For your convenience, Joeten launches ‘Easy Grocery’

Joeten teams up with Eats Easy to create the “Easy Grocery,” a unique service that makes grocery shopping convenient and an enjoyable experience. (Contributed Photo)

Four years ago, soon after having a health issue that made walking and carrying heavy loads very difficult, Rick suggested to the grocery store where he regularly shops to create an online portal where customers can buy grocery items using an app on their phone, pay for the items using their debit or credit card, and have someone at the store deliver the items to his home. And he was willing to pay a premium for that convenience. Who would have thought that a global pandemic would accelerate that idea into reality?

Last week, Joeten launched its “Easy Grocery,” a unique service that will make grocery shopping convenient and an enjoyable experience. You don’t have to stress going out of the house to get food and household items you need because, with Joeten Easy Grocery, it would seem like you have partner or assistant in meeting your family’s grocery needs.

According to Gederryn R. Domingo, marketing manager/buyer at J.C Tenorio Enterprises, Joeten “Easy Grocery’ is a collaboration with Eats Easy, an app that manages fast and efficient food delivery on Saipan. “Now they also have grocery delivery from Joeten. …[The] Eats Easy app has existed since February this year and, being the first GPS mobile app on Saipan, Joeten recognized how beneficial this could be for shopping centers/supermarkets,” she said.

“The idea was inspired by Eats Easy’s purpose to serve our island hassle-free food that’s delivered right to your door. …We approached the Eats Easy team in March and, after numerous meetings, discussions, trial runs here and there, a couple months later we launched Easy Grocery,” she added.

Domingo said that grocery delivery has been popular and successful in the U.S. mainland for many years now. She said the concept was already in the works even before COVID-19 but the impetus to create online shopping became more urgent due to the pandemic. “We all are familiar with Walmart, a retail corporation that offers grocery delivery in the U.S. mainland. We thought that it would be better to present and expand grocery delivery service to our community,” she said. “Trying to find time, especially on a busy schedule, to make dinner is one thing, but to find time to go to the grocery store is another. We can all agree that shopping online has never been much easier with ‘Easy Grocery’ and the community will appreciate that there is no minimum purchase to avail of this delivery service.”

To avail of this service, just download the Eats Easy app on your phone. Once installed, click on the “Joeten Shopping Center” icon and choose which branch you want to order from (Susupe, Garapan, Dandan, or Kagman). Scroll through the categories provided or use the search box and type in a keyword of the product, click on the add-to-cart button, indicate quantity, and check out.

“Payment methods upon checkout varies—from cash on delivery, credit card, to Paypal. Once you have completed your order, an Eats Easy customer service representative will contact you, set your delivery time and you are pretty much all set. …Eats Easy has a standard fee of $5 and they can deliver anywhere on island,” Domingo said.

“The mobile app makes you feel at ease and is quick and reliable. From the comfort of your home, your office or wherever you may be, simply pull out your phone, laptop, iPad or whatever device you are using, open the app, scroll, and add to cart. Other advantages of the mobile app include the convenience, it lightens your paper trail, you spend less time walking up and down aisles or waiting in counters, and overall time saving,” she added.

Orders are received from Monday to Saturday and the delivery schedule is from 1:30pm to 5:30pm. Currently, most grocery items are available on the app, including household essentials, cleaning supplies, personal care products and others. “However, not every single item that can be found at our store locations are listed on the mobile app, such as frozen and produce, but we will continue to add more items and more as we go along,” she added.