Imagine pulling up to a cottage for a vacation and having someone meet you at the door with all the groceries you’ll need for the week. Or skipping the check-out lines after a long day at work and getting handed a bag with everything you need to make dinner. Or how about – on especially exhausting nights – having sushi or steak delivered from your favorite restaurant to your front door?

Those are just a few of the home delivery options now available in the Grand Traverse area, thanks to a growing industry of personalized shopping services. While national companies like Seamless and Amazon Prime have attracted acclaim for their dizzying array of same-day delivery options, their services are restricted to major metropolitan areas. Now several local upstarts are hoping to replicate the convenience of those services here in Traverse City.

Sarah Carroll launched Get MI Groceries in November 2014 with the goal of providing “a service to allow for more family time, better meal planning and to help promote local farms and stores.” Customers submit a grocery list and requested delivery time online – at least 24 hours’ notice is preferred – then Carroll confirms the order by phone or email. She goes and takes care of the shopping, prioritizing local and/or organic goods from Michigan-owned stores. Popular stops include Meijer, Oryana, Burritt’s, Grand Traverse Pie Company, Maxbauer, Tom’s, Oleson’s, and local farmers markets, she says.

The fee for Carroll’s services is a flat 20 percent of the grocery bill, or a minimum $30 (a $200 grocery bill would be $240 total, for example). Even with the fee, Carroll says the service “ends up almost being less expensive, because there are no impulse purchases and you can plan out your meals for the week,” avoiding wasted food. “Time is also money,” she says. “(Customers) don’t have to waste their time standing in line at the grocery store…they can have more time with their families and less time doing a chore.”

While many customers use the service for the convenience – including both year-round regulars and summer vacationers – others rely it on as a necessity. Carroll says some of her clientele include the elderly and residents who are unable to leave their homes. “Instead of having to eat canned or packaged goods, they can have fresh produce and food delivered,” she says.

Michigan Delivered Goods, a new northern Michigan affiliate of national chain Mountain Delivered Goods, also now specializes in local shopping services. The company launched this summer and is offering take-out and grocery delivery in Traverse City, Acme, Kalkaska, Elk Rapids, Chums Corner and the surrounding area. The service operates seven days a week from 8am-5pm, and charges $10 plus 10 percent of the bill for grocery deliveries or $6 for take-out deliveries.

“This service is great for working parents, the elderly, disabled or people that work full-time jobs that do not have the time (to shop),” says Shelley VanStee of Michigan Delivered Goods. “You are able to browse through various stores and restaurants and choose what you would like to have delivered right to your doorstep.” The company also works to “donate times and resources to the disabled, wounded warriors and the elderly that cannot afford our services,” she says.

Chompler, another Traverse City start-up that launched this summer, offers delivery from 25+ area restaurants to homes and offices within a 15-mile radius. Customers in the mood for sushi from Red Ginger, whitefish from Scalawags or a ButterBurger from Culver’s can use the company’s app or website to place an order, or call it in at 949-GET-FOOD). The average delivery time is 35 minutes (though it can fluctuate during peak times) and delivery fees range from $0-$10.

“It expands your options beyond pizza and Chinese food,” says Chompler Co-Founder Jacob Dalton. “You can instantly have food from all these local restaurants in the comfort of your own home or office.” Since launching earlier this summer, Dalton says the service has grown particularly popular with area workers, with “90 percent of our business coming from locals.” The service also attracted attention from tourists interested in deliveries to Traverse City hotels this summer, a market segment the company hopes to explore more in the future.

“We’re looking at that…and also looking at expanding to other (cities),” says Dalton.