生鮮直銷電商的快速運達服務能否幹掉超市?

Benzi Ronen thinks that the supermarkets’ time is up. And his company is just the thing to speed up its demise.

本齊·羅內恩認爲超市的時代即將結束，而他的公司正是加速其消亡的催化劑。

“Our goal is to make the supermarket obsolete from a fresh perspective,” Ronen says.

羅內恩表示：“我們的目標是以生鮮爲賣點，讓超市變得過時。”

Farmigo, his five-year-old 30-employee startup, sells produce and other products like milk and cheese purchased directly from farmers for 10%-20% less than equivalent grocery store items. He does it by shrinking the supply chain, essentially taking out the middleman. Users place an order online; the order is fulfilled by a farmer who transports it to a centralized packing hub; and then Farmigo delivers it to community drop-off points for the customer to pick up. This all happens within 48 hours.

他5年前創建的Farmigo公司現擁有30名員工。這家公司出售直接從農民處購買的農作物和牛奶、乳酪等產品，售價比雜貨店的均價低10%到20%不等。其奧祕在於縮短了供應鏈，特別是去掉了中間環節。用戶直接在網上下單，農民將產品送到中轉站集中包裝，Farmigo公司再將包裹送到社區配送點，顧客從那裏取走包裹。這一切都在48小時之內完成。

“We don’t have a retail store,” Benzi explains. “We get rid of all of that. We source just in time.” That means there’s no waste and produce is brought directly from harvest.

羅內恩解釋道：“我們沒有零售店，我們完全去除了零售環節，但依然能夠及時供貨。”這意味着中間沒有冗餘環節，農產品直接從莊稼地運送至顧客那裏。

Other sellers, such as Fresh Direct, also cut out the physical store. But Ronen argues that they’re just an extension of the supermarket model, with similar warehouses that keep a huge inventory on hand. By contrast, Farmigo’s hubs are filled exclusively with product that’s just been delivered by farmers and is going out for delivery.

Fresh Direct等其他零售商也取消了實體店。但羅內恩認爲他們不過是超市模式的某種延伸，這類零售商依然跟超市一樣，擁有儲備大量存貨的倉庫。相反，Farmigo的中轉站只有由農民送來，即將送去顧客那裏的農產品。

“Our entire food system is based on economies of scale,” he explains, adding that it has contributed to the hub-and-spoke distribution model in which food travels hundreds of miles and can sit on shelves for weeks. “You don’t get fresh in supermarkets, and you also have waste,” he says.

他解釋道：“我們的整個食品供應系統是以規模效益爲基礎的。”他補充說，這是對中心軸輻式配送模式的一種改良，在這種模式下，食品往往被運送幾百英里，經常在貨架上停留好幾周。他表示：“超市裏的產品不夠新鮮，而且容易造成浪費。”

If Ronen’s vision for the future becomes a reality, in 10 years you’ll get all of your non-perishables from the likes of Amazon, while a service like Farmigo will answer all of your fresh needs. Neighborhood stores will act as gap-fillers for last-minute purchases. Farmigo, he notes, will never be a gap-filler. Currently orders must be placed by Sunday night for pick-up on Wednesday, but Ronen says the company is on track to soon expand to multiple pick-up days.

如果羅內恩的願景變成現實，不出十年，你將從亞馬遜（Amazon）等網站購買所有不易損害的物品，而Farmigo這類服務商會滿足你所有的生鮮產品需求，社區商店則會成爲需要緊急購買商品時的備選方案。羅內恩認爲，Farmigo絕不會成爲備選方案。目前，如果客戶想在週三取貨，他或她最晚要在週日晚下訂單，但羅內恩表示該公司很快就將增加取貨天數。

It’s a highly audacious vision for a small upstart, especially in a world where consumers are accustomed to eating strawberries and tomatoes no matter the season, enjoy clementines flown in from Morocco and sea bass from Chile, and want purchases delivered to their doorstep within 24-hour hours.

對一個小型初創公司而言，這是一個十分大膽的願望，尤其是現在的顧客已經習慣於隨時享用草莓或番茄而不必考慮季節，習慣於品嚐空運自摩洛哥的克萊門氏小柑橘和智利的黑鱸，同時還希望他們購買的產品能在下單後24小時內送到家門口。

Right now Brooklyn-based Farmigo operates just in New York City and its environs and the San Francisco Bay Area, markets picked for their divergent agricultural offerings–one strongly shaped by the seasons, the other with stellar food options year round. If Farmigo can operate in these two regions, Ronen thinks the company will be able to replicate the model and build a network of farmers across the country.

目前這家位於布魯克林的公司只對紐約市和周邊地區，以及舊金山灣區提供服務。他們會提供不同的農產品——一部分是與季節有關的時令產品，另一些則是全年都有的主食。羅內恩認爲，如果Farmigo可以在這兩個地區運作下去，該公司就能複製這一模式，建立一個覆蓋全美的農戶網絡。

Farmigo could eventually reach about 20%-30% of the U.S. population based on people’s buying habits and guidelines, Ronen says, adding that community-supported agriculture programs (CSAs) currently reach less than 1%. Unlike CSAs, in which users must commit to weekly deliveries for a season from one farm, Farmigo lets customers place a one-time order and change selections every week. You pay as you go. Ronen views CSAs as supplementary to other grocery shopping. He envisions Farmigo as a replacement for all fresh needs.

