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City company aims to make life easier on consumer

City company aims to make life easier on consumer

Credit: Daily Progress correspondent

Clarence Green packages food for Relay.


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A Charlottesville company created to make life easier on the consumer is hoping to take its concept national.

Relay, a business that allows people to shop for local products from more than 50 vendors and then pick up everything in one location, has expanded to Richmond already. The firm now is making final plans to expand to Northern Virginia and North Carolina, said Relay founder and CEO Zach Buckner.

“Relay is all about teaching people a new way to shop,” Buckner said. “We bring consumers and great local companies together. It’s a great way for people to get great local food and save time running from one place to the other.”

The company started in 2008 with just one truck and a plan to become a one-stop destination for people to find a variety of local foods. In just three years, it’s expanded to two cities and eight trucks.

Although Buckner declined to provide details of revenue, he said the company has doubled business every few months since it started and the customer list has quadrupled each year.

“When we started this business, we looked at what others had done and many of them failed,” Buckner said. “We stood on the shoulders of those first-generation attempts and have fortunately been successful.”

Customers can go online and order more than 16,000 items from 50 local and regional businesses and farms. Orders made before midnight are ready for pick-up or home delivery the next afternoon.

Company employees collect groceries from the vendors each morning, sort out the different customer packages and get them out for pick-up by 3 p.m. each weekday.

The pick-up service is free because Relay partners with the businesses and makes its money from buying the items at a wholesale price, Buckner said.

“The customer pays the same thing for grocery through Relay as they would at the stores,” Buckner said. “There is no additional cost for our pick-up service.”

Relay also offers home delivery inside Charlottesville, but it’s only a small part of their business. Most costumers pick up their groceries at various checkpoints around the city.

Matt Rohdie, owner of Carpe Donut in Charlottesville, first learned about Relay last year. It was a service he thought would be beneficial but costly.

But one online shopping trip later and he was hooked.

“I’m an entrepreneur and time is money,” Rohdie said. “Now I can shop online and spend more time working on my business because I’m not running from one store to the next. It means I’m in the grocery store a lot less.”

Relay has also come to benefit Rohdie in another way because it has offered to carry his organic doughnuts on its website. The move has introduced Rohdie’s doughnuts to folks outside of Charlottesville.

“They’ve actually started buying [doughnuts] at bulk because they’re moving them so fast,” Rohdie said. “They’ve become one of my best wholesale customers.”

Helping the small business owner is an added benefit to Buckner, but one that has given him and his staff more incentive to grow. He envisions moving into multiple markets and pairing up with small business owners to offer their products to a larger audience in a timely manner.

“We really believe that our concept can compete with the big box stores,” Buckner said. “We give our customers something the big box stores can’t offer and we’re always trying to do it better.”

Relay doesn’t have a target demographic and Buckner said the service is great for anyone who has a computer, a credit card and a need to make life easier. He credits the entrepreneurial mindset in Charlottesville for helping make the company successful.

“All of our growth has been word of mouth because we haven’t done a lot of advertising,” Buckner said. “We’ve grown a lot and we have the people of Charlottesville to thank for that.”

After a successful launch in Richmond last year, company officials hope one day to offer company-operated services across the country, Buckner said.

“Anywhere there is a city there are people frustrated with all they have to do and little time to do it,” Buckner said. “Relay provides a service that makes it easier on our customers and there is a market for that everywhere.”

For more information about Relay, go to www.relayfoods.com.

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View More: Business_Finance, Ceo, Charlottesville, Entrepreneur, Local Food, Matt Rohdie, North Carolina, Zach Buckner
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