Picture this: Bumper to bumper traffic all over Cebu at 7 p.m. on a Thursday and Child No. 1 called and asked if you could stop by the bookstore to get her a bottle of glue for a project she is working on that is due the following day.
If you’re driving a car, then that means wriggling your way out of the nightmare that is Cebu traffic. If you’re in an Uber/Grabcar, taxi, or jeepney, then that means waiting forever for the entire Cebu to move so you can reach the mall where the bookstore is.
That is a lot of time spent on the road, literally, in agony. Chances are, by the time your vehicles starts to move forward, you’ve already developed a strong bond with your seat. You start asking yourself if the eternal wait is really worth that bottle of glue.
Now get this: an easy-to-use app that allows you to do online shopping and delivery right at your doorstep an hour or two after you made the order.
Impossible?
Not anymore, as honestbee, Asia’s leading online grocery concierge service, has finally arrived in Cebu ready to provide Cebuanos with convenient, efficient and personalized online shopping experience.
How does this work?
Simply download and install the app on your phone. Enter your delivery address and choose from any of honestbee’s partner stores.
There are currently 50 merchant partners in Cebu which include Robinsons Selections, Ministop,
Seaworld, JN’s Best, Visayan Educational and Office Supplies, Echostore, Life Med, and even the public markets in Carbon and Tabo-an.
Once orders are in placed—and you can choose to pay using a card or cash on delivery—the bees begin to work.
An honestbee concierge shopper picks out the items for you. The shopper bee places your orders in yellow, reusable shopping bags. When shopper bee is sure everything is in, the bag of goods is handed to the delivery bee, who is out of the hive in a jiffy to deliver the goods to your address.
There is no minimum order required. So even if you only need that one bottle of glue, don’t be shy, go ahead and order it! For items that you do not need immediately, you can order the groceries and then pre-schedule your delivery for up to seven days in advance.
First delivery hour is between 10 and 11 a.m. and last delivery period is between 8 and 9 p.m.
There is a concierge fee of P99 and a minimal delivery fee depending on your orders, which—trust this busy working mother bee—is well worth the price considering the time and effort you saved from ordering via this platform.
Honestbee only started in Singapore in 2015 but it has proven to be a fast-growing, service-oriented company that is committed to spread the buzz all over Asia.
It has since expanded in other key cities such as Hong Kong, Taipei, Niseko, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bangkok and Tokyo.
Before officially buzzing in Cebu last January 2018, honestbee has started its Manila operations in mid-2017.
A walk-through session at Robinsons Selectionsat Robinsons Galleria Cebu last Feb. 1 with Daniel Lim, honestbee Singapore’s head of concierge, revealed how the entire system works.
It was a pretty exciting experience to see how blogger Carlo Olano placed his order in the app and in a matter of minutes—when the media group went to the supermarket—we saw a shopper bee putting his orders together.
Lim said he trains, educates and manages shoppers to keep the customers’ satisfaction in mind as the paramount focus is to make sure all items on the shopping cart are carefully handpicked to ensure quality and freshness.
These shoppers are extensively trained by honestbee to pick groceries for customers as though they are picking it for themselves.
A visibly elated Crystal Gonzalez, country head of honestbee Philippines, flew to Cebu for the Feb. 8 launching and officially brought the Cebuanos in the bee loop.
Aside from groceries, you can also order ready-to-eat meals from a carefully-curated selection of homegrown brands and international restaurants. Its current roster includes Ilaputi, Handuraw Pizza, Casa Dos, Kusina ni Nasing, SnR and the list continues to grow.
For now, honestbee delivers in the cities of Cebu and Mandaue. The good news is … steps are being taken to expand operations to Lapu-Lapu, Talisay, Tabunok and Pardo.
Here’s me crossing my fingers for them to eventually expand the scope to Consolacion and Liloan in northern Cebu, where this biased writer lives with three mutants, who can literally finish two loaves of bread within 15 minutes.
Honestbee makes happy bees in people.
It’s the only bee whose bite doesn’t sting.