Photo: Farmer’s Fridge CHICAGO — It has been a decade since Farmer’s Fridge stocked its first automated smart fridge in downtown Chicago. Today, more than 600 fridges across the country dispense the company’s chef-curated meals and snacks that are sold in clear, recyclable and reusable plastic jars. Farmer’s Fridge is the brainchild of Luke Saunders, chief executive officer, who quit his traveling sales job in pursuit of figuring out how “fresh food could be as accessible as a candy bar?” During the past 10 years, Mr. Saunders has made a lot of pivots, especially during the pandemic, as almost all the early refrigerator placements were in locations that closed, namely airports, office buildings and schools. One of the first pivots was into hospitals and first responders’ facilities. Home delivery was next, and, about at the same time, the company partnered with retailers for a grab-and-go shelf presence. Today Farmer’s Fridge is bridging the gap between fresh food and convenience by having distribution in such retailers as Target, Amazon Go, Walgreens, 7-Eleven and Jewel-Osco, as well as through Getir delivery. Recently the company stopped its home delivery business because “we had more volume we were moving through retail and fridges […]
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