{"id":27726,"date":"2021-12-08T10:30:19","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T18:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000023792"},"modified":"2021-12-08T12:16:15","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T20:16:15","slug":"alley-cat-deliveries-is-the-one-man-local-delivery-service-long-beach-didnt-know-it-wanted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/alley-cat-deliveries-is-the-one-man-local-delivery-service-long-beach-didnt-know-it-wanted","title":{"rendered":"Alley Cat Deliveries is the one-man local delivery service Long Beach didn’t know it wanted"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the moment when Robb Smith pulled out a small, jingling set of keys and unlocked the yet-unopened doors to the Long Beach Creamery in Bixby Knolls that I got a sense for just how unorthodox Smith\u2019s delivery service, Alley Cat Deliveries,<\/a> really is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got the keys to all their stores,\u201d Smith said, matter-of-factly. \u201cThey trust me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walking through the dim, empty ice cream shop he spots the two dozen packaged brownies, butter cakes and chocolate chip cookies he\u2019s been tasked to pick-up and deliver to the ice cream shop\u2019s Downtown location. He stacks them into a large blue freezer bag in the backseat of his Jeep Renegade, zips up, and locks the door to the creamery before he\u2019s back in his car, heading south down Atlantic Avenue, fingers tapping the steering wheel.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Robb Smith stacks baked foods from Long Beach Creamery into a freezer bag for delivery Friday, Dec. 3, 2021. Photo by Cheantay Jensen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Runs like these, where he transports in-store product between stores or picks up ingredients for local businesses (which he\u2019s also been asked to do in the afternoon), has been a lifesaver for his delivery service these days, he said, since he\u2019s getting fewer calls for food and grocery deliveries now that people are opting to dine out and grocery shop for themselves again. Those deliveries during the peaks of the pandemic, when people were stuck at home, \u201creally put us on the map,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always just pivot, pivot, pivot,\u201d Smith said. \u201cLike right now, we\u2019re doing airport rides.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be sure, it\u2019s a lot more than rides to the airport and grocery shopping. In the three years since launching Alley Cat Deliveries, Smith has earned a sparkling local reputation as a go-to delivery guy. His Yelp rating is a pristine five stars, teeming with rave reviews that reveal just how personal his service can get.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s helped people move apartments, pick up their pets from doggy day care, mail their packages, hand off court documents, deliver their cannabis. He did a sex shop\u00a0run once for a client but said he won\u2019t be doing that again\u2014it\u2019s too much information.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a hard time saying no,\u201d Smith said. \u201cLike tomorrow, I have to get three bales of hay, which I do not like to do because I\u2019ve done it and it gets all over my car\u2026but what\u2019s a vacuum, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith said he\u2019s also exploring small freight and cargo transportation. \u201cI know that we have a huge need for it in the ports,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019m looking into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not too long ago, the immediate future was all Smith could focus on. Shortly after moving to Long Beach from Redondo Beach after a rough divorce, Smith lost his apartment on Fifth Street and Chestnut Avenue. With no money to fork up the costs for a new place, he and his two kids, who are 7 and 9 now, were couch surfing for almost a year. Meanwhile, Smith tried to make ends meet delivering for Postmates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d have to work almost 10 hours a day to make 100 bucks,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

The hours were especially grueling because he\u2019d do it all on his BMX bike\u2014rain or shine.<\/p>\n

Exhausted, exasperated and occasionally rain-soaked, he wondered if it would be possible to branch out on his own. The business owners he\u2019d chat with between deliveries all knew him by name and liked him enough. Why not cut out the middleman?<\/p>\n

Smith enrolled in the Downtown Long Beach Alliance<\/a> small business program and got his business license in 2019. He named his business Alley Cat Deliveries from all the side streets and alleyway shortcuts he\u2019d memorized biking through the city.<\/p>\n

He first approached Pie Bar\u2019s owner, Laurie Gray, on what it would take to earn her business.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018well, they [delivery apps] are taking 24-30% of my profits from me. My question is how are you going to be different?\u2019\u201d Smith remembered Gray asking him.<\/p>\n

Gray was referring to the fees delivery apps like GrubHub, Uber Eats, DoorDash and Postmates charge restaurants for its service, with some reported delivery apps charging up to 30% of their revenue per order.<\/p>\n

Smith realized that he could get a leg up on the delivery apps by only charging the customer a flat rate for his delivery service. He settled on a competitive $5, though today he charges $9.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo she gave me the account. Romeo Chocolates gave me his account. It took me a year to get 4th Horseman,\u201d Smith said. Today he boasts 11 local business accounts, including District Wine, Pita Pitaki, Long Beach Creamery and The Attic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not losing anything with me\u2026.that\u2019s why I\u2019m different. That\u2019s why I want people to use us because we\u2019re not taking anything from these people. Everyone wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Convincing customers to make the switch from the convenient tap-to-pay of delivery apps to his service was the biggest hurdle. For this, Smith relied on consumer\u2019s shop-local mentality. That, and his promise to return 20% of his weekly sales back to the community, be it through food, clothing or toy donations to local organizations, or helping out when he saw a need.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s made good on that promise over the years. After the 2020 looting, Robb sold T-shirts and used the $6,000 he raised to repair the broken windows and storefronts of nine Downtown business, including Pie Bar, Romeo Chocolates, Kress Market and Deli and iNails and Spa. This past Thanksgiving, he helped sponsor 11 families with multi-course Thanksgiving dinners.<\/p>\n

