Small businesses adapt to Covid-19 shutdown by helping to keep home larders stocked.

[As reported in the Guardian.]

Available slots for supermarket deliveries may be rarer than hens’ teeth, but an army of small firms are finding new ways to feed and water the nation – and keep themselves in business in the process.

Some entrepreneurs who have never dabbled in food and drink before are now doing so.

The London-based company I Hate Ironing, a dry-cleaning delivery service, which has drawn on its fleet of 60 vans to offer “essentials” boxes, including fruit and vegetables, and a lucky dip of staples such as eggs, bread and milk.

Owing to reduced demand for laundry from busy office workers only 15 of its drivers were on the road, but another nine are now working again, dropping off groceries instead.

Small business owners can seek safety in numbers, thanks to resources that pool information about local suppliers that may be off the beaten track. YourLocalDelivered is one such website, listing grocers, restaurants and pubs that allow home orders, in every part of the country.