Local Entrepreneurship: Web Grocery Basket (www.zoldsