There wasn’t a friend, a fellow worker of Mefístoles Zamora Márquez who did not question his decision. His oldest daughter asked him why he had quit his job in the ETECSA telephone company, if he had been fired. The reasons of the engineer in automated controls with a master’s in data transmission to leave behind his 10 years of experience in one of the state-run enterprises with the highest wages in Cuba were not easy to understand.
But for months Mefístoles had tried out being an engineer and a photographer, and he only had time for one of them. Photography won. He earned more money and had more time for his family. He was about to have a second child. He left for his private work without suspecting that his business would go beyond the camera, and would be exclusive in Camagüey.
“The idea of the home delivery of gifts came up in a Cubaemprende course. It was close to February 14 and the need to deliver gifts came up. The idea came to me of establishing a home delivery service. Someone provided the flowers, while I bought the chocolates, made the postcards and coordinated the deliveries. We distributed flyers throughout the city and, persons came! That first time, three years ago, we made 60 deliveries. It went rather well for me, but meeting the timetables, the addresses, that everything arrive correctly…. It was stressful,” recalls Mefístoles, who at the time did not know how to calculate how strong the demand was.
But he had found a niche that had not been satisfied. The people, who were pleased, returned for more because there were birthdays, Mother’s Days, Sweet Fifteen parties, wedding anniversaries…. Mefístoles launched a multitude of noes, but in the end he retook the idea of the home delivery of gifts, and this time with all his might, knowing that outside Cuba there are companies that specialize in what he once did trying out his luck. Two workers and Delivery Gift was born.
For the price of 5 CUC (a bit over 5 dollars) they made a package comprising a bunch of 10 natural roses, a box of chocolates made in the Casa del Chocolate and a personalized postcard.
“The women asked that the flowers be replaced with a cake, and there were those who asked for both. The growth in the orders led me to take a year to found the gift shop, conceived for all type of pockets. Unfortunately, in our country we are used to giving a gift with utilitarian value, and we have forgotten that gifts have a symbolic value and are a way of making known to someone that they matter to us.
“An elderly lady who lives off her pension came to the shop once. She said: ‘Oh, if I had something to give to the doctor who sees me it would be great, but your prices….’ I said to her: ‘Look here there’s a small pocket diary that costs three pesos in national currency, wrapping it up and putting a ribbon will cost you five.’ The lady went away very happy with her small diary, and after that she has sent us a lot of elderly people. She told us the doctor loved it.”
With more than 30 steady clients, and at least one delivery a day, Mefístoles has around a thousand orders, and he thinks he can handle five deliveries a day. But growing without Internet is not so easy. And from abroad is from where they have taken on another service that “Delivery” manages: the serenades with mariachis, plus the photos and the video of the moment.
“We are planning a website where people can pay for our service, choose the shop’s gifts, personalize their postcards and give the name and the address of the persons who will receive the gift. Ecommerce is the best way to grow and organize the deliveries, but Paypal, for example, which is the means of payment most used on the Internet, is not active for our country. I hope that the rapprochement of Cuba and the United States changes that.”
Mefístoles has had positive experiences with residents outside Cuba who through friends or relatives have contacted Delivery Gift.
“Not long ago a young woman came from the United States to Cuba to see her family. Her boyfriend from over there called a friend of his and told him to find us. He sent by mail what he wanted to write on the postcard and it was the marriage proposal for her and we made the delivery. That denotes the trust in and seriousness of our service. There are people who ask for the sender’s address and we never say, we only say who is sending the gift to the addressee. We protect confidentiality.”
The “Delivery” messenger is a university graduate who makes deliveries as something extra. He keeps his state job and he is pleasant. Finding people like that during special days is another pending problem.
Without Internet, overcoming stereotypes of what is expected of an engineer, at 38 Mefístoles heads a small enterprise that with appropriate resources and time can transcend the borders of Camagüey, where for years no one provided the satisfaction that Delivery Gift now gives.
“One has to see the face of the persons when they receive their gifts. The women say: But is this for me? Is this done here in Cuba? Did someone send it from abroad? They can’t conceive that a service like this, which is normal in any part of the world, exists here.”
