Lewiston Tops adds to delivery service program, provides update on commodities

Lewiston Tops owner Anthony DiMino is adding an email option to the store’s home delivery and pickup services. Customers can now email an order to [email protected].

Delivery service is available from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays.

“Right now, Instacart is about five days behind. So, we’ve enhanced our delivery service by taking online orders,” DiMino said.

He added, “If they have their grocery list, then they can specify what they’re looking for, and we’ll shop it. If there’s a question, we’ll call them. If not, it will be all taken care of.”

Orders also can be placed by phone at 716-215-1350.

Though there is no minimum purchase requirement, each order does have a delivery fee based on where the customer lives. For more information, visit https://www.topslewiston.com/home-delivery-service/.

“We were processing in our system – not Instacart – normally about 20 orders a day. Now, since this pandemic … we’ve been averaging about 50 orders a day,” DiMino said. Despite that increase, orders are typically shipping out the same day or the next day. “We’ve added more staff, a second delivery driver, and we’re doing between 50 to 60 orders a day.

“If we know we’re not going to be able to do it within that day, we’ll tell them that it will be the following day – which normally is not a problem.”

Commodities

“In regards to supplies and anything else, it’s pretty much the same as it’s been,” DiMino said. He said cleaning supplies are “trickling in.”

As far as meat goes, DiMino said, “The supply chain in that situation is still very good.” But, here specifically, “We have … plenty of secondary suppliers that are supplying us with product. A lot of our secondary suppliers were mostly supplying the restaurant industry. And we’ve kind of helped them out by actually utilizing our services to get some of their inventory taken care of.”

He added, “I don’t perceive anything different.”

DiMino said, “We’ve been pretty much supplied better than most stores, so we’ve been in pretty good shape.”

Click here for a list of limited items.

Safety Updates

“You’ll notice when you walk in the store now that we are all masked up,” DiMino said. “Obviously looking to make sure that everybody has a mask that walks in, as shoppers, because that’s part of the new executive order.

“We are testing every associate … with temperatures before they start their shift. Before we were just asking them if they were having any problems. If there is a temperature discrepancy, we are then going to ask them to go and leave and call their physician and go from there. But so far, so good.”

DiMino also explained, “There were talks about limiting customers into the building. Based on the criteria that some of the areas have done, we would have to have 280 customers to hit the maximum. We’ve looked at that situation, and we’re not even close to that. Even our busiest day of the year, which is the day before Christmas, we don’t have that many customers in the building at a certain time.”

“In regards to that, as long as everybody uses common sense and social distances, we should not have a problem.”

DiMino Tops Lewiston is located at 906 Center St.

DiMino Lewiston Tops also offers an Instacart shopping option.