By Jordan Unger
A local delivery service opened in Mahoning County in December that brings customers pre-purchased goods to their doorstep, saving people from making trips to restaurants or stores.
Valley Delivered Goods is the only delivery service of its kind in the Youngstown area. D’Andrae Rodgers, co-owner of Valley Delivery Goods, said the service takes orders online for take-out and errand runs. 
“We deliver just about anything,” Rodgers said. “We have grocery delivery where you can go on our website and leave us a grocery list. We will shop for you.”
Rodgers said their most popular service is restaurant delivery.
“You can go onto our website, order from any restaurant in Mahoning or Trumbull County, put your order in, pay online and we drop it off for you,” Rodgers said. “We’re like an Uber-type service but it’s with your food.”
Kasondra Davis, co-owner of Valley Delivered Goods, said the idea for business came from an out-of-town trip.
“When we were there, we noticed … a delivery business that delivers food to the hotel and we’re like, ‘Wow, this would be a great business for the area,’” Davis said. “There’s nothing like this in Youngstown.”
Customers can go onto the Valley Delivered Goods website to place orders. Every restaurant in Mahoning and Trumbull complete with full-menu options is listed for customers to make purchases.
The delivery service charges $6 for restaurant deliveries within 10 miles of the customer; an additional $6 is charged for longer distances.
When delivering groceries, they charge a $10 flat rate with an additional fee of 10 percent of the grocery bill up to $150; the additional fee is 15 percent of the bill if the bill exceeds $150. Prices vary for errand runs.
The services deliver to Youngstown State University at least three times a day, Rodgers said. He said a delivery service like this can be useful for college students.
“You’ve got college students from all walks of life from everywhere,” Rodgers said. “They don’t know the city; they don’t know where they’re going … this gives them an easy access to things that they don’t know [are] out there.”
The average wait time for a delivery to campus is 20 to 40 minutes, Rodgers said. He said in the past three months since it started, Valley Delivered Goods is making an impact on the community.
“It’s a huge convenience for people,” Rodgers said. “We serve a lot of elderly and disabled people who can’t get out and be mobile or if they are mobile, they’re miserable.”
The company has six drivers with plans to hire more in the future. Davis said she is pleased with how the business has grown.
“It’s exciting because you get to see everybody else’s excitement in the concept,” Davis said. “We put a lot of emphasis on helping seniors with delivering groceries [and] run errands for people who have a busy life, so the restaurant delivery and errands is all growing as a whole and we’re just looking forward to continuously expanding.”
Valley Delivered Goods will start delivering to Columbiana County next month, with plans to expand further in upcoming months.
