Why You Soon May Find 40 Pounds of Meat on Your Doorstep
NEW YORK (MainStreet)--Celena Oliver, a 38-year-old Maricopa, Ariz. resident, was tired of the commute back and forth to the grocery store, of pushing around a heavy cart and lugging the haul into her trunk. So for the first time in September of 2011, she did something she never thought imaginable: together with friends on her block, she placed a 40-pound chicken breast order from Zaycon Foods, a company turning bulk grocery shopping with neighbors into a hot new trend.
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Though neighbors proverbially lend each other sugar or a couple eggs, it's more surprising to see families living next door to each other going in on more substantial groceries together.
But that's just what's happening with Oliver and others all over the country who are choosing to use the scaling advantage of Zaycon to get groceries on the cheap. Call it the co-op trend with a front porch twist.
Since its establishment during the peak of the Great Recession in 2009, the Spokane, Wash. based delivery service has prided itself on providing large quantities of fresh meat, fish and vegetables to its customers at wholesale prices.
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Get The Skinny on Zaycon
Clients can place orders online in bulk sizes as large as 20 or 40 pounds, but co-founder Mike Conrad told MainStreet that people have been creative in finding ways to make this work for them, either by sharing with a neighbor or storing the extra meat for themselves.
"Single people, they'll buy 40 pounds of chicken and they'll split it up," Conrad said. " Interestingly enough, they'll buy it and then realize that 40 pounds is not very muchyou go through it pretty quick," said Conrad.
Plus the model saves money and time. A recent HelloFresh survey reported that 52% of Americans spend more than two hours a week at the grocery store and that one in three Americans overspend by at least $50 a week--$2,600 annually.
By focusing on the staples and cutting out the impulse buys and brand name temptations, customers can satisfy their hunger for savings.
Expanding Bottom Line
The company has expanded steadily since brothers Mike and J.C. Conrad founded it just shy of four years ago, with growth rates reaching 1000% each year until 2013. In 2011, there was so much demand that the company began to deliver nationwide and now serves 48 states.
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This revolutionary method of bringing the grocery store home allows people to stockpile home nutritional staples.
"I think that people like to stock up," said Mike Conrad. "They like to have a freezer full of chicken; they like to have a freezer full of ground beef. There's less trips to the grocery store. Enough of the population likes doing this that we kind of hit a chord."
Beef with Prices
A few recent market trends also offer explanations as to why buying fresh, inexpensive meat in bulk has been such a success. The first was an increase in meat sales during the recession.
Around the time that Zaycon was founded, many people were fighting to find ways to cut back on spending in the throes of the Great Recession. According to Mintel, a popular way to save was shown by the revival of home-cooking, which drove red meat and poultry sales way up.
"Although the economy has made some gains in 2012, economic conditions remain depressed and many consumers continue to operate on limited household budgets that preclude spending on dining out," said a Mintel report. "Poultry manufacturers have answered the demand for more home cooking options.... for easy cooking to facilitate consumers' busy schedules."
This trend is projected to continue, as the USDA expects poultry consumption to rise 8.8% between 2012 and 2020 and red meat consumption to rise another 3.8%. Mintel expects this increase to drive sales significantly in the coming years.
In addition to a large demand for meat, a second trend that offers insight as to why Zaycon has had such success is an increased desire for fresh products.
Mintel noted that consumers prefer fresh meat over frozen products "by wide margins," a theme that "brands and retailers have emphasized in their marketing campaigns, offering not only fresh products but also a variety of value-added products" as well.
One taboo that commonly arises for consumers looking to be health conscious is that healthy foods are often times more expensive, making them less cost effective in a time when cost is increasingly significant.
Mintel's November 2011 market report "Natural and Organic Food and Beverage" highlighted the fact that natural sales growth from 2009-2011 (23%) was higher than organic sales during this time period, and part of that is due to premium cost levied on organic products.
Zaycon offers fresh and natural foods that health nuts are craving at a cost that consumers in this troubled economy can afford.
While these trends help explain why Zaycon Foods has fit the needs of the market so well, perhaps the most interesting and attractive aspect of the company is buying your products in bulk, and finding creative wayslike splitting costs with your neighborsto make this system work for you.
In an article on Frugally Sustainably entitled "Buying in Bulk: A Beginner's Guide," site founder Andrea Muse estimates that purchasing groceries in bulk can save you up to 50% on your grocery bill. And she suggests finding other people to invest in a share with you to split both the costs and the bountyexactly what neighbors splitting orders from Zaycon are already doing.
"Buying the right items in bulk at the grocery store, local health food store and co-op, or directly from the farmer can be a great way to slash your monthly grocery bill and save a small fortune," said Muse.
--Written by Sarah Lindner for MainStreet