Online grocer Farmstead is now live in its third market: Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. The company announced the opening of its 1,000-person Raleigh-Durham waitlist in November 2020, and the list filled in under a week. The service is now open to anyone; new customers can open an account on the Farmstead website.
“There’s nothing like Farmstead currently in Raleigh-Durham,” said Pradeel Elankumaran, co-founder and CEO. “This area is the perfect profile for us: fast-growing, lots of young, busy families and a population that prioritizes fresh food. We’re excited to bring them this new grocery option.”
Farmstead stands out from other offerings by leveraging proprietary AI technology and a dark store model — delivery-centric warehouses that serve a 50-mile radius — to maximize efficiency and reduce costs. As a result, Farmstead offers prices comparable to or lower than most supermarkets but with free delivery to doorstep. The company is growing quickly, with plans to expand nationwide to a primarily mid-market audience.
In the Raleigh-Durham area, Farmstead has opened a dark store in the Forest Acres neighborhood, enabling it to serve customers within a 50-mile radius. With Farmstead, customers can get all of their groceries – high-quality local brands such as Cheerwine and Sundrop, national brands such as Kraft, Nabisco and fresh meats, dairy and produce – from one place.
Farmstead works with local farmers and national distributors to stock up on consumers’ favorite products, including fresh produce and family-friendly national brands. Consumers go to Farmstead to set up an account and order, and the groceries are hand-selected and inspected by Farmstead’s team at its dark stores to ensure families are getting the best quality products exactly as ordered. Farmstead then groups deliveries together to deliver to customers and their neighbors at the same time to help reduce carbon emissions.
Customers can also sign up for a regular “Weekly Program” and get a 5 percent discount each time they buy the same product again.
Farmstead’s proprietary AI-based software tied to its smaller-format dark stores helps determine optimal inventory levels, ensure efficient order picking/packing/delivery and reduce food waste. These efficiencies enable Farmstead to deliver for free while keeping prices lower and making fresh, high-quality groceries accessible to all.
Headquartered in Burlingame, California, Farmstead’s customer base has grown by double-digits, month over month, throughout 2020.
To sign up for Farmstead’s Raleigh-Durham service, click here.
