Fredericton Nissan Offers Free Grocery, Prescription Deliveries
FREDERICTON – When Kim Kennedy dropped off a grocery order at her grandmother’s home in rural New Brunswick last week, she thought about the people who might need help getting essentials during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I got thinking, ‘My goodness, she can’t be alone,’” she said. “I bet there are other people out there who are really scared of what’s happening right now and need a little bit of help.”
Kennedy, who owns Fredericton Nissan with her husband, realized she could put the cars sitting on their lot to good use. The dealership launched a free pick-up and delivery service of prescriptions and online grocery orders to those in need in the greater Fredericton area.
“There are a lot of people who do need just a little bit of help,” she said. “The way I see it, if people could start looking around, even on their own street to see what they could do to help or in their own neighbourhood, maybe we can start to get the Maritimes back to business.”
Kennedy has been driving around to make deliveries since the initiative launched on Sunday. During an interview with Huddle on Monday afternoon, she was in the middle of picking up an online grocery order for a resident in Oromocto.
It’s been more than just groceries and medications. The service has also helped a senior citizen with a heart condition who needed a blood sample delivered to the hospital after a medical professional came to his home to collect it.
Calls and texts for delivery requests have been getting busier as the word spreads on social media.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a big impact on the dealership after the province declared a state of emergency and ordered all non-essential businesses to close. That directive means the service department can remain open, but the showroom is shuttered. Nearly all the sales staff were laid off including at Dodge and Chrysler dealerships under the same ownership.
Fredericton Nissan is still taking internet leads and trying to continue sales online with contactless paperwork. But without test drives and in-person meetings, the ability to sell a car is limited.
Kennedy said Friday was the “worst day” in more than 20 years in the industry when employees had to be let go.
“March is technically when the car industry starts to pick up and to have it die like this is devastating on many levels,” she said. “Everyone expects it to be busy and have the whole operation bustling and to have it abruptly shut off, it’s devastating.”
Kennedy said she hopes to bring employees who were laid off back to work by having them do deliveries as the volume of requests grows.
“It’s great because we want to try to keep as many people in employment as possible, and what better way to keep someone on than to put them to good work doing this,” she said.
Those looking to place an order should text 506-440-1565 with the details of delivery.
Kennedy suggests relatives reach out to an elderly family member to help create an account for online grocery orders.
Orders are left by the front door to avoid contact and maintain social distancing. But that hasn’t stopped Fredericton seniors from expressing their gratitude for the service.
“Everyone always sticks their head out at you and yells a big thank you,” she said.
“I don’t get really close to anyone face-to-face but by the look on their face, you know that they were in need and you know that they’re thankful.”