Farmstead Expanding to Raleigh-Durham, NC
Online grocer Farmstead has opened the waitlist for its expansion into the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, area, where the company’s delivery service will make its official debut early next year. The waitlist is limited to the first 1,000 people to sign up.
Raleigh-Durham is Farmstead’s second expansion market, following its launch this month in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Burlingame, California-based Farmstead started out in the hyper-competitive Bay Area and is putting down roots in the similarly cutthroat Southeast. The company employed proprietary artificial-intelligence technology and a dark-store model -- delivery-centric warehouses serving a 50-mile radius -- to maximize efficiency and lower costs. As a result, Farmstead offers prices comparable to or cheaper than those of most supermarkets, with the added feature of free home delivery. Beyond its home patch and Raleigh-Durham, the company plans to expand nationwide to a mainly mid-market audience.
In the Raleigh-Durham area, the company will open several dark stores, which greatly eases its entry into new markets; reduce food waste by three to four times, and help eradicate food deserts by enabling fast, free delivery to a wider area. Customers will be able to get all of their groceries – local brands such as Cheerwine and Sundrop, national brands like Kraft and Nabisco, and fresh meats, dairy and produce – with no stock-outs, from one place.
“We are excited to expand Farmstead’s presence on the East Coast,” said Farmstead co-founder and CEO Pradeep Elankumaran. “Grocery delivery demand has exploded, and Farmstead has made delivery cheaper than going to the store yourself. We can’t wait to bring our service to Raleigh-Durham.”
In addition to expanding, Farmstead has also begun offering its in-house grocery delivery software, Grocery OS, available to other national and regional grocers, to help those businesses compete more effectively with online behemoth Amazon.
According to the company, its customer base has grown by double digits, month over month, throughout 2020.
