HICKMAN, KY — Filling a need and fostering community is the goal of Pilot Cart. It's a new grocery delivery service in Fulton County, Kentucky, where grocery options are now very limited.
Options are particularly limited in Hickman after the E.W. James and Sons grocery store closed at the beginning of the month.
We showed you its final days, as loyal customers and staffers said goodbye after nearly 90 years serving this community.
Now, the closest full-sized grocery store is in Union City, Tennessee. That’s 20 minutes away.
There's a Dollar General just up the road from the old E.W. James.
The store carries some meat and fresh produce, but the company says there's a smaller selection to choose from than a full grocery.
Locals say the prices are higher.
Pilot Cart wants to give people in the small, rural community of Hickman more food options.
The once bustling store, a one-stop shop for many in Hickman, now sits empty. The sign is taken down and papers reading “closed,” litter the storefront. When Elexius Benford was growing up, E.W. James and Sons was a staple there.
“Get your juice, your chips. Mamma sent us to the grocery store. It was just the grocery store. It's the only grocery store I've known here, so it like provided all of our meals,” Benford says.
Its closure hit the community hard.
Benford describes Hickman more like a family than a city.
Because of that, she worried how the closure would impact her hometown.
“Half of the community don't have transportation, even just 10 miles down the road to Union City or Fulton. So, I'm thinking of those residents, especially the elderly,” says Benford.
She couldn't reopen the store, but she thought up the next best thing. The idea is a team of five that delivers fresh meat, produce and groceries right to Hickman doorsteps.
“$15 to start off for June and July, just to have me pick it up and deliver it to you,” Benford says.
She says Pilot Cart is all about building community. That's why they're working to partner with locally-owned groceries and produce stand like Beasley Produce, right in the heart of downtown Fulton.
“It's a rural town. It's supported by farmers, so that's going to be on the top of my list to support local farmers, local businesses,” says Benford.
For now, Benford is sticking to big box stores, with goals of expanding in the near future.
And she's hoping a full grocery store will eventually locate there, replacing what the community lost.
Most transactions are done online through a secure third-party payment processor.
For more old fashioned customers, Benford is offering a service where she will pay for the groceries upfront and be reimbursed with a cash payment upon delivery.
She's also finalizing paperwork to accept government assistance, like EBT and WIC.
The website went live Friday and so far has six orders.
If you'd like to set up a delivery, just click here.
