Farmstead prompts customers to ‘Eat This First’

E-grocer Farmstead is doing its part to cut down on food waste with a new feature for its delivery orders dubbed “Eat This First.”

Burlingame, Calif.-based Farmstead said yesterday that its email receipts have been updated with “Eat This First” sections to alert customers when it makes sense to consume particular products sooner than later, helping them avoid having to discard food at home food. For example, the retailer said, receipt might remind a customer to eat the fresh salmon or chicken in their order first.

Farmstead noted that it’s the first online-only grocer to have precise sell-by date inventory control and automated procurement systems for perishables. As a result, most products sold via Farmstead are sourced closer to customers and stay fresh at home longer than comparable items from supermarkets, the company said. Eat This First is designed to take that approach to the next step by reminding customers what’s in their refrigerator so it doesn’t end up being thrown out.

Farmstead customers are automatically signed up to receive Eat This First receipts via email but can opt out.

Customers are automatically signed up to receive Eat This First receipts via email, and they also can choose to opt out. Citing a survey from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farmstead reported that the average U.S. household wastes 31.9% of the food that it obtains.

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“Food waste reduction has been a core tenet of Farmstead since our founding,” Pradeep Elankumaran, co-founder and CEO of Farmstead, said in a statement. “We developed our own in-house logistics and inventory software specifically to reduce food waste in our own warehouses. While a typical grocery store has 30% to 40% food waste, Farmstead is in the single digits. In introducing Eat This First, we’re extending that capability out to each customer. We are the only online grocer able to deliver it due to our digitized inventory control.”

Founded in 2016, Farmstead said it has “reinvented the grocery buying experience” and “rewired how food moves across the country” to make locally sourced food more accessible and reduce food waste. The company noted that its Grocery OS platform — which is able for license and orchestrates “dark” warehouses — leverages proprietary data and code to revamp perishable supply chains, cut last-mile fulfillment costs, and operate at optimum efficiency and reliability, expediting online grocery profitability in suburban markets.

Farmstead focuses on one- to two-hour free delivery and serving consumers across a large radius — generally 50 miles — that the company said helps eliminate food deserts while offering better prices than local supermarkets.

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“We have the precise technology and the data to help our customers reduce their food waste at home and we think the steps we’re taking will become a model for the grocery industry,” continued Elankumaran, “and we’re calling on all grocers to think about these important issues - as their customers already are.”

In February, Farmstead’s online grocery service launched in Chicago, the company’s fifth market. The e-tailer started off in the San Francisco Bay area and last year entered Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and Miami after a late 2020 launch in Charlotte, N.C. The e-grocer said it aims to expand nationwide and serve a primarily suburban, midmarket customer base.