.png)
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, super-service app MyKuya and convenience store chain Ministop partner up to provide a worry-free experience for their customers.
With the onslaught of COVID-19 forcing a vast majority of the Filipino population indoors, businesses have struggled with the conundrum of how to keep operations going while also ensuring the safety of both their customers and employees.
It’s this problem that has prompted on-demand service app MyKuya and leading convenience store franchise Ministop to enter into a partnership that gives people a way of obtaining goods that is not only more convenient but also safer. The partnership works especially in consideration of the fact that Ministop has over hundreds of stores in Metro Manila, the area that MyKuya currently services.
How the partnership works is that MyKuya, the on-demand service app that lets users book a personal assistant (affectionately referred to as Kuyas and Ates by the company) that can do just about anything from personal shopping to motorbike delivery, now displays Ministop as a partner on the app’s main screen. From here, the app’s users can book a Kuya or Ate to get them just about anything they need from Ministop stores — whether something as basic and essential as a tube of toothpaste or simply a bucket of the chain’s famous Uncle John’s fried chicken.
Thus, both MyKuya and Ministop can continue providing the community around them with a valuable service, even as the Philippines continues to register more COVID-19 cases.
“Having recently passed the 10,000 cases mark, we feel that it’s still apt to institute initiatives that primarily carry public health in mind,” explained MyKuya CEO and founder Shahab Shabibi. “This applies even as we start thinking about lockdown exit strategies. So partnerships like these, along with a few others that we have in the pipeline, are quite valuable in making sure we stick to that.”
The statement comes in light of concerns that convenience stores may become hotbeds for infection, what with the amount of people who may be going in and out of the store to buy the goods they need. Additionally, the World Health Organization has confirmed that transmission occurs mainly through respiratory droplets (people coughing and sneezing), a risk that is only exacerbated in crowded spaces like a grocery or convenience store.
Of course, it isn’t just the customer’s safety then that the two companies are concerned with. Employees, the engines that keep both MyKuya and Ministop running, are also given proper protection.
In Ministop’s case, not only were health and safety advisories prepared by the head office but many store owners went out of their way to remind staff the merits of proper hygiene and sanitation. Aside from that, there were also constant reminders to practice social distancing when possible.
For MyKuya’s Ates and Kuyas, Shabibi shares that with the help of the company’s various enterprise partners, their workers are able to have masks and hand sanitizer when they go out to do their jobs. Additionally, temperature checks for Kuyas and Ates are routine.
“Given that these are very much unprecedented times, we’d like to call for everyone to work together to follow the best practices against COVID-19,” concluded Shabibi. “The sooner we do that, the sooner we make a difficult situation just a little bit easier.”
ABOUT MYKUYA
Founded by Machine Ventures and the brains behind HeyKuya (the text based service that was
MyKuya’s spiritual predecessor), MyKuya is a super app that makes lives easier by helping you
hire services on-demand. It’s through these services that the company also hopes to help
eliminate the problem of unemployment and underemployment in the Philippines, with the goal of creating one million new jobs by 2022.
For more information & inquiries visit https://mykuya.com or contact us at hello@mykuya.com
ABOUT MINISTOP
Founded in 1969, Ministop first started operations in Japan, growing and growing over decades. It was in the year 2000 that Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc., through a subsidiary, partnered with Japan’s Ministop Co. Ltd and Mitsubishi Corporation, opened up operations to serve the Filipino market.
Taking pride in its variety of ready-to-eat offerings and well-stocked inventory, Ministop has now expanded to hundreds of stores in the Philippines, from key areas of Metro Manila all the way down to the cities of Cebu, Roxas, Dumaguete and more.
For more information & inquiries visit https://www.ministop.com.ph/.