Philadelphia startup goPuff wants to replace the 7-Elevens and Loaf ‘N Jugs of the world

“It’s not about laziness, it’s about efficiency.”
2 min. read
goPufff is a delivery service trying to replace the convenience store. (Courtesy of goPuff).

goPufff is a delivery service trying to replace the convenience store. (Courtesy of goPuff).

Who wants to put on pants and walk down to the corner store for a pint of ice cream?

And driving to grab a bag of chips and bottle of soda is so, well, 2008.

Let's face it, the convenient store has become inconvenient at this point, Jacob Levin says. Levin is the marketing director for goPuff, a Philadephia-based startup trying to replace the 7-Elevens and Loaf 'N Jugs of the world.

"We say, 'It's not about laziness, it's about efficiency,'" Levin says.

GoPuff has about 70 full-time employees in a dozen cities from Austin to Boston. The company entered Denver in April and has a warehouse full of more than 3,000 different "munchies," "sips n' chasers" and household essentials at 209 Yuma St., near Federal Boulevard and Sixth Avenue.

Drivers wait at the warehouse for people to place orders on their phones or computers. When an order comes in the items are packaged and then delivered in 30 minutes or less, Levin says.

A pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, the most popular goPuff purchase, goes for $7.44 on the site. That's $5.49 for the ice cream and $1.95 for the delivery fee.

"In Denver, we really took off. It's been of one of our fastest growing cities," Levin says, though he admits the city isn't yet seeing the thousands of users other goPuff sites are.

"We want to be a household name by winter."

GoPuff is up against a growing number of companies making it easier for people to never set foot in a store again. The giant online retailer Amazon is bumping up its efforts to get customers product faster. And Safeway and Albertson’s will now deliver your groceries right to your door.

But somebody believes goPuff is going to make it. The company raised $8.2 million in funding last year, according to a government filing. The money came from the California investing group Anthos Capital, Levin said.

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