When COVID-19 hit Whidbey Island last year, two recent South Whidbey graduates found a niche in the market for a grocery and take-out delivery service that has only grown more relevant as the pandemic rages on.
Now, with a year of service under their belts, the duo is thinking ahead to how they might expand their business once COVID is in the rearview mirror.
Graham Colar and Andrew Curtis graduated from South Whidbey High School in 2019. The idea for their business, Whidbey Deliveries, came from a mutual friend of theirs who had begun dropping off groceries for a few people in summer of 2020.
Colar and Curtis eventually took over for their friend and decided to expand and formalize the delivery gig, mostly to help as many people as they could in their community, but also partly for lack of anything else to do during pandemic lockdowns.
“We didn’t really have anything to do, besides being lazy,” Colar joked. “It was kind of perfect, honestly, to just have a ton of time to just work on our craft and really come up with something good.”
Colar and Curtis deliver groceries, pick up take-out orders from restaurants and run errands such as dropping off packages at the post office. The one thing they can’t do is deliver alcohol — mostly because they aren’t old enough to buy it.
As far as their operating hours go, “if the store is open that you want it from, so are we,” Colar said.
As the only two employees, Colar and Curtis keep busy running deliveries and maintaining the business. Colar said the emergence of the delta variant has caused people to retreat to their homes again. As a result, demand for their service is increasing, and feedback from clients indicates people will still want a delivery option after the pandemic.
One regular grocery client, Clinton resident Cathy Whitmire, said she would recommend Whidbey Deliveries to anyone.
“They are very sweet, in addition to being very competent,” she said of Colar and Curtis, adding that delivery is a valuable option for people trying to stay safe from COVID-19, especially on the South End where many residents belong to an older population that is more susceptible to the virus.
Curtis said he hopes that by partnering with other businesses, Whidbey Deliveries can boost revenues for local entrepreneurs, too.
“We are trying to help other businesses increase what they’re making,” he said. “Not just during tourist season, but throughout the year.”
The pair only deliver to Langley, Clinton, Freeland and Greenbank right now, but they hope to hire more delivery drivers in the future so they can deliver to Coupeville and Oak Harbor. South end residents can place their orders online at www.whidbeydeliveries.co.
