Daydreamin'

For a few years now, I've had an idea for a small business. The idea is for a personal grocery shopper. For a fee, I would go to the grocery store for people, select items on their shopping list and deliver them right to their door.

Normally when I'm kicking around this idea, I only get as far as thinking, "I wonder if it would work." I know similar businesses exist in other cities, so in some communities, it probably would work. I just don't know whether it would where I live.

Yesterday though, I thought a little more of the logistics: Should I pay for the groceries upfront then have my clients reimburse me when I drop of their bags? If I do it that way, how can I guarantee that I'm not going to be stuck with a boatload of groceries I don't need because I get to their door and they don't have any money? How much would people around here pay for such a service? How would I charge, by the number of items they request? Would it be feasible to get two or three clients' groceries at the same time? What if the customer wants to use coupons?

The silly thing about this little daydream of mine is that I don't really think of grocery shopping as a fun thing to do, which, by the way, is the reason why I started thinking someone might be willing to pay someone else do it in the first place.