Athens
Locally
Grown
Eric Wagoner

locallygrown.net
• A new type of direct
marketing
• Not exactly a farmers
market
• Not exactly a CSA
• Not exactly a buying
club

Our Beginnings
• Athens, GA
• Spring 2002
• 6 growers
• Handful of wholesale
& retail customers

The Original Idea
• Pool our produce
• Single point of sale
• Focus on chefs

It Didn’t Work
• Athens too
inexpensive
• Farms too small

Change of Focus
• Small sales to
individuals
• A “secondary”
farmers market

Accidental
Discoveries
• Easier
• Less risky
• Customer preferred

Farmers Market
Problems (Grower)
• Grueling work
• Speculative
• High barrier to entry

Farmers Market
Problems (Customer)
• Must arrive early
• Must buy quickly
• Not convenient

CSA Problems
(Grower)
• Daunting planning
• Not very flexible

CSA Problems
(Customer)
• Inflexible
• Limited choice
• Too much kale

Buying Club
Problems
• Hard to organize
• Local options limited

We
Seemed
to Solve
Those
Problems

Athens Locally
Grown Now
• 60 Growers
• 1500 Customers
• $10K Weekly Sales

I Wrote
Software
So The
Market
Runs
Itself

The Mechanics
(Growers)
• Create an account
• Describe the “farm”
• List products
• Harvest orders
• Drop off packaged
orders
• Profit!

The Mechanics
(Customers)
• Create an account
• Place orders
• Pick up and pay for
orders
• Repeat as desired

The Mechanics
(The Market)
• Growers list Friday
through Sunday
• Customers order
Monday & Tuesday
• Growers harvest
Wednesday
• Drop off & pick up
Thursday

The Idea’s Spreading
• 30 markets
processing orders
• 10 more getting
started
• All using
locallygrown.net

Easy
• No nerds required
• Start a market in 15
minutes
• For growers large and
small
• Customers catch on
quickly

Flexible
• Have one farm or many
• Charge memberships or
not
• Take pre-payments or not
• Have one pickup location
or many
• And so on

Inexpensive
• No up-front costs
• 3% of sales
• Pay as you go
• Cheaper than DIY

www.locallygrown.net
All photos from growers at athens.locallygrown.net