the challenge
in 2021, the covid-19 pandemic caused many businesses to shutter, and dreams were shattered. in the tiny town of saxapahaw, nc, there was only one place to get groceries, one restaurant that was open 7 days a week, and only one gas station. and it was the same business-- the saxapahaw general store. and it had zero infrastructure in place to allow customers to order pick-up or delivery. it was too remote for services like doordash or instacart, so we had to create something from scratch, because bills were due and every day with no business was one day closer to shutting down.
leadership & responsibilities
- Built and launched a new e-commerce system on WordPress + Lightspeed
- Developed ordering flows for prepared food, groceries, and recurring weekly farm boxes
- Defined turnaround requirements and operational clarity across teams
- Directed brand, content, and design across digital + physical touchpoints
- Created creative systems: templates, asset management, and standards
- Produced communications across web, social, and in-store signage
- Updated/refined logo and supporting brand assets
the system
E-commerce + Fulfillment Framework
Delivery radius: 7 miles
Prepared restaurant food: delivered or ready for pickup within 1 hour
Grocery orders: fulfilled within 24 hours (often ~3 hours when ordered early)
Ordering options: online or by phone for accessibility
Weekly: “Saxapahaw Farm Fresh Box”
A “blind box” style farm-to-customer pickup program where customers could select categories such as:
Meat
Vegetables
Tea
Health & Beauty
Orders were packaged for pickup on a specified weekly day—supporting local farmers while making discovery easy for customers.
the approach
I designed the system to balance speed and clarity under pressure—creating a workflow that held up during daily volume spikes and made sense across different roles, schedules, and skill levels. The goal was a customer experience that felt simple and human, while giving staff an operational structure they could trust.