds in hope of entering the supermarket in panic
• The security staff will have be safer since they will not have contact with people in queues
• The collection process will be very fast
• People will not have to worry about time limits or panic to queues at the supermarket doorsteps, instead they will just need an sms to tell them to come, collect their items and pay
• The quantity limitations of the number of items of the category can be enforced through this and prevent abuse of certain people overbuying things
• The receipts delivered with the custom package will be same normally generated one by the cashier
I may be overlooking many things here but i believe with some adjustments this might be simpler and safer
That’s a good idea. I suppose that the idea of having ready-made packs is one of the best ways forward but, of course, these packs will have to be designed by real shoppers and nutritionists and pitched at sensible prices (e.g. Rs 250, 500, 750, 1000, etc.)
Have you guys seen the scene around the retail stores throughout the Island today? Unbelievable, how people are irresponsible!!! As Dr. Gujadhur pointed out we are really a COCOVID NATION!!!
@ Avinash, we absolutely need to convince the government to setup a robust online retail platform in partnership with the private sector.
I’m talking to all the people I can…
Hello Avinash,
Agree with Awad, not to the fact that our nation is COCOVID! (lol), but to the urgency of setting up a system so as to eliminate the human contact (minimizing is not enough).
Yesterday, I’ve seen that France will start preparing the ‘deconfinement’ phase. This also has to be discussed right now!
Despite all the special setup put in place in supermarket in order to minimize the risk, we have to bear in mind that those who are supposed to supervise that procedures are being followed properly, namely shop assistants and policemen, are themselves at risk because they are not trained professionals.
So, let’s have the “ZHIS” zero-human interaction system at the earliest possible.
Open for discussion.
Hello,
Thank you for thinking on this initiative and keeping it open for suggestion. This is a great idea and i do believe it could make a difference.
My thoughts on the proposal are as follows:-
Website is good but I personally do believe that a phone app would be much more user friendly and more accessible. The probability of people having a smart phone is much higher than having a laptop/desktop. Hence my suggestion would be to build a grocery ‘uber’ app / uber market instead of a website where :-
1.Shop/Stores/Supermarkets would have to register as seller and customer as buyer
2.Seller will provide his information such as:-
A. his/her location
B. real time stock availability
C. Available for delivery Y/N
D. Others
3.This will allow the customer to choose which seller he can buy from the app instead of hopping from 1 store to a different store.
4 Buyer will be able to prepare his/her virtual basket / virtual package selected in the app.
5.Buyer will be able to see total cost upfront.
6.Buyer can pay using MCBjuice or pay at store.
7.Buyer can select delivery mode or fetch at store option
8.For people paying and fetching at store will have to select available green time slots from the app. We will have to define how much each slot can accomodate per store.
9.Seller will have to prepare the basket and use the code mentioned in the proposal.
10.For people not having digital access can order by phone through store operators but can still offer the same service.
11.People paying and fetching at store can have drivethrough service with the code that will be provided.
12.Delivery service can use buyer location or meet halfway to a known place at any time. Arrangements can make through phones if payment has already reflected in sellers’ accounts.
The grocery uber / uber market app will have its own uber definition.
This also applies to stores such as pharmacies, fruits and veg ,meat , seafood etc..
We can also provide a mobile essential grovery van for people not having digital access where people will have to wait for the van to stop infront on their door before they can buy something
The last thing i would like to add is implementing a
‘a manual guide’ for things that will be implemented. People do need guidance
Well, this is just my thoughts and i know we are having a difficult time and resource contraints but we have to start somewhere 🙂 I hope my ideas could be useful and wish you and Christina good luck.
Thank you.
Thanks Tej for your suggestion. I’m starting to see a pattern here. Some of us, Christina and I included, would just want to have a booking system (because that’s easier to build) and rely on the fact that, if fewer people are at the supermarket, the risk of having more sick people decreases. Then there are some, you included, who would like to build a full-fledged e-commerce system with selections of products and home delivery. That’s naturally way more complex to build (and costly) but much more useful in these moments of pandemic.
What do others think?
Hi Avinash,
I think we need to differentiate the 2, the online shopping is definitely something we need to work on but that needs to be the shops themselves and this is happening unfortunately not very well but things are improving. I say we focus this discussion on the physical shopping and maybe if you dont mind Avinash start a separate discussion for an online platform.
Also one small ask, can this platform notify us when someone posts something? I hadn’t been following till now.
The big problem now is the people going to the supermarkets and this needs to be improved there is too much risk the way this is happening. You mentioned a call centre, this is definitely required for manual booking and it must be tied to the online platform, they complement each other. If the agents can also call the people who booked online it would be great so they get a verbal confirmation and perhaps the agent can reiterate some of the conditions.
