Winter Fancy Food Show Booth 419
Winter Fancy Food Show Booth 436
on a private label. This practice is outra-
geous, and unfair to small businesses.
Do you do A/B testing?
No. We see ourselves as a national farm-
ers market. There's certain criteria to put-
ting products up on [the site]—natural,
specialty, organic food so we're not putting
processed garbage up there—but the idea is
to let the marketplace decide. We don't want
to create barriers for the individual makers.
Let the market decide. Let people decide.
Why should I be the decider?
Is there any warehousing of
product, and are shipping costs
absorbed by the vendors?
We currently do all drop-shipping, but one
thing we're going to be adding over the next
six months is the ability to consign inventory.
We pay for all the shipping. It's very simple.
[Vendors] go into the back end of Direct
Eats' site, print out [a] mailing label, put the
stuff in a box, put the label on the box and
send it out. We take care of everything.
How do you compete with
Amazon? They're pushing hard
in the grocery sector.
Amazon is heavy on regular groceries more
than specialty. They're having a tough time
rolling it out—but they're trying to get that
going in a meaningful way. We have a better
selection, better pricing—you don't have to
be a member, and you can get it shipped to
your door for free. Direct Eats is an intuitive,
personalized experience. We help tell the
story of each individual maker. It allows the
consumer to realize the value they're getting
from those products.
So, are you aiming to become
the Amazon of specialty food?
Sure, why not?
Brandon Fox is the food and drink editor
of Style Weekly in Richmond, Virginia.
Her work has also appeared in The Local
Palate and The Washington Post.
FALL 2016 47
