With a bit of planning, you may completely avoid the July 1 plastic bag ban and never have to go grocery shopping again.

Buy Local normally focuses on Hawaii-made products and the people who make them, but this time you will learn that the relatively small number of locally based and franchised grocery shopping and delivery services on Oahu has just grown by one.

Store2Shore was just launched by Karen Kerscher, a former stay-at-home mom, commissioned art salesperson, retail salesperson and licensed EcoCab driver. Now, though, she is an entrepreneur.

Some of the services focus solely on the visitor market, but some serve local residents. Were this a Venn diagram, you’d find some in the middle of the overlapping circles that serve both.

Most charge a fee for doing the shopping for you, which you pay on top of the cost of your groceries.

Kerscher’s research led her to decide to exclusively serve the area of Oahu from Mokuleia to Turtle Bay. "I’m trying to reach … families with kids that don’t have time, or older people who don’t want to deal with it — or can’t," she said.

"What is your time worth? $15, $20, $30 an hour?" Kerscher asked rhetorically. She figures she can save people time, money and wear and tear on their vehicles, "and maybe keep some cars off the road," she said.

"I love the North Shore," she said. "I’d much rather be cruising around up there than anywhere else, except during surf season," she chuckled, but added that she would not hesitate to service one of the houses rented for the season by corporations that sponsor surfers.

Grocery shopping choices are somewhat limited in the area, so from her home base in Kunia she will venture out and around Oahu, and then deliver according to a customer’s chosen midday or afternoon-to-evening delivery window. If friends or neighbors agree to a single drop-off point, they could split the service fee, she said.

She was encouraged by close friends to start the business, noting that not only could she engage in daily retail therapy, "I could make money doing it," Kerscher said with a laugh.

Another woman trying her hand at grocery delivery is Laura Mae Blumenshein.

Blumenshein started her business after being "in the hospitality industry all my life," she said, which was part of the origin of her company, LauraMae’s Shopping Service.

During her hospitality days, some people were repeat visitors returning each year, so they got to know one another "very well," she said. "They know I’m a caterer and that I cooked a lot," so if they found out she was going to Costco they’d ask her to pick up certain things.

The volume of such requests, coupled with her own frustration at trying to enjoy a vacation but having to grocery-shop before checking into the vacation spot, spurred her to start the business.

Her business core is Waikiki, "and if it’s within a 5-mile radius of Waikiki," the service charge is $39. When reached Thursday she had just made a delivery to Hauula, which would require a larger fee "because that’s more gas and time," she said. She also offers different rates for regular, weekly customers, and counts shut-ins among her regulars.

In addition to buying pre-arrival groceries for Hawaii visitors, she offers different sorts of personalized services, such as for a visitor who wanted her accommodations to have a potty chair identical to the one her toddler was using at home. Blumenshein ordered it from Amazon and made sure it got delivered.

She once was asked to find a very specific type of baby food for a neighbor island infant who had been flown by medevac to Oahu for treatment. Blumenshein found some 40 jars at grocery stores near her Makiki home and delivered them to the hospital.

"It was heartwarming," she said, which is an intangible benefit of working to set herself apart by offering such extra services.

“Buy Local” runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com, or on Twitter as @erikaengle.