Looking forward to hearing back.
Dear Avinash,
What you are proposing is good. But is our AIM ? Stop the virus from spreading. STAY HOME STAY SAFE.
Govt should have have anticipated the possiblity of a lockdown in Mauritius and advise people to buy basic amenities for 1 month. They did know we have covid in Mauritius well before. I do understand they did not want to panic people.
Govt advised people not to buy, we have stock of food. But what is happening now, people who did not anticipate have no food for their family and are rushing to supermarket.
We did anticipate and bought all our basic stuff for a period of 1 month. Specially baby stuff. What we lack is only some veggies.
In my opinion govt has taken a wrong decision to reopen supermarkets and shops because sorry to say Mauritians are not disciplined.
If you see the queue at super U. MY GOD.and we do not know how many people have contracted this virus at Winners Pereybere
Instead all supermarkets should have provided online service or a hotline to order whatever you need and do home delivery. Govt should have provided IT assistance from public or private companies to help supermarkets manage their online system and like some said have SMF or police help in delivering the goods.
People need veggies,potato,oinons,garlic. There should have been a hotine for veggies and AMB as well.
Our AIM is STAY HOME STAY SAFE.
Hi Anuja,
I agree that, by now, Mauritius, given its size and the sophistication of the population, should have had a nationwide delivery service for everything.
In the meantime, I think that either allowing people in supermarkets but using the kind of booking system we have proposed or having pre-made packs (but sensibly devised and priced) is more feasible. As a matter of fact, delivery could be done by… POSTMEN!
Avinash
I had a nightmare of a day and finally managed to get some basic stuffs in a small shop near my place. I believe we need to open various channels; Web App or Mobile App, SMS and Call Centre for booking of slots and home delivery.
I understand that there high powered committee led by Sherry Singh whereby MT will come up with an eMarket place supported logistically by Logidis. I am not sure how this is going to work, what kind of solution will be setup and how quick this will be ready. I am not very if Avinash has any further information on this initiative. I already have a team of top notch developers who can hit the ground running with a Mobile App but the most critical component of the equation is the logistics part.
If we continue on this tangent we will surely end up or even overtake Italy!
The booking system works, i just watched how Dream Price petite riviere implemented something similar. Check out from about 7mins in : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2WhXqcxtE4&t=388s
Thanks a lot for sharing. It’s a great implementation because it is low tech and it works. The only issue is that the cards are issued at 9:00 in the morning on a first-come first-served basis.
Hello,
I do agree with you Mr Meetoo, the solution ( uber market/ uber market) is costly and we have to focus on quick wins since mine one is more for long term solution.
Currently, people are doing shopping because of the fear of having scarcity of food. Currently food issue is overtaking covid-19 issue in some people minds. Mindset change needs to happen in Mauritius.
Some of my queries from your proposal, for clarity purposes are as follows :-
1. Is the proposal catering for the different category of people in Mauritius? We all know the different category of people living in this island.
2. 9.00 to 10 .00 are slots for senior citizens ( not all senior citizens are able to go for shopping ) what happen in this case ?
3. Are we targeting only supermarkets ? If people do not have access to the proposed website or to the phone operators , are we saying that they are not allowed to go to the targeted supermarkets and hence resulting in retail shops getting crowded?
4. By having police involved with the lists and phone operators , are we not increasing admin works and more frontline workers ?
Some other suggestions that could be of help would be :-
▪︎Queuing at supermarkets can be avoided if supermarkets are kept opened daily with protocols such as people can buy only (e.g)10 essential products per person
(Booking as per proposal is required)
▪︎ Decentralization : why people are choosing supermarkets only ? Spreading people to different retailers could reduce crowded areas.
▪︎ provide an estimated time required info by asking customer duration they require. It could be that one person require only 30 mins duration in the supermarket and hence allowing other person to join the other 30 mins slots
▪︎ Pricing standardisation : there should be a protocol to keep pricing standard as well as this will motivate the idea of decentralization and avoid conflict in pricing and crowding places where prices are favourable. Raising products prices in such circumstances is not fair at all.
▪︎ card issueing does solve the issue of queueing up but does not solve the issue of germs that the card is now having. it’s like avoiding social distancing but catching up germs from the cards now.
This situation is very challenging and the effective way not to be affected is to stay at home 🙂
Thank you
Yes Avinash, if they can do this booking without leaving home like your suggestion it would be great. But Im still impressed they managed to implement something and it alligns with what you had in mind.