Company Profile: Grazin

by Madeleine Bell

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For years, Madison resident and Internet entrepreneur Timothy Flores bought his food directly from Wisconsin farms. While he loved the food, he always felt the purchasing process–printing PDFs, circling his purchases, writing checks and mailing in orders–was tedious.

Earlier this year, Flores partnered with software engineer Bruce Castro to create a better process. Considered by Flores as the “Etsy for Farmers,” Grazin is an online and mobile grocery ordering platform that allows users to purchase food directly from a local source.

“We live in Wisconsin, the best farming state in the United States,” Flores said. “There’s absolutely no reason we should be eating produce from California or meats from Nebraska.”

Ordering groceries on Grazin is similar to ordering a book on Amazon. The Grazin platform shows a list of meat, produce, oils and dairy from local farms. The user places an order on Grazin.org or the Grazin app and a few days later, picks up the fresh food at the local Grazin Hub located at SuperCharge! Foods, 1902 E. Washington Ave.

“(Grazin) is the experience of the farmers’ market combined with the convenience of your smartphone,” Flores said.

Farmers that work with Grazin set their own prices for their products. In general, Grazin’s offerings are priced in line with typical grocery stores. The company earns a 10 percent commission on each sale to help cover software development, servers, payment processing and marketing expenses.

“Grazin doesn’t set any prices,” Flores said. “Just like a farmers’ market, we want to leave the farmers firmly in control.”

Grazin launched exclusively in Madison on June 30 but will slowly add more pick-up hubs in suburban neighborhoods such as Middleton and Verona by the end of the year.

Grazin currently has five farmers on board and is in the process of signing “dozens” more over the course of 2016, according to Flores, adding that he and the Grazin team hope to become the third leg of the local food ecosystem alongside CSAs and farmers’ markets.