Farm-to-home grocery delivery booming

OAKLAND, Calif. - During the pandemic a lot more of us are relying on grocery delivery services. Many of them are seeing a surge in customers, including Bay Area-based company Good Eggs. 

Their business model offers fresh produce and meats direct from local farmers and ranchers. 

"Online grocery is certainly having its moment. We've been busy," said Good Eggs CEO Bentley Hall. "We have thousands of local producers and buying direct from them is a pretty uncommon way of buying food in the grocery industry. We care about buying local."

Hall said this business model is one way to ensure that Bay Area customers are getting a steady supply of fresh products. 

 Since the pandemic began stories have emerged of the struggles with the supply chain, issues with distribution, food being wasted, and even meat shortages. 

"We're hearing the same from our producers and friends in the restaurant industry. One of the things I love about Good Eggs in this moment, we are actually able to reach out to these suppliers who already have deep relationships and as their restaurant channels dry up, we've actually been able to fill that volume and buy more volume."

Hall said this is helping producers become more resilient during the pandemic. He adds that knowing where your food is coming from and that it's being handled less is important to customers right now with concerns over the novel coronavirus. 

"We do not have shoppers who go into a normal grocery store. We have fulfillment centers where these thousands of suppliers are dropping off every day," Hall said. 

The fulfillment center is built to pick orders from home delivery. Orders come in and often go out the same day or the next day. 

Good Eggs offers employees health insurance, benefits and paid sick leave. They've also grown with 400 new employees in the last 90 days. They are also taking steps to ensure employees are safe

"Since the beginning we've been focused on providing good full time jobs that pay a living wage and have benefits. We've layered on a ton of proactive health and safety policies to keep our teams safe," said Hall. 

In a recent comparison of food delivery companies, Good Eggs was the only one in the Bay Area to provide health insurance and benefits, sick leave for 14-plus days if you test positive for COVID-19, rigorous cleaning practices, provides personal protective equipment for every employee, and bonuses for people who are essential workers during the pandemic. 

"We were pretty early and pretty proactive about keeping our team safe," said Hall. 

The company has been keeping busy, doubling revenue every four to six weeks. Their new fulfillment center opened six days before shelter-in-place orders went into effect.

You can get grocery delivery next day on average, but if you wake up early enough you might make same-day delivery.