羅內恩表示，根據人們的購買習慣和購買方針來看，Farmigo最終可能會向20%至30%的美國人提供服務，而目前只有不到1%的美國人蔘與了“社區支持農業項目”（CSA）。參加CSA項目的顧客必須承諾在一個季度之內，每週都從某個農場訂購農產品。相比之下，Farmigo的顧客可以只發出一次性訂單，也可以每週選擇不同的農產品，根據訂單的變化隨時調整付款金額。羅內恩認爲，CSA項目是對家門口小超市購物的補充，而Farmigo則是滿足所有生鮮食品需求的取代者。

Farmigo’s average order size is up to $38 from $15 a year and a half ago, in large part because the startup keeps adding new products (such as fish, and soon, fresh pasta). There’s now enough variety that one could live solely on Farmigo’s offerings. One of Ronen’s employees has been doing just that for months at a cost of about $5 a meal, and Ronen just signed on for what is internally called the “Farmigo Challenge.”

Farmigo的訂單均價從一年半前的15美元漲到了現在的38美元，很大原因是這家初創公司在不斷增加新品（比如魚類，很快還會有新鮮的意大利麪條上市）。如今他們提供的種類已經足夠多，人們單單靠Farmigo的供應就能滿足日常需求。羅內恩的一名員工就這樣做了幾個月，平均一餐大約花費5美元。而羅內恩也開始加入這一行動，他們內部把這叫做“Farmigo挑戰”。

Ronen acknowledges that the pricing is still prohibitive for some—an organic cantaloupe costs $6.50—but the more he can improve the efficiencies for the farmer by increasing their business, the better the price tag for the customer.

羅內恩承認，某些產品的價格仍然過高，比如，一個有機哈密瓜的售價高達6.5美元。不過，隨着農民的生產效率因生意規模的擴大而不斷改善，農產品售價將變得越來越實惠。

Farmigo started out as the maker of software for an online marketplace where consumers could find and sign up for CSAs. But Ronen says it was a confusing user experience because the sign-up and payment system differed for each offering. Farmigo then evolved into a place where users could order online from any farm, and the farmer would deliver to a pick-up location. That had its challenges because sometimes farmers would run into logistical hiccups and miss the drop-off. “We realized we really needed to get into operational side,” Ronen says.

創立伊始，Farmigo公司的主要業務是爲一家電商編寫軟件，以幫助顧客尋找和參加CSA項目。但羅內恩表示，當時的購買體驗讓不少用戶抓狂，因爲各個農產品供應商採用完全不同的下單和支付系統。Farmigo隨後演變成了一家網站，用戶可以在上面訂購任何農場的產品，農民則將貨物寄到配送點。這種流程存在一些運營挑戰，因爲農民的物流有時候會出問題，導致貨物丟失。羅內恩表示：“我們意識到我們真的需要自己親自來運作。”

While the company continues to sell its CSA software, it also now has free offerings that help its farms know when to hire, its warehouses know what to pack, and its drivers know what to deliver. Ronen says that its farmers walk away with 60-70% of the sale, the community organizer who runs the drop-off gets 10%, and Farmigo gets the rest. Normally a farmer gets about 30% of the sale when they sell to wholesale, with about 50% going to the retailer. Another advantage advantage for farmers in the Farmigo system, according to Ronen: They’re also paid immediately directly by the consumer, rather than the standard 30-60 days.

這家公司仍然在銷售CSA軟件，同時也提供了免費服務，讓農場知道什麼時候需要僱傭更多人手，讓倉庫知道要打包什麼貨物，讓司機知道要運送什麼包裹。羅內恩表示，農民會獲得銷售額的60%至70%，社區取貨點會獲得銷售額的10%，剩下的則由Farmigo收入囊中。一般來說，農民在賣給批發市場時，只能獲得30%的銷售額，而有50%的銷售額會進入零售商的口袋。根據羅內恩的說法，Farmigo系統對農民還有另一個好處：他們能立刻收到顧客的付款，而在其他模式下，農民通常得等上30至60天才能拿到錢。

The Fresh Directs and Amazons need the density of cities to function, but Ronen believes his model works well in the suburbs where pick-up locations–churches, schools, golf clubs–are easy to come by. Farmigo recently expanded into northern New Jersey and Westchester and is adding about 30 drop-off sites a month.

Fresh Directs和亞馬遜在人口密集的城市地區才能如魚得水，但羅內恩相信他的模式在郊區也能運轉良好，諸如教堂、學校、高爾夫俱樂部這樣的取貨點也很容易找到。Farmigo最近把業務範圍擴張到了新澤西州北部和韋斯切斯特地區，並以每月30個的速度增加社區配送點。

He views Farmigo as the virtualization of a food cooperative and a good solution for locations where it might be hard to justify a supermarket. “We’re not just sending food out there and hoping people are going to buy it,” he says. “We’re sending out what was pre-ordered and pre-purchased. The pickup is at one location so it’s very portable and cost effective to do delivery.”

羅內恩將Farmigo視爲虛擬化的食品合作社，對那些很難找到超市的地區來說，它會是一個很好的選擇。他表示：“我們不是把食品送到那裏，然後指望大家去購買。我們配送的是已經被預定和購買的產品。取貨點也處於一個便利位置，因此送貨非常方便，效率很高。”