Airdrie resident Anthony Morvillo is gearing up for the release of his new delivery application, which he hopes will not only help local shoppers get what they need in a timely fashion, but also stimulate the local economy.
The app, which is called rnnr.shop, is set to be piloted in Airdrie on April 17 on Apple’s app store and Google Play. Morvillo said the idea for the app emerged after he experienced a hiccup while preparing Christmas dinner last year.
“Like most people, all my holiday shopping was done online,” he said. “When cooking Christmas dinner, I desperately needed a meat thermometer for the turkey. I knew I could purchase one from Amazon, but I needed it to arrive immediately. I would have paid any delivery fee to get it within the hour. I was annoyed that I could get a soggy Big Mac with Skip the Dishes within 15 minutes, but not a meat thermometer.”
Morvillo said he wants to improve delivery systems and ensure people can get more than just food in the time it takes to order something from applications like Skip the Dishes.
“If you’re looking for a bag of coffee beans, you could go to our app,” he said. “This app will have all of the coffee beans from places like Wal-Mart, London Drugs – any brick-and-mortar store.”
Similar to Skip the Dishes, after an order is placed via rnnr.shop, a driver is contacted, who will then pick up and deliver the item to the shopper within the hour.
“Amazon is great because they can get you a package in one to two days,” Morvillo said. “The reason they can get your package to you so quickly is because they have so many warehouses. For us, we essentially have a warehouse in every single city across Canada.”
Morvillo said having access to local big box stores gives the app the ability to offer users a quick and easy experience for more than just food purchases.
“We will get these items to you much faster than Amazon,” he said. “You are also supporting local stores.”
Airdrie will act as the test market for the application, as Morvillo said the city is the ideal size for an app like this. He added Wal-Mart will be the “warehouse” the app’s drivers will source purchased items from.
“I really believe we have identified a gap in the market,” he said. “We think Airdrie is the perfect city because we can get the word out, and it is not too big. We want to be able to prove the concept. If we can prove that we will get investors and launch in Calgary and eventually across Canada.”
Morvillo said a beta test was conducted on March 13 which saw some positive numbers. He added while the application is still in the early stages, it is functioning and ready for use.
“We are starting with Wal-Mart simply because it has such a wide variety of items,” he said. “We are trying to keep it as lean as possible.”
The application has been a five-month work in progress for Morvillo and his partner and application designer Andrew Koenig, of Calgary.
“Koenig did almost everything,” Morvillo said. “He put hundreds of hours of work into this.”
As a self-proclaimed “dreamer,” Morvillo had the idea and found Koenig on Kijiji, which sparked the collaborative relationship between the two.
“He loved the idea and we decided to partner up – the rest is history,” Morvillo said.
The app officially launches on April 17 at 12 p.m. and can be found on Apple’s App Store and Google Play by typing in rnnr.shop.
Jordan Stricker, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @Jay_Strickz
