Thanking the unsung Heroes of Retail – Delivering Happiness at our Doorsteps!

While many of us have the perquisite to ‘coronavirus and chill’ aka stay safe at home amid the coronavirus pandemic, we should all be grateful to those people who are risking their lives for strangers. It’s not just everyone working in health care or sanitization services, though they’re certainly the front line, but a drove of others who are also playing a vital role to keep our society functioning. 
It’s the doormen and delivery guys, grocery and pharmacy staff. They are heading out each day to keep life moving for the rest of us. If once-a-week grocery shopping gives you COVID-19 anxiety, imagine what it feels like showing up every day as a supermarket employee or delivering the essentials. So here is a most special heartfelt Thank You, more profusely meant to the retail workers.

COVID-19 has changed the way we live and work. The most common issue worldwide is the availability of grocery. People are facing difficulties in ordering groceries and other essential products due to a surge in demand. To combat this problem and make daily essentials available to everyone around the country several platforms such as MyGate has partnered with Swiggy, Licious, Grofers, Dunzo and other leading e-commerce companies to enable contactless deliveries of essential services at the doorsteps.
Many retail industries and leading brands have started initiatives to help the needy. Some of the ongoing initiatives are:

• Swiggy has partnered with commercial kitchens, NGOs and state governments to feed the underprivileged, daily wagers and stranded migrant labourers under the programme ‘Hope, Not Hunger’.
• Zomato has started the initiative- ‘Feed the Daily Wager’ to provide meals to the needy.
• Uber and BigBasket have partnered to deliver everyday essentials. Uber is not charging any commissions for these trips. The commission gained through this will be passed on fully to the driver-partner, helping them to have additional earnings during these hard times.
• Reliance Foundation’s meal distribution programme ‘Mission Anna Seva‘ is set to be the largest initiative globally by a corporate foundation. Over two crore meals have already been distributed throughout the country.
• BigBasket, has initiated a campaign ‘Feed My City’ to raise funds for providing meals to families affected by the COVID-19 to cover over 30 lakh meals as part of their initiative. It is also offering temporary job opportunities for restaurant staff and retail employees registered on these platforms.
• Amazon has set up a new relief endowment Partner Support Fund to support SMBs, so as to fix critical infrastructure costs and to support liquidity and cash flow, especially when they resume and scale their operations post-lockdown.

When one of our team member and his family were tucked at home, petrified to go out and stock up the essentials, a delivery boy from Amazon delivered the items at their doorstep. Situations like these makes us realize that- Not all heroes wear capes; some ride bikes with food and essentials strapped to their backs during treacherous times. No price can pay for the invaluable role of working on the frontline. To thank the unsung Heroes of Retail who are showing up, despite the risks and fears, we are soon going to start a series- ‘Humans of Retail’ – for the ones without whom we quite literally couldn’t keep going.
Once again, we at DaveAI would like to thank everyone from across retail and its supply chain who are working tirelessly and selflessly to ensure that shelves are stacked and we all have access to the products we need. Their spirit is extraordinary and their sacrifice is humbling. Their dedication, skill and ability is much appreciated in this troubled time. Their work is vital for getting us through this unprecedented time and they deserve to feel proud of the huge impact they have created. We applaud their sacrifice and wish that they remain healthy and safe.