Eats Easy: Taking the job personally

Eats Easy president Clint Albert has always been into business even as young teenager,. Now at 38, he gets inspiration to do more from his wife and children. (Bea Cabrera)

After over a year into business, Eats Easy was awarded the Saipan Chamber of Commerce Start-up of the Year and fittingly so. It is the first and only food delivery service available on Saipan that currently caters to more than 3,800 app users, has serviced close to 18,000 deliveries, and maintains close ties with its over 22 restaurant partners.

Eats Easy has always treated every customer and business deal as personal especially since they deal with customers on a day-to-day basis. “With over 3,800 East Easy app subscribers or ‘foodie eyes’ we know that we cater to a need and we want to give the best service always…it even comes to a point when our team is already full with deliveries and there is more, I get in a car and help with other deliveries myself,” said Eats Easy president Clint Albert.

“…We (the team) are just happy to be alive and working even during a pandemic and we are also taking this time to think bigger things. Honestly, the award from SCC is for our hardworking team members. We are so humbled and privileged to receive it and in all honesty, I don’t feel like we are where we want to be so we keep pushing,” Albert added.

How did Eats Easy came about? The idea according to Albert also started with a question. “I moved to Saipan for work four years ago and after the first two years, I raised the question ‘how come there is no food delivery here?’… Some people will say Saipan is too small to have delivery but I said yes and no. ‘Yes,’ it’s a small place; and ‘no’ because what if the person is at work and no other way to get food?. Also, even though there is no traffic on Saipan, it still takes time to get your order at the restaurant unless you call ahead,” he said.

“Then I thought the biggest challenge probably was there are no street names and numbers so it is hard to find a house. I realized it has to be GPS-based because if it’s not, it is not going to work out. When we initially opened, our GPS wasn’t too good and encountered some problems but we upgraded right away and it became better,” he added.

Expansion is in the midst as they moved to their new office in Garapan and provide space for other business-minded people. “We are developing the building where Victoria Hotel used to be and come April or May, plan to open ‘Passion Kitchen’ with my partner Michael Sheu. Passion Kitchen is an invitation to people who are passionate about their craft, making it a business but are hesitating because they are scared of putting out capital or expense,” Albert said.

“This concept was inspired by people making sushi bake, cookies, cakes, and instead of doing it from your home, Passion Kitchen will provide the kitchen and an opportunity for them to have a wider market. What we will do is we will create the kitchen for at least three tenants–no dine-in, only pick-up or deliver—and contract starts at 6 to 12 months occupancy. We are targeting two partners and later if it makes sense, we are going to add to help more people who want to get into business but do not have a place,” Albert added.

Moving along to much greater heights, business partners Albert and Marco Santiago are on the lookout for more Eats Easy restaurant partners with the support of their two off-island partners and will never forget the first partners who believed in food delivery concept in Saipan. “Sunny Side Café, Loco Taco, The Shack, Shirley’s Coffee Shop, and Oink for they were here in the beginning… by end of February, we were hitting 80 to 85 calls a day… we know that the numbers can change depending on the need but we are happy with the numbers,” he said.

“For those planning to go into business, my advice is don’t worry about the final numbers. Figure out first what you want to do and worry about the capital later. A lot of people are scared because they think that they should have at least $20,000 right away…Honestly, we didn’t have that kind of money when we started and getting the Start Up Award from the Chamber is kind of a good assurance that we are doing something right,” he added.

For more information about Eats East, call (670) 286-0520 and (670) 286-0432 oremail: conquerthehunger@gmail.com.