Shen Xiaochen, a young man in Jiangqiao town, Jiading district, set up the first personal errand service in town.
The 6-person company takes orders and runs all kinds of errands from picking up breakfast, delivering birthday cakes to paying the parking tickets for customers. It charges 15 yuan ($2.4) for an order from 6 am to 8 pm, and 20 yuan from 8 pm to midnight.
Shen got the idea of starting an errand service from his own experience. "I used to work in a state-owned enterprise. My job was busy and I had lots of pressure. In the morning I often had no time for breakfast, and thought it would be nice if someone could deliver breakfast to my door," Shen said.
More than 1,900 people follow the company's account in WeChat, China’s largest instant messaging platform.
On May 11, the first order arrived through WeChat at 9:05 am. A customer surnamed Chen hired them to buy and deliver breakfast. The task was completed within 20 minutes. "It is convenient and efficient. The service is very necessary because people are becoming more and more lazy," Chen said.
The errand service is now only available in Jiangqiao town and it is expected to expand to other parts of Jiading in the future.