Laura's Likes: Fetch Coffee
Getting what you want when you want it. That is called "consumer convenience."
It used to be that when you wanted to order out, the only options were pizza and Chinese. We have come a long way since then.
When your feet first hit the ground in the morning, a morning cup of Joe is something a lot of people need. A delivery service called Fetch Coffee will bring it to you.
Yes, you can brew your own coffee at home, but there is increasing demand for fancy and frothy specialty coffees.
Fetch Coffee launched in January. Right now, they are operating only north and west of Georgetown, but they are working to grow and are planning to expand in the Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan and Mount Pleasant areas by the end of next month.
It is a simple service. Go to fetchcoffee.com, place an order for right now, for tomorrow or for an ongoing regular delivery.
All the coffee comes from Starbucks, so they wait in line for you, pick up the drink and deliver it to you.
How much? There is a $3 delivery fee plus the price of the drink. With subscription orders for every day service, you will pay $45 a month for delivery.
We put it to the test here at FOX 5. At 12:20 p.m., I placed my order for two coffees. Fourteen minutes later, I received a text from Tony Chen -- the founder of Fetch Coffee -- saying he was picking up my order and would see me soon. Five minutes later, he sent another text saying "Be there in 2."
Then Chen finally arrived with two thermoses in hand. That is how he keeps the coffee hot in transit and he says it works in all weather.
Chen quit his business strategy job at Capital one to launch Fetch Coffee. He says he watched people coming and going at Starbucks and that is where he realized delivering coffee would be big business.
And much to my surprise, he says it's not necessarily the business office bunch that is his biggest clients.
"The most common demographic are parents with kids," he said. "They would drive all the way up to Maryland just so they can go through the drive-thru at Starbucks to get their coffee without having to bring their kids as well. And there are also the older retired folks. It's sometimes troublesome to walk all the way to Starbucks, so it's much better to have it delivered to them."
Chen told us the majority of his clients are people who have a subscription coffee delivery when they wake up in the morning. The coffee is waiting for them right at the front door -- just like a newspaper subscription.
There is no app yet, but that is coming soon. But their website is optimized for mobile phones, so customers can order on their phone as easily as they can on the computer.
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