Online and farmer focused
As online grocers expand, one Westport company is reaping customers with a focus on Vermont farm products.
Graze, an online grocery delivery service, is fully open for business, bringing milk, artisan cheeses, produce and meat from family operated farms in the Green Mountain State to Fairfield County.
“Farm to market is reaching a critical mass,” said Christy Colasurdo, co-founder of Graze. “People are much more receptive and have built up a real demand.”
Colasurdo founded the company with Steve and Juliana Konczal, owners of Barnum Hill Farm in Bristol, Vt., and one-time Fairfield County residents. Steve is a former CFO of Unilever and Heineken Americas. The company recently finished a three month test-marketing with 40 Westport families.
Graze sources its products from more than 20 privately owned farms in Vermont. Also offered are prepared meals and artisan food products like crackers, honey, maple syrups, dog treats and jams.
“The whole concept is based on that fact that it”™s not always easy to pick up and go to the farmers market,” said Colasurdo. “To commit to that sustainable and local lifestyle is hard to do on a fulltime basis.”
The company, which is based totally online, allows orders of any size to be placed through the Graze website and delivers the products to doorsteps throughout Fairfield County every Monday. It will soon be adding a day later in the week. The company also delivers to ski mountain communities in Vermont and has a similar presence in Weston, Mass., as it has in Fairfield. There is no additional delivery fee associated with the service; customers pay only the product price listed on the website. The grocer is closing in on its No. 1,000 customer.
“A lot of people would think that we”™d be much more expensive but by delivering directly from the farm and precise planning we are able to cut out the middle man, the gas spent shipping the product all around and also the need for preservatives,” said Colasurdo. “We then pass that savings on to our customers. Our farmers sweat and toil to produce a good product, not to produce a major profit margin.”
Though Graze”™s model is currently sustainable, Kevin Coupe, grocery industry analyst, author and editor of the Morning News Beat in Darien, said the fact that gas prices are so volatile affects the business bottom line and ability to compete each time they fluctuate.
According to the Food Marketing Institute, a national grocery industry trade organization, in 2010 one-third of grocers offered online ordering of some kind, but only about 4 percent of the population uses online grocer services regularly. Colasurdo said that leaves a large margin to pick up new online grocer customers.
“It looks like they have a very nice model going, but it”™s an uphill battle,” said Coupe. “They see Fairfield County and understand the demographic as one that”™s ripe for something like this, but you”™re going to have to get more and more people to be familiar with it. It”™s tough to start any business, but this is one that is both labor and capital intensive.”
Coupe said larger grocers have seen Fairfield as a prime market for specialty groceries, as well, with Whole Foods, Stew Leonard”™s, Fairway Markets and fellow online grocers PeaPod and Fresh Direct all occupying the market.
Large names like Amazon and Walmart are also both experimenting with home delivery of groceries. Amazon Fresh is running test of same or next-day delivery of products including fresh produce, meat and seafood in its place of origin, Seattle.
“Graze looks to have some great products with very appealing stories attached to them; that”™s a niche and if the economy continues to do well that”™s a pretty good niche to be in,” said Coupe. “The target here is the haves, not the have-nots, and the haves have done better through this recession. If that continues they will see this as a worthwhile indulgence.”
Colasurdo said the service and farm stories are both strong selling points.
“We know each of our customers,” said Colasurdo. “If a family has a dog you might find some extra dog treats in your week”™s delivery.”
She said the same type of intimacy relates to the farmers themselves: “People love to hear about how the things they eat everyday are made and who makes them.”
Graze will soon be adding a video section in which the farmers will be able to document their stories and processes on the farm, like that of Jasper Hill Farm, which ages its bleu cheese in caves.
“In a time where school lunches, fast food and food standards are regarded with so much mistrust, it”™s comforting to know that these farms are just a few hours”™ drive from your doorstep,” said Colasurdo.
Recent U.S. food scares have included spinach, hamburger meat and taco filling, to name a few.
“People have a strong desire to right the disconnect they have with their food,” Colasurdo said. “It”™s nice not to have to worry if animals are fattened up on grain and jammed together in cages standing in excrement. With Graze you what you”™re getting.”
Colasurdo said Graze has plans for slow and measured expansion.
“Fairfield County is a deep market, and for now we are working hard on it,” she said. “But we will move into fringe markets like Westchester in the future.”
Graze, which currently has 10 fulltime staff members, has avoided traditional advertising and instead relied on word of mouth and social media referrals.
She said because the farms are not multi-farm national operations the growth must be careful and slow because the farms and amount of sourcing must expand with the customer growth.
“It”™s allowing us to keep the right kind of small,” said Colasurdo.