COVID19 and Daily essentials: How women are using MyBy to untangle not only their woes but, also of essential suppliers collectively
MyBy was developed to answer the inconveniences faced by every household daily. It’s a platform that connects trusted local vendors and service providers to their nearby communities and families. With stay-at-home becoming the new normal, here’s how women of Bengaluru are taking the lead using MyBy.
When the Indian government announced a national lockdown to contain Coronavirus, normal lives were hit and confusion surfaced among the citizens. People started panic buying, and stocks at most of the supermarkets depleted.
The e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Flipkart suspended their non-essential categories. Many customers faced cancellation issues from hyperlocal delivery giants. The circulars from the government authorities clearly stated that the suppliers of essential goods — grocery shops, pharmacies, etc.. are exempted from stay-at-home orders. Yet the fog of anxiety in people’s minds resulted in impulse panic buying — an unnecessary reflex.
Amidst this chaos, it was the Kirana stores and the local vendors who faced the brunt of the panic in connection with the lockdown. They continued to witness a swarm of people gathering in front of their store.
Certain localities, fearing of getting infected, did not allow vegetable vendors and milkmen to enter their lane. This added more woes to the family that was eagerly waiting to buy their stock. Clearly panic was brewing at its best capacity.
Women and their Kirana Re-connect
Ms. Manmeet Bevli, a former IT professional and an entrepreneur at a coaching center in the city, was one among many that were grappling with this uncertain time.
She says “Before the stay-at-home days became the new normal, groceries and other errands were fulfilled by the delivery players. I would buy my vegetables from the likes of BigBasket, and the pantry was refilled from items purchased from Amazon. Just before the lockdown was announced like any other citizens, we too rushed to stock the essentials. Post the lockdown we were adapting to self-isolation days, staying at home, keeping the distance away from the crowd.”
“I knew some of the vendors nearby my community before I got used to big delivery companies. I was reconnecting with them after five or six years, it was a big challenge for me to procure items from these places. Many people from my community in Mahadevpura, like me, were going to these suppliers to meet their daily needs. The vendors were facing a surplus of demands and found themselves in a spotty situation. Every day they were receiving bulk orders and this piled up subsequently.” she added.
Women untangling their woes and the vendors
Women like Manmeet are coming to the forefront to untangle not only their woes but also of essential suppliers collectively. Overnight, they brought many community women on to anything from Whatsapp or Telegram groups, created google sheets on shared drives etc to consolidate orders from the community households and organized vendors to fulfil them.
“Everyone was going crazy as nothing tallied, what people ordered vendors did not have, what vendors had people did not know they could order, prices of fruits and vegetables were changing daily, payment to vendors was another additional chore…… whole thing was a nightmare”.
Spread throughout the city was the tech team of a startup working day-and-night from their homes to tune their product to help the communities fight the Covid situation. What better time than now, for local startups to come in the front to the rescue.
Manmeet, while discussing her woes with another friend from the same community, came across MyBy, an all-in-one app for everyday needs. The app was developed to answer the inconveniences faced by every household daily. It’s a platform that connects trusted local vendors and services providers to their nearby communities and families.
Watch here: https://youtu.be/I1duslFlDzQ
She realized the potential of the app as the need of the hour and started exploring it on her own. After understanding the functional and operational aspect, she was on a mission to help other women with their essential needs. The next step was to reach and teach the vendors about this app.
“I would take screenshots of the app to help the vendors and local farmers onboard the app. Along with me, many other women started listing the nearby vendors, Kirana store owners, and local farmers. We reached out to them and explained how this app can ease both our problems. Initially, there were some challenges, but once they got the hang of the concept, their supply chain was streamlined, the payments were made online. For customers like me and others from my community of 150 villas, the app helped in reducing our anxieties to hoard the essentials and released our panic buy pangs. Now we are getting everything predictably and with ease …. including fish, meats & mangoes!”, added Manmeet.
The vendors, essential suppliers, and local farmers are not shying away from the fact that the app indeed helped them in easing their immense difficulties. When approached to know about the experience on MyBy, Nithin Raj, who runs a vegetable shop under the name Namma Fresh Coconuts and Vegetables in the city, was all praises.
He said that before MyBy, only limited people knew about his business. He runs his shop along with his other three family members. When the lockdown was announced, he saw a long queue in front of his shop. With a few inconveniences, he managed to meet customer’s demands.
However, the following days got him worried about his own safety. He did not want to get infected and had no option to suspend the shop’s operation as its his only livelihood.
“MyBy came to my rescue. We are maintaining safety measures while packing the vegetables. With no direct contact, I am glad that I can keep myself and my family away from unnecessary crowd. My business has seen a 20% rise with daily orders coming in. Now many people are familiar with my shop’s name, and it feels good to serve people.”, concludes a chirpy Nitin who was busy planning his supplies.
On a positive note
While the lockdown is extended till May 3, 2020, it looks like women have hit the right notes with MyBy on their side. The mission of the app is to make everyday interactions with local suppliers easy even while adapting to social-distancing. Indeed nobody saw this unprecedented time coming our way, but this also leaves us with a thought that such situations cannot be left ignored. Someone rises to the occasion — this time it was the women in our communities!
To all the women of our communities who are working their ways to fulfil their family needs, we salute your spirit to keep it moving.
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