MALLS and other business establishments have started opening and restaurants began offering dine-in services with Cagayan de Oro still under the modified general community quarantine.
However, there are still some people who are hesitant to enter malls despite the need to purchase necessities or dine inside restaurants and food establishments due to the threat of getting infected by the virus that causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
This caused several businesses to offer take-out and delivery services. SM City Cagayan de Oro and SM CDO Downtown Premier, for instance, have implemented additional options for their customers: the Drive-Thru, Pick-Up and Delivery Service.
According to SM CDO Downtown Premier Mall Manager Evangeline Ditona, the Drive-Thru will allow the customers to get the services and products available at the mall without going inside the mall.
"They just get in touch with our tenants, they can order food and then the food will be delivered to the reserve lane at the second level of the parking level," Ditona said.
For the Drive-Thru and Pick-Up service, customers must call the tenant/restaurant to order, prepare the exact amount of COD or pay online, and drive through and pick up on agreed time.
The Drive-Thru and Pick-Up location at SM CDO Downtown premier is located at the second level, Car Park Building; and Taxi Bay fronting Starbucks; while at SM City Cagayan de Oro it is at the Ground level Car Park Building, Inner Beacon; Gran Via Parking; and Transport Terminal, Masterson Avenue.
Customers can also use the Food Panda, Grab Food, or Streetby mobile apps for order to be delivered at their homes.
"This way, we address the hesitation of some of our customers to get inside the mall at this point in time. But addressing as well whatever they need. If they crave for something that is here inside the mall, we can cater them to the Drive Thru service," Ditona said.
Apart from the Drive-Thru and Pick-Up services, both SM malls in Cagayan de Oro also offers the Instashopper and the Taxi Delivery by CDOTransco services
For Instashopper, customers should browse through the list of participating tenants, which can be viewed by downloading the mall directory guide. Next, call the store or chat with SM's delivery partners, Streetby Personal Shopper and GoCart Buy & Go, to place orders and choose payment orders. Have the orders delivered to the address or pick up the items from the mall.
For Taxi Delivery, on the other hand, after browsing through the open stores in the mall directory, customers should call the CDOTransco hotline (TNT: 09301719439, Globe: 09955055916) or chat in their Facebook page (Cdotransco Multi-Purpose Transport Coop) to place the order. CDOTransco shopper will do the shopping for the customer. The assigned CDOTransco taxi will deliver the order to the address.
Even after the threat of the pandemic ends, Ditona said there is a possibility that all the latest implemented services will still be available as they saw a consistent take up of daily transactions.
"We see that there really is a demand for it. Kasi we can see the pattern already, especially on weekends and we see also that during paydays, the Drive Thru transaction also increases," Ditona said.
"So there really is a need for it and we will continue to improve as well the facilities that we'll be using as we go along the way so that we can cater to our customers," she added.