Amesbury Market Reopens!
Market Opening Hours
Wednesday 9:00am - 6:30pm (Curbside Pickup & Delivery Packing)
Thursday 10:00am – 6:30pm (In-Person Shopping)
Friday 9:00am – 3:00pm (In-Person Shopping)
Saturday 9:00am – 1:00pm (In-Person Shopping)
Volunteer Town Hall Recording & Slide Deck
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Volunteer Q&A
1. How will people order for themselves and others in person?
The majority of our guests will be shopping for themselves in person or in special circumstances have a designated shopper who will shop for them (similar to how they did in the old market set-up). If they are shopping in person, they will not pre-order. Those who are approved for medically necessary curbside pickup will be given access to the Smartchoice ordering platform. All others will shop in person here at our open market.
2. Would it be possible to keep one of the market days as an option for the 28% that can’t do their shopping in person?
It’s not possible to have curbside and an open market running at the same time due to the live inventory necessary for Smartchoice ordering platform. Wednesday will be the market day utilized for those approved for medically necessary curbside shopping. This includes COA home-bound delivery programs and pre-approved town delivery recipients.
3. Is Wednesday an “open” day?
Technically yes, Wednesday is designated for medically necessary curbside pick-up and for delivery orders. An appointment is required.
4. What happens for Newburyport/ St. Paul’s/ Community Service of Newburyport?
When the world-wide pandemic hit back in March of 2019 unfortunately, we had to close our doors at Community Service of Newburyport in St. Paul’s Church.
5. Would people make appointments to shop in person?
No, guests will come to shop when it is convenient for them to do so. We are going to work very hard at our messaging with guests asking them to please come and shop during the same time frame that they are currently utilizing our curbside pick-up model - so that everyone doesn’t come at the same day/time. In addition, our messaging will remind people that the early bird does not get the worm at ONT, in other words the market standards that you have access to at 9am you will also have access to at 5pm.
6. Are there product limits for in person shopping and who will enforce?
There may be a need for limits around certain products that we are unable to get at GBFB and in some cases are even having to purchase (for instance milk, eggs and bread). The hope is that products become more readily available and we no longer need to limit them. We are hoping that if we clearly label any product(s) with limits that our guests will adhere to those limits. In addition, we will most likely have a customer volunteer stationed in the market to help guests and to answer any questions about limits or otherwise. There may be limits based on family size etc.
7. How does a guest qualify for curbside pickup?
We are currently contacting guests who answered our survey indicating that they would need curbside pickup to verify that there is a medical necessity.
8. How are we going to avoid overflow in the waiting area and sidewalk?
It is our hope that the overflow will be at a minimum due to three facts: 1. We will be servicing our guests who medically qualify on a different day. 2. If you add up the in-person hours and the curbside hours of the new model, we are open for more hours than we were in our old in-person only model and the foot print of our market has DOUBLED. 3. We are using a different check-out method in this new model (bag your own groceries as you go and expo volunteer will be weighing the carts rather than each individual product). The check out process at ONT’s Amesbury market used to be a time-consuming process that often caused a bottleneck. This bottleneck slowed down our ability to allow new guests to enter the market and keep the flow of people going in and out. We are hoping our new check-out system will be more efficient.
9. Is there a limit on the number of people shopping at once? Who will enforce?
Yes, we have done a series of mock shopping tests to figure out how many shoppers can comfortably and safely shop at any given time in the market. We will have a volunteer greeter whose main responsibility will be to continually make sure that the market is not over-crowded. They will do this by both visually and systematically letting new guests enter the market as other guests leave.
10. How do we manage large in person orders? (Multiple carts)
In the old in-person market we rarely had a shopper who utilized more than one cart at a time. In the online ordering curbside model, you see more multi- cart orders than we did in our in-person model because our guests can’t visually see how much they are ordering. They’ve not had to bag it and store it in their carts etc. In the new model they will be able to visually see what they are selecting and bag as they go. It is difficult to deal with large amounts of food at once (dragging multiple carts around a store). It is our hope that our guests will shop more regularly and efficiently so they can avoid this.
11. Will guests be packing their own bags?
Yes, in this new model guests will bag as they shop. We will have a table set up at the end of one of the checkout stations where a guest can pack their own bag after checking out if they prefer.
12. Are you expanding the in-person market in Amesbury as offices are not being used now?
Yes, we are expanding the Amesbury market. The footprint of the new market will now include the “dry goods room” or in the old model referred to as “the community room”. The front office area will now become a waiting room for shoppers waiting to go into the market.
13. If guests are working, will the limited Saturday hours be enough time for them to shop?
Yes, that is our hope. The hours on Saturday are the same hours that we in our original "In person" model. We are also open until 6:30pm on Thursdays to accommodate our guests who are in need of evening shopping hours.
14. Will snack pack cards be given out again based on number of children in the household?
There are not currently any snacks in our curbside model, but we are offering snack items when they are in stock. It is yet to be determined if we will bring snack packs back, although we will not have them available at the time of our re-open.
15. Will early shopping be allowed? How will it work?
Early shopping was put in place for some of our guests who were unable to shop in crowded spaces. Since we have doubled our footprint and expanded our hours, we are hoping to avoid a congested shopping experience. However, we will continue to monitor the market flow and gauge how we are meeting the needs of our guests.
16. How will in person shoppers be prevented from ordering online?
They will not have access to Smartchoice once we “flip the switch”. The only guests who will have access are those who qualified due to medical reasons.
17. How will requirements for curbside pick-up and delivery be communicated clearly to staff, volunteers and guests? What is the messaging around that?
We have a communication plan in process which will address a multitude of programmatic inquiries (one of them being curbside pick-up and delivery requirements). The process of how we are going to do our curbside screening will be rolled out to the staff, call volunteers, CSR, and receptionist during the first week of April.
1. How will people order for themselves and others in person?
The majority of our guests will be shopping for themselves in person or in special circumstances have a designated shopper who will shop for them (similar to how they did in the old market set-up). If they are shopping in person, they will not pre-order. Those who are approved for medically necessary curbside pickup will be given access to the Smartchoice ordering platform. All others will shop in person here at our open market.
2. Would it be possible to keep one of the market days as an option for the 28% that can’t do their shopping in person?
It’s not possible to have curbside and an open market running at the same time due to the live inventory necessary for Smartchoice ordering platform. Wednesday will be the market day utilized for those approved for medically necessary curbside shopping. This includes COA home-bound delivery programs and pre-approved town delivery recipients.
3. Is Wednesday an “open” day?
Technically yes, Wednesday is designated for medically necessary curbside pick-up and for delivery orders. An appointment is required.
4. What happens for Newburyport/ St. Paul’s/ Community Service of Newburyport?
When the world-wide pandemic hit back in March of 2019 unfortunately, we had to close our doors at Community Service of Newburyport in St. Paul’s Church.
5. Would people make appointments to shop in person?
No, guests will come to shop when it is convenient for them to do so. We are going to work very hard at our messaging with guests asking them to please come and shop during the same time frame that they are currently utilizing our curbside pick-up model - so that everyone doesn’t come at the same day/time. In addition, our messaging will remind people that the early bird does not get the worm at ONT, in other words the market standards that you have access to at 9am you will also have access to at 5pm.
6. Are there product limits for in person shopping and who will enforce?
There may be a need for limits around certain products that we are unable to get at GBFB and in some cases are even having to purchase (for instance milk, eggs and bread). The hope is that products become more readily available and we no longer need to limit them. We are hoping that if we clearly label any product(s) with limits that our guests will adhere to those limits. In addition, we will most likely have a customer volunteer stationed in the market to help guests and to answer any questions about limits or otherwise. There may be limits based on family size etc.
7. How does a guest qualify for curbside pickup?
We are currently contacting guests who answered our survey indicating that they would need curbside pickup to verify that there is a medical necessity.
8. How are we going to avoid overflow in the waiting area and sidewalk?
It is our hope that the overflow will be at a minimum due to three facts: 1. We will be servicing our guests who medically qualify on a different day. 2. If you add up the in-person hours and the curbside hours of the new model, we are open for more hours than we were in our old in-person only model and the foot print of our market has DOUBLED. 3. We are using a different check-out method in this new model (bag your own groceries as you go and expo volunteer will be weighing the carts rather than each individual product). The check out process at ONT’s Amesbury market used to be a time-consuming process that often caused a bottleneck. This bottleneck slowed down our ability to allow new guests to enter the market and keep the flow of people going in and out. We are hoping our new check-out system will be more efficient.
9. Is there a limit on the number of people shopping at once? Who will enforce?
Yes, we have done a series of mock shopping tests to figure out how many shoppers can comfortably and safely shop at any given time in the market. We will have a volunteer greeter whose main responsibility will be to continually make sure that the market is not over-crowded. They will do this by both visually and systematically letting new guests enter the market as other guests leave.
10. How do we manage large in person orders? (Multiple carts)
In the old in-person market we rarely had a shopper who utilized more than one cart at a time. In the online ordering curbside model, you see more multi- cart orders than we did in our in-person model because our guests can’t visually see how much they are ordering. They’ve not had to bag it and store it in their carts etc. In the new model they will be able to visually see what they are selecting and bag as they go. It is difficult to deal with large amounts of food at once (dragging multiple carts around a store). It is our hope that our guests will shop more regularly and efficiently so they can avoid this.
11. Will guests be packing their own bags?
Yes, in this new model guests will bag as they shop. We will have a table set up at the end of one of the checkout stations where a guest can pack their own bag after checking out if they prefer.
12. Are you expanding the in-person market in Amesbury as offices are not being used now?
Yes, we are expanding the Amesbury market. The footprint of the new market will now include the “dry goods room” or in the old model referred to as “the community room”. The front office area will now become a waiting room for shoppers waiting to go into the market.
13. If guests are working, will the limited Saturday hours be enough time for them to shop?
Yes, that is our hope. The hours on Saturday are the same hours that we in our original "In person" model. We are also open until 6:30pm on Thursdays to accommodate our guests who are in need of evening shopping hours.
14. Will snack pack cards be given out again based on number of children in the household?
There are not currently any snacks in our curbside model, but we are offering snack items when they are in stock. It is yet to be determined if we will bring snack packs back, although we will not have them available at the time of our re-open.
15. Will early shopping be allowed? How will it work?
Early shopping was put in place for some of our guests who were unable to shop in crowded spaces. Since we have doubled our footprint and expanded our hours, we are hoping to avoid a congested shopping experience. However, we will continue to monitor the market flow and gauge how we are meeting the needs of our guests.
16. How will in person shoppers be prevented from ordering online?
They will not have access to Smartchoice once we “flip the switch”. The only guests who will have access are those who qualified due to medical reasons.
17. How will requirements for curbside pick-up and delivery be communicated clearly to staff, volunteers and guests? What is the messaging around that?
We have a communication plan in process which will address a multitude of programmatic inquiries (one of them being curbside pick-up and delivery requirements). The process of how we are going to do our curbside screening will be rolled out to the staff, call volunteers, CSR, and receptionist during the first week of April.