OurStreets, a D.C.-born app that crowdsources road safety and micromobility complaints, has launched a new feature aimed at curbing grocery store panic shopping amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
OurStreets Supplies, which went live in the OurStreet iOS app Wednesday and in the Android app Thursday, lets users report which grocery and convenience stores are stocked with essential items. Users can also report whether they were able to practice social distancing at a store, and retailers can partner with OurStreets to feed the app with more official data on what’s on the shelves.
Conceptually, the Supplies feature is pretty much unrelated to OurStreets' initial transportation safety premise, which made it particularly popular among cyclists. But OurStreets CEO co-founder Mark Sussman said the company saw an opportunity to help using the app’s existing infrastructure. The app garnered about 10,000 new downloads since the feature was first announced last month, and user reports started to trickle in when it went live on the iOS app Wednesday morning, Sussman said.
“I mean, I think OurStreets has always had a positive frame on things that are very scary and dangerous, right? Whether it's street safety and now COVID. So hopefully, we're still bringing that positive energy to a very difficult problem,” Sussman told DC Inno.
At launch, OurStreets Supplies has partnerships with Data Society, which helps OurStreets with predictive modeling and data validation, and Union Kitchen, which runs four community grocery stores in the District. The app’s team is trying to secure more direct partnerships with retailers as well as municipalities as the COVID-19 pandemic plays out. OurStreets isn’t charging anyone for the Supplies feature for at least 60 days from launch.
“Ultimately, we're reviewing this as a philanthropic endeavor. Obviously, OurStreets in its original form is a for-profit entity. But you know, we're really using our resources in kind of a wartime effort,” Sussman said.
Sussman said the hope is also to help direct users to lesser-known, local retailers, given bigger supermarket chains often run out of essentials like cleaning supplies first. The app uses the Google Places API to populate the app with grocery and convenience stores. But a forthcoming search bar feature will let users see restaurants and other stores that have been moonlighting as grocery stores to get by.
“Crowdsourcing is incumbent upon people actually using the app,” Sussman says, but he hopes that retailers will take interest and partner up to make the process more efficient. OurStreets plans to have a system where retailers can be notified when the shelves are empty of a certain item and issue an update when they restock. It’s the same infrastructure OurStreets uses for scooter and bike complaints with micromobility partners Helbiz and Skip.
OurStreets Supplies may be a welcome distraction for OurStreets as it adjusts to doing business amid the coronavirus. Since launching the app with the transportation safety mission in January, the fledgling company hired three employees, brought on several advisors, gained around 30 advocacy partners, and was slated to pitch or speak at five conferences—all of which got postponed or went virtual. Ongoing talks with more potential partners, including city governments, have largely been put on hold.
“I think that companies that come out of these kinds of situations and actually survive are some of the best companies that have ever existed,” Sussman said. “I think the OurStreet Supplies framework that we've built shows our resiliency, and we will only be better for it.”
