Benzi Ronen thinks that the supermarkets’ time is up. And his company is just the thing to speed up its demise.
本齐·罗内恩认为超市的时代即将结束，而他的公司正是加速其消亡的催化剂。
“Our goal is to make the supermarket obsolete from a fresh perspective,” Ronen says.
罗内恩表示：“我们的目标是以生鲜为卖点，让超市变得过时。”
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年前创建的Farmigo公司现拥有30名员工。这家公司出售直接从农民处购买的农作物和牛奶、乳酪等产品，售价比杂货店的均价低10%到20%不等。其奥秘在于缩短了供应链，特别是去掉了中间环节。用户直接在网上下单，农民将产品送到中转站集中包装，Farmigo公司再将包裹送到社区配送点，顾客从那里取走包裹。这一切都在48小时之内完成。

“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.
罗内恩解释道：“我们没有零售店，我们完全去除了零售环节，但依然能够及时供货。”这意味着中间没有冗余环节，农产品直接从庄稼地运送至顾客那里。
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实体店。但罗内恩认为他们不过是超市模式的某种延伸，这类零售商依然跟超市一样，拥有储备大量存货的仓库。相反，Farmigo的中转站只有由农民送来，即将送去顾客那里的农产品。
“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.
他解释道：“我们的整个食品供应系统是以规模效益为基础的。”他补充说，这是对中心轴辐式配送模式的一种改良，在这种模式下，食品往往被运送几百英里，经常在货架上停留好几周。他表示：“超市里的产品不够新鲜，而且容易造成浪费。”
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.
如果罗内恩的愿景变成现实，不出十年，你将从亚马逊（Amazon）等网站购买所有不易损害的物品，而Farmigo这类服务商会满足你所有的生鲜产品需求，社区商店则会成为需要紧急购买商品时的备选方案。罗内恩认为，Farmigo绝不会成为备选方案。目前，如果客户想在周三取货，他或她最晚要在周日晚下订单，但罗内恩表示该公司很快就将增加取货天数。
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.
对一个小型初创公司而言，这是一个十分大胆的愿望，尤其是现在的顾客已经习惯于随时享用草莓或番茄而不必考虑季节，习惯于品尝空运自摩洛哥的克莱门氏小柑橘和智利的黑鲈，同时还希望他们购买的产品能在下单后24小时内送到家门口。
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.
目前这家位于布鲁克林的公司只对纽约市和周边地区，以及旧金山湾区提供服务。他们会提供不同的农产品——一部分是与季节有关的时令产品，另一些则是全年都有的主食。罗内恩认为，如果Farmigo可以在这两个地区运作下去，该公司就能复制这一模式，建立一个覆盖全美的农户网络。
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.
罗内恩表示，根据人们的购买习惯和购买方针来看，Farmigo最终可能会向20%至30%的美国人提供服务，而目前只有不到1%的美国人参与了“社区支持农业项目”（CSA）。参加CSA项目的顾客必须承诺在一个季度之内，每周都从某个农场订购农产品。相比之下，Farmigo的顾客可以只发出一次性订单，也可以每周选择不同的农产品，根据订单的变化随时调整付款金额。罗内恩认为，CSA项目是对家门口小超市购物的补充，而Farmigo则是满足所有生鲜食品需求的取代者。
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的订单均价从一年半前的15美元涨到了现在的38美元，很大原因是这家初创公司在不断增加新品（比如鱼类，很快还会有新鲜的意大利面条上市）。如今他们提供的种类已经足够多，人们单单靠Farmigo的供应就能满足日常需求。罗内恩的一名员工就这样做了几个月，平均一餐大约花费5美元。而罗内恩也开始加入这一行动，他们内部把这叫做“Farmigo挑战”。
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.
罗内恩承认，某些产品的价格仍然过高，比如，一个有机哈密瓜的售价高达6.5美元。不过，随着农民的生产效率因生意规模的扩大而不断改善，农产品售价将变得越来越实惠。
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.
创立伊始，Farmigo公司的主要业务是为一家电商编写软件，以帮助顾客寻找和参加CSA项目。但罗内恩表示，当时的购买体验让不少用户抓狂，因为各个农产品供应商采用完全不同的下单和支付系统。Farmigo随后演变成了一家网站，用户可以在上面订购任何农场的产品，农民则将货物寄到配送点。这种流程存在一些运营挑战，因为农民的物流有时候会出问题，导致货物丢失。罗内恩表示：“我们意识到我们真的需要自己亲自来运作。”
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.
这家公司仍然在销售CSA软件，同时也提供了免费服务，让农场知道什么时候需要雇佣更多人手，让仓库知道要打包什么货物，让司机知道要运送什么包裹。罗内恩表示，农民会获得销售额的60%至70%，社区取货点会获得销售额的10%，剩下的则由Farmigo收入囊中。一般来说，农民在卖给批发市场时，只能获得30%的销售额，而有50%的销售额会进入零售商的口袋。根据罗内恩的说法，Farmigo系统对农民还有另一个好处：他们能立刻收到顾客的付款，而在其他模式下，农民通常得等上30至60天才能拿到钱。
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和亚马逊在人口密集的城市地区才能如鱼得水，但罗内恩相信他的模式在郊区也能运转良好，诸如教堂、学校、高尔夫俱乐部这样的取货点也很容易找到。Farmigo最近把业务范围扩张到了新泽西州北部和韦斯切斯特地区，并以每月30个的速度增加社区配送点。
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.”
罗内恩将Farmigo视为虚拟化的食品合作社，对那些很难找到超市的地区来说，它会是一个很好的选择。他表示：“我们不是把食品送到那里，然后指望大家去购买。我们配送的是已经被预定和购买的产品。取货点也处于一个便利位置，因此送货非常方便，效率很高。”