Our Story

It started with a simple idea and a refrigerated van. In the spring of 2020, two food-loving friends — Maya Patel, a former restaurant chef, and Alex Rivera, a software engineer with a passion for logistics — sat in Maya's kitchen in Port Louis, Mauritius, frustrated by the lack of truly fresh grocery options in their neighborhood. The big-box stores stocked produce that had traveled thousands of miles, and the local farmers' market only ran on Saturday mornings. They asked themselves: what if great, local food could come to you?

Within weeks, they had signed partnerships with three local farms, rented a small warehouse space, and built a basic ordering website. Maya curated the product selection with the same exacting standards she had applied in her restaurant kitchen — nothing made the cut unless she would serve it to her own family. Alex engineered the delivery routes to ensure every order arrived within hours of being picked or packed. Their first day, they delivered 14 orders. By the end of the month, word had spread and they were fulfilling over 200 a week.

What set TheShop apart from the beginning was the human touch. Every order included a handwritten thank-you note. Drivers were trained to handle produce with care, not toss it onto porches. Customer feedback was answered personally, often by Maya or Alex themselves. As the company grew, they refused to let go of these values. Today, with over 50,000 customers and five store locations, TheShop still operates on the same principle that sparked it all: food should be fresh, local, and delivered with care.

Looking ahead, we are investing in electric delivery vehicles, expanding our partnership network to include 300 local producers, and building technology that makes healthy eating easier than ever. Whether you have been with us since order number one or you are just discovering TheShop today, we are grateful to have you at our table.