Fresh analysis reveals Farm Stops are poised to shake up local U.S. food economy

NEW YORK — Farm Stops – a fast-growing retail concept giving local farmers a daily sales channel to sell their produce – could soon become one of the most transformative models in America’s food landscape.

Although a relatively new sensation, with fewer than three dozen currently located throughout the United States, early performance data suggests Farm Stops have the potential for rapid growth and expansion.

Today, Farm Stops can be found in major metropolitan areas, such as the northern New Jersey suburbs, college towns like Ann Arbor, Michigan and Bloomington, Indiana, and smaller communities such as Wooster, Ohio and Lander, Wyoming.

As the interest grows, new insight from location intelligence software provider, Kalibrate, gives a first look at how Farm Stops are performing, who makes up their consumer base, and what factors are priming them for success.

From Farm to Table – What Is a Farm Stop?

In essence, Farm Stops enable local farmers to drop off their produce and other agricultural products before they are sold directly to consumers.

These stores remove the need for time-consuming local markets that require farmers to be physically present – therefore eating into the time spent on their farms.

Farm Stops also eradicate the small window of opportunity afforded by farmers’ markets, which are often only open one or two days a week – and they instead provide a daily sales channel, seven days a week.

The retail model itself also offers a more favorable revenue split, celebrating the hard work of local farmers, by returning 50-75% of the product’s sale price. This is a significantly higher figure than the standard proportion provided by supermarket chains, according to Kalibrate.

More Than a Neighborhood Convenience

Using available insights from cell phone location data, Kalibrate has been able to determine how far people travel to visit and support Farm Stops, and what types of consumers are attracted to the venues.

The data revealed Farm Stops draw from a large geographic area – where trade areas extend an impressive 20-25 miles to capture 70% of visitors.

This suggests Farm Stops are much more destination-oriented for the consumer than most supermarkets – and they are not just a neighborhood convenience.

And, while the data showed Farm Stops had a broad overall reach, stores in college towns had an above-average pull among:

Well-educated shoppers, particularly those with doctorates and professional degrees
18–24-year-olds, who are likely undergraduate and graduate students

This reveals there is a strong demand for fresh, local food options across a key demographic – indicative of a successful retail model which has the potential to grow and expand.

What Makes a Farm Stop Successful?

To find out what makes a Farm Stop successful, Kalibrate highlighted a series of factors which contributed to a thriving venue.

Overall, successful Farm Stops were located near:

Farmers markets, food co-ops and Whole Foods Market stores – signaling local demand for organic and locally-sourced products.
A high concentration of small vegetable farms to supply the produce.

In fact, Kalibrate evaluated three Farm Stops and found that 85% of product sales came from farms within a 40-mile radius – revealing how Farm Stops are woven into the local agricultural network.

A New Chapter for the Local Food Economy

Overall, Kalibrate’s analysis marks one of the first attempts to quantify the potential of Farm Stops – and their strong early performance shows the concept stands out as a promising new force in the US food retail landscape.

To help prospective operators evaluate new opportunities for Farm Stops, Kalibrate combined several factors with existing data to create a first-pass model, which can gauge the success of supply and demand in a specific area.

The model includes factors like: