Professional Personal Shoppers At Your Service During Holiday Season

VIRGINIA/DC — Are you too busy planning for the holidays to go out shopping? Are you still hesitant about in-store shopping due to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Personal shoppers are at your service across Northern Virginia and D.C. And residents who prefer using their favorite personal shopper each time they need something are in luck.

Grocery delivery services like Instacart cannot guarantee you’ll get your favorite shopper when you place an order. But independent personal shoppers with five-star ratings are available to deliver groceries and other necessities to you on a regular or as-needed basis.

Two of the highest-rated independent personal shoppers in Northern Virginia and D.C. — Timica King, who runs The Grocery Lady DMV, and Jon G., who runs Jon’s VIP Delivery — are ready to fulfill your weekly or monthly order.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Instacart and other grocery store delivery services were inundated with orders, leading to long waits for grocery deliveries. King’s business picked up dramatically as customers looked for alternatives to the long wait times at Instacart.

“They couldn’t get groceries through Instacart because Instacart was so backed up due to the demand, so they were looking for alternatives,” King told Patch.

They searched online and found King, and “business just kind of took off like a freight train,” she said.

King doesn’t just shop for groceries. She’ll go to stores to buy clothes and pick up carryout meals. Jon G. sticks to shopping for items at grocery stores.

Jon G., who was working for Instacart at the onset of the pandemic, decided to become an independent shopper in June 2020 and took advantage of the platform created by the founders of Dumpling.

Instacart randomly assigns a shopper with a client, and the client preloads a gratuity with each order. When he worked at Instacart, Jon, who prefers not to give his last name, would have customers who would say, “You’re amazing, I wish I could have you every single time.”

That’s when Jon realized it would be advantageous to him to branch out on his own, with the help of Dumpling.

“I was able to transition four customers off Instacart initially,” Jon told Patch. “A lot of word of mouth from those people got me additional clients.”

Jon then started posting his business information on Facebook groups, where he started getting more leads from prospective clients.

And as he started adding to his client list, the customers kept going back to Jon for his “white glove” service and because they pay in-store prices when they shop with him. Unlike some big-name delivery services that resell groceries at an inflated rate, Jon doesn’t mark up the price of goods he delivers.

“Additionally, the fees go to me, instead of a billionaire CEO, which — for some people — makes it easier to swallow,” he said.

New Platform Gives Personal Shoppers A Chance

For each delivery, the Dumpling platform takes 5 percent of each order. And Jon makes no less than $50. His shopping and delivery fee is $15. And he then sets a minimum gratuity of $35 or 25 percent of the order, whichever is greater.

“Dumpling provides the tools for which to start your own personal shopping business,” Jon said.

Dumpling, created in 2017 to give more ownership to workers, connects personal shoppers like Jon to all the resources they need to migrate off the Instacart platform and start their own personal-shopping business.

King, 40, who started working as a personal shopper for Instacart in 2014 — a year after she had a child — left the company in 2019 to start up her own personal shopping business using the Dumpling platform.

King and Jon G. have regular full-time jobs, along with working nearly full-time hours as personal shoppers. They do the shopping and make the deliveries for their clients in the evenings, on weekends, and during breaks in their regular jobs.

“Working for myself is a million times better than working for Instacart. I’m not as stressed,” King said. “I make about the same amount of money. And when I can do my own schedule, I can close the day if I want to if there are no orders. I’m not completely committed to the time clock.”

Both also emphasize they enjoy working as personal shoppers.

“I love doing it. It’s become a way for me to discover new things food-wise for myself and my kid, along with supplementing my incomes,” said King who serves customers inside the Beltway in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. “And it’s a way to meet new people.”

After getting vaccinated, a regular customer stopped using King’s personal shopping service. The customer’s husband started doing the shopping again for the couple.

“But she and I have become really good friends, and she invites me over to her house and have dinner and have a good time,” King said.

Jon G. said “there’s nothing about the job I don’t enjoy.”

But when he first became a personal shopper, his family joked about the career decision.

“It was a joke in my family,” he said. “They are like, ‘you are a bachelor, and you eat out as much as you can. How in the world are you going to be successful running a grocery delivery business?’”

Jon, who works in retail for his day job, said customer service comes naturally to him. “I’ve been in retail since I was 16,” he said. “I earn my business because of my customer service and the guarantee that it is going to be right.”

One of the reasons he works two jobs, plus a third job on weekends, is to make enough money to buy a home.

"I am 31, and I started college but didn’t finish," Jon said. "I never thought it was realistic for me to own a home. And somewhere in the midst of 2020, I was driving to Wegmans and had an epiphany and thought starting my own personal shopping company could be my shot at buying a house in Alexandria or Arlington or Northern Virginia. That’s why I’ve been working so hard, because my dream is to be a homeowner. With each day, I get closer.”

The Value of Superior Customer Service

Both Jon and King regularly acquire new customers who have had bad experiences with the bigger delivery services.

"I’ve had a lot of people say, 'I’m going to try you out because I’ve had some really subpar experiences with other shoppers,'" explained Jon, who said about 75 percent of his customers are in Arlington, with the rest in other parts of Northern Virginia and a few in D.C.

"The business proposition is going to continue to thrive — I'm going to be honest with you — through the lackluster performance of the competitors,” he said. "As long as they exist, and they have lackluster experiences, I will continue to have new clients who come in. I provide white glove service to people who want things done the right way."

King has regular customers who then tell their friends and neighbors about her personal shopping business. "I get a lot of business from word-of-mouth referrals," she said. "I have regular weekly clients now."

Recent customer reviews have been positive for King:

"Timica is outstanding. She is consistently fantastic and thorough. For my last order, she went to multiple stores to fill my order. As a disabled person who can't make it out to the store on my own, I really appreciate her for going the extra mile." — Kenrya R.

"Timica was caring and truly went above and beyond to get my order just right! Highly recommend!!" — Alaina S.

Among Jon's recent 5-star reviews are:

"Best Online shopping experience, across all apps. Jon was incredibly communicative. Made smart choices on groceries, and when in doubt reached out. Helpful, friendly, and courteous. I’ll be a repeat customer for as long as I’m in DC." — Grant G.

"Wonderful as always! Repeat customer 😀" — Phebe G.

Jon emphasizes that he goes the extra mile for his clients. "I know I’m not the cheapest option out there, so I try to compensate for that by giving them value to let them know they are going to be taken care.

Looking for a personal shopper during the busy holiday season? Visit Jon's personal shopping business website at Jon’s VIP Delivery and King's personal shopping business at The Grocery Lady DMV.