Making a pit stop on our Long Beach Creamery run, we pulled into the AIDS Food Store lot to drop off a trunk-full of cereal boxes for their annual cereal drive, which Smith also participated in last year.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Robb Smith unloads boxes of cereal to the AIDS Food Store Friday, Dec. 3, 2021. Photo by Cheantay Jensen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s community supporting community,\u201d he said. It\u2019s a point he speaks on fervently, mentioned at least four times during our delivery excursion, but with good reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were homeless for a year, Long Beach Coffee & Tea is the one who had our backs. That\u2019s how Santa came to our house two years ago for Christmas when I didn\u2019t have a pot to piss in,\u201d Smith explained.<\/p>\n

That same Christmas, Long Beach Pedal Movement donated a beach cruiser to help Smith make his deliveries. After a year and a half of courier delivery, a local business owner offered their car for his runs until he was able to purchase his own in August 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I sat in the car and felt for the first time, like, this mine,\u201d he reflected. \u201cI just felt pride. I felt happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Robb Smith driving his Jeep Renegade on a delivery run with his business, Alley Cat Deliveries Friday, Dec. 3, 2021. Photo by Cheantay Jensen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He\u2019s had a lot of time since to get used to his car. He\u2019ll run deliveries for 10 hours a day, usually, though it\u2019s not uncommon for him to work nearly 17 hours during the holidays, his busiest season, before coming home to tuck in his kids, which now includes a 9-month-old baby, to bed before climbing into his own bed at his home in West Long Beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel old now. I\u2019ve driven so much in two years,\u201d the 36-year-old said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not as lithe as he was during his courier days, but he still puts his six-foot-one frame to the test. When we arrived at the Creamery\u2019s Downtown location, he stuffed over 40 pint-sized ice-cream containers into a freezer bag and lugged it, with remarkable speed, into the backseat of his car.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Robb Smith loads up a freezer bag full of pint-sized ice cream from Long Beach Creamery in Downtown for delivery, Friday, Dec. 3, 2021. Photo by Cheantay Jensen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back up Atlantic Avenue, we returned to Long Beach Creamery in Bixby Knolls. As Smith deposited the pints of ice cream into the freezer, in order of their packaging dates, owner Dina Amadril said what she appreciates most is Smith\u2019s attention to detail.<\/p>\n

\u201cRobb goes the extra mile,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s always packing it up to make sure the inventory is right, using FIFO: first-in-first-out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith said he\u2019d learned the method while working in the hospitality industry\u2014one of his many odd jobs. He\u2019s been a server at a pizza spot in Hawthorne, where he grew up; a manager at Starbucks; a service associate at a car dealership. He was an aerospace job recruiter at his last gig.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved it, but I lost that job not having daycare,\u201d Smith explained.<\/p>\n

With each job, Smith was able to take away a piece of knowledge or a bit of savvy that\u2019s helped him have that extra edge with Alley Cat. With his pizza runs, for instance, he always keeps the pies in a thermal bag so they stay level and hot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not an on-demand service,\u201d he cautioned. \u201cI\u2019m more of a personalized service.\u201d<\/p>\n

A glowing review on Yelp relayed a particularly astonishing (and atypical) run Smith took in pursuit of a Dodger\u2019s jersey his client requested and needed before an evening game. He went to Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods, found they were sold out. Then, on the way back from an LAX run, made a pit stop in Santee Alley (LA\u2019s fashion district) and haggled a $100 jersey down to $70, all while FaceTiming his client so she could see exactly what she was getting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis man sure does go above and beyond the call of duty,\u201d the client signed off in her review.<\/p>\n

Testimonials like this make it easy to understand why Smith said 90% of his clientele are returning customers. But it\u2019s also why he hesitates to hire people, though at times he\u2019s desperate for the help.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to find good people. I\u2019ve tried to hire people, and I\u2019ve had some good ones. I\u2019ve had some bad ones, but no one could carry it the way I do. I just never want anyone to be let down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Getting more organized is a bigger priority for him at this point. All of his orders are done via text or phone call and jotted down in the Notes app. Still, Smith envisions a bigger picture. One possibly with employees driving golf carts, less carbon footprint he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then I\u2019d sell ad space, called Cool Cat, you could see on the carts,\u201d he said. \u201cMy mind doesn\u2019t stop going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alley Cat Deliveries can be contacted via Instagram<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> or by phone at 310-529-4839. Food deliveries from restaurants cost $9; grocery store deliveries cost $25. Alley Cat Deliveries has also just launched its Winter Well Wishes Drive and looking for sponsors to help purchase toys, clothes, blankets, socks and more. More information can be found on Alley Cat Deliveries Instagram and Facebook.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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