The Radius Vision

Radius is a farm-to-table butcher and grocery coming soon to 1912 East 7th St in Austin, TX. Radius combines the abundance of a local farmer’s market with the everyday convenience of a grocery store. We will have everything you need to cook seasonal homemade meals — local, pastured meat along with local, organic produce, grains, eggs, cheeses, and wild-caught Gulf seafood. No more, no less. No towering center aisles of processed foods, no endless options in every subcategory. Just a curated selection of the most delicious and nutritious local food.

Designed for health enthusiasts, foodies, and environmentalists, Radius is the grocery store we wish we could go to. We want to walk into the store and know that all products are of the highest integrity and good for the body. We want a small store with fresh products, not a massive warehouse of commodity non-perishables. We want our meat pastured, grains ancient, and produce glyphosate-free. Is that so much to ask? 

We don’t think it is too much to ask, but we know how much work it takes to find the best quality farms and products. We do that work for you. We prioritize sourcing from farms that strive towards regenerative practices — holistic soil care, pastured livestock, low or no till fields, cover crops, compost fertilizer, crop rotations, water management, and an overall appreciation for the interconnected ecosystem of soil health, water, livestock, and plants. 

Eating local, seasonal meat and produce is better for our health, farmers, and the environment. When produce is flown or trucked thousands of miles, they lose nutritional value. Even worse, many fruit and vegetable varieties are grown because they can be transported long distances, not because they’re nutritious or taste good. Reducing the value chain to a local radius leads to more nutritious and delicious food, higher payments to local farmers, and lower carbon emissions. 

Cooking with only local ingredients has a learning curve though, so Radius will publish monthly recipes tailored to the in-season meat and produce. Shoppers can use the recipe list or come up with their own creative meals. Seasonal cooking is creative cooking — it’s more fun to only use broccoli when it’s in season in the winter and spring in Texas, because summer brings peaches, peas, peppers, and much more.  

The only exception to Radius’s local sourcing rule is select sauces, spices, dry goods, and canned goods. These extras can elevate home cooking with minimal effort. These products will of course go through the same rigorous vetting as all other products in the store. No seed oils in these sauces!

Finally, it is important to us that Radius does not preach any diet dogma. Whether you follow vegan, carnivore, paleo, keto, plant-based, or any other diet variation, you are welcome here and you will find great products for you. We are committed to finding the best version of the foods you love, not telling you what foods to love. Every body is different. Do what is right for you.

FAQ

Why is now the time for Radius?

• Grocery stores haven’t changed much since the Internet, even though shopping patterns have. Consumers today shop different. They buy bulk and weekly staples online. They go to farmers markets. They care about where their food comes from; they care about regenerative practices and nutrition. A modern grocery store should be designed for these patterns — no hulking center aisles of non-perishables, just a small footprint of local meat, fish, grains, produce, and dairy. 75% of a big grocery store's floor plan is unnecessary if your family orders its bulk non-perishable supplies online. That’s just wasted space that spirals a 10 minute pickup of fresh ingredients for dinner into a 35 minute ordeal of parking, walking the 30,000 square foot floor, waiting in line, and finally checking out. All without much genuine human interaction.
• Farmer’s markets educate Americans about the benefits of buying local, but they don’t have the right customer experience to really succeed. Americans buy under 0.1% of their groceries at farmer’s markets. Why? (1) They aren’t convenient enough. Usually open one or two days a week and closed by 2pm, they don’t match shopping patterns to shop and cook in the same day. (2) There’s a learning curve to cooking with only local, seasonal ingredients. Radius solves both of these problems — it is effectively a convenient daily farmer’s market that educates shoppers on how to cook seasonally. 

How will the store be laid out? What is the shopper flow?

• Walk in and see the monthly recipes for inspiration. 
• Browse the in-season produce. Smell it, touch it, sense it. Pick a fragrant vegetable or fruit to plan a meal around.
• Go up to the butcher counter and design a seasonal meal together. Get advice on cuts, vegetables, and preparation. Human conversation and collaboration!
• Select a meat or seafood item, pick out your vegetables and grains, optionally choose a sauce. 
• Pay at self-checkout and leave. 
• Customers can shop in 15 minutes and have genuine interactions with Radius employees to learn about how to cook with local products. It’s personal, not industrial. 

Who is the Radius audience?

Anyone else who cares about health, delicious food, local communities, and the environment! Some specific examples:

• Health and fitness enthusiasts who care about exercise, diet, and an overall healthy lifestyle. If you have cold plunged in the last week, this is you! These folks are at local gyms (Squatch, Functional Patterns, Onnit, Kollective, etc), fitness studios (Sukha Yoga, Ritual Moves Pilates, etc), and wellness centers (Kuya, Ocean Lab, etc).
• Foodies who care about discovering and enjoying the best food in Austin, and particularly care about farm-to-table sourcing. You will find these folks at places like Dai Due, Odd Duck, Olamie, Emmer & Rye, Antonelli’s.
• Localists / Decentralists / Environmentalists who care about supporting local ecosystems. This is an interesting mix of people. It’s crypto enthusiasts, hunters, farmers, environmental advocates. You will find these folks at crypto events, wild game processors, farmer’s markets, and more.

What is the long-term vision and steps to get there?

• Vision: Heal the American food ecosystem by building the next great regional grocery chain that only sources local products. Steps to get there:
  1. Launch one successful Radius location in Austin.
  2. Run four Austin locations with a central commissary, serve 10k Austinites weekly. 
  3. Expand in the greater Austin metro area. Run 10 locations, serve 50k Austinites weekly (20k weekly customers * 2.6 average family size). 
• If Radius works, other dreams it makes possible:
  1. Run an experimental farm that breeds and raises heirloom meat and produce attuned to the Texas climate, similar to Stone Barns. Partner with local farmers to raise the best acclimated varieties. 
  2. Explore further vertical integration (slaughterhouse, farm leasing).
  3. Scale through educational content, not more physical stores. Radius will always only be a regional Austin business, but we would love to help other farm-to-market grocery stores open in different geographies.

Grocery stores are notoriously difficult businesses. Will the Radius business model work?

Read more about our hypotheses and business math.

About the team 

• Kevin (Founder): I’m new to the food business, but I’m not new to business. Over eight years and various product, marketing, and operations executive roles, I helped build a cloud software company from 4 to 2400 employees, zero revenue to $400M+, and a $10B+ IPO. I had a successful software career, but I'm disillusioned by the increasingly abstract world of software and virtual connection. I want to use my business expertise to encourage local, material living, and I believe that starts with a local, nourishing food ecosystem. I believe good food can be medicine if it is grown and eaten locally. Food can heal our bodies, the environment, and the local community fabric. 
• Joe (Head Butcher): San Antonian and graduate of both CIA San Antonio and Hyde Park. I moved back to Texas after 9 years working in New York City’s restaurant and fine food retail industry. From line cook to cheese wrapper to butcher to general manager, I contributed to A Voce Madison, Marlow & Daughters, Bedford Cheese Shop, and The Meat Hook. I'm excited to bring my passion for righteous farming and craft butchery back home and pursue my dream to open a whole-animal butcher shop.