Friendship and solidarity in a yellow box
The value of delivery in social distancing times
The outbreak of COVID-19 emergency, regardless of the timing with which it led the whole society to the lockdown, has deeply changed our lives. This occurred in terms of daily habits (the need to stay at home for weeks, smart working as the only solution) and human ties (isolation means the full digitization of all our interactions with people, including family members and friends, even partners in many cases). In times of social distancing delivery services have also acquired a new nature: the emotional value of something brought at home has increased dramatically, changing a “nice to have” into essential.
A multi-category platform like Glovo provides users the possibility to receive a wide array of products: food, but also grocery items, pharmaceuticals, flowers, daily life objects. Through the Courier service, the app can also turn the direction of delivery: the user does not need to wait for the delivery from a store, but he or she can send something from home to another one’s address. Needless to say, this is the aspect which has suddenly become more relevant than ever before. In Italy, but also in the other countries where Glovo is present, the exchange of home-made products has steadily increased, adding a totally new dimension to delivery: not only the pleasure of having meals delivered from the favourite restaurants of the city, but the emotion of receiving something cooked and shared by a family member or by a best friend. Additionally, the most vulnerable ones in our society, therefore the elderly, kids or people who were going through economic hardships, had the possibility to have something they needed delivered “at home”.
Besides food, there are many other items that have started being moved from one address to the other. Brushes and other equipment for those who suddenly decided to paint the walls of their flats, remote controls and cables for those who spent hours in front of the TV watching movies, yoga books and novels suggested to friends to face the current emergency, crossword puzzles for grandparents, old pics, chocolate or boxes with toys and diapers for babies, but also clothes, hygenizing solutions and masks. Everything that fits into Glovo yellow box has travelled, and keeps on travelling, from one corner of the city to the other to transmit people a sense of closeness they could never get by simply calling or sending a Whatsapp message. In a time in which hugs and kisses need to be avoided, the simple sharing of essential objects appears stronger than a caress.
There is another side of delivery that had never been deeply explored so far: solidarity. The logistics of a platform like Glovo turned to be instrumental in providing direct support to entities which were working on the front line during this emergency. While following all safety measures for the so-called “contactless delivery” procedure, riders can in fact help volunteers moving items from one place to the other or support partner restaurants willing to donate food to hospitals. In Milan a newly established village for the lonely children of parents who were in the hospital because of COVID-19 saw donations of toys and other everyday objects coming in the Glovo yellow box. People who could not go out had nevertheless the chance to help these kids with a special delivery. More than 200 meals were delivered through the platform to charitable organizations and the Local Police in Milan. Glovo partners in Turin, Rome and Milan organized the free delivery of pizzas, coffees and other sweets to doctors and nurses working in the hospitals of the city, as a sign of respect for their daily contribution to the struggle against the virus.
