Apr 6, 2025 4 min read Monthly Updates

March 2025 Update

Notes from our opening month

“Whew!” is the best way to describe the 3 weeks since Radius opened on March 12th. There have been highs and lows, amazingly satisfying days and energetically draining days, many lessons learned, and a slew of improvements. Overall it has been truly fulfilling to open Radius and serve the community.

For this monthly update we’ll share a few announcements and highlight some improvements we've made since opening.

Announcements

Three important upcoming events:

Spring holiday pre-orders are now open. Get your holiday ham, lamb, and brisket from a local farm sourced by Radius. We have grass-fed and -finished wagyu beef briskets from Peeler Farms, pastured pork hams from Pure Pastures, Yonder Way, and Elder Hill, and grass-fed and -finished lamb legs and rack of lamb from Pure Pastures and Capra. Visit the order page and select a pick-up window between April 10 and April 20 to see the full menu. Pick-ups will be at Radius at 1912 E 7th St. If you have any order requests or questions, reach out to us at support@eatradius.com.
Radius will be closed on Monday, April 14th. We’re taking the day for staff training to implement learnings from the past few weeks.
Nominate Radius for best neighborhood grocery in Austin Chronicle’s Best Of series. Nominate here by April 7th at 11:59pm. Register with your email and nominate Radius — it's quick!

Better every day

Our employee manta is “better every day”. Our mission is to build the best grocery store in America and be a role model for what the American food system can be — local, nutrient dense, clean, and flavorful. We know it will take time to reach that vision; it will take hundreds of days of getting better every day.

With our customers’ help and honest feedback, here are a few notable improvements we've made since opening:

Layout: The layout flow of the store worked really well at opening with one big exception. Our bread rack created a huge bottleneck when it was across from the seafood case. So we moved bread products to be between the meat case and dairy case, which fixed the bottleneck and fits the flow much better. Now buns are across from sausages and burgers, and bread is across from cheese and butter. Makes a lot more sense!
Product assortment: Along with layout changes, we’ve removed and added a few products too:
- Seed oils: Two products with seed oils got onto the shelves by accident (sneaky, sneaky licorice…). The online ingredient list was out of date when we ordered the products and we quickly noticed it once we saw the products in person. They’re now removed from the shelves. Always vigilant to keep Radius seed oil free.
- Yoghurts: All of our yoghurt was delayed for the opening week. Now we have great options from Lira Rossa, Culina, and Lucky Layla always on the shelves.
- Gluten-Free Bread: We now have local favorite It’s All Good in the freezer, and we’re exploring other options too like PACHA.
- In-House Products: Our selection of in-house products changes every day. We always have consistent options like chicken salad, broths, and meat sauce. And we rotate in daily specials like shrimp tom ka soup and sausage gravy. These ready-to-eat products are great for lunch or an easy dinner any night.
- More revisions to come: A broader tea selection, more spice mixes and single origin spice options, alternative grains, charcoal, and a bunch more. Our assortment is always evolving. If there are products you love that you want us to carry, reach out to hi@eatradius.com!
Pricing: We made two categories of pricing adjustments:
- Lowered the price of non-perishables that can be found at other grocery stores (Siete, Primal Kitchen, Rambler, etc). Our wholesale costs are higher than Amazon Whole Foods (or equivalent, using Whole Foods for simplicity), so we needed to bring down our margin targets to be competitive. Our pricing is still a bit higher than Amazon Whole Foods, but we try to keep our prices within $1 - $1.50 of their prices.
- Raised the price of premium meat cuts. As Joe likes to say, ranchers raise cattle, not ribeyes. There is more demand than supply for premium cuts like ribeyes, filet mignon, and chicken breasts. So we raised prices to align demand and supply, encourage other cuts for whole animal utilization, and subsidize the prices elsewhere in the store. When folks buy ribeyes at higher prices, it allows us to keep prices lower for chicken soup, ground beef, tortillas, and other “everyday” items. Ribeyes and filet mignon effectively subsidize prices for the rest of the store.

Thank you for all the support during month one, and a sincere thank you to folks who have shared feedback. We’re always open to suggestions; reach out anytime to hi@eatradius.com to help us get better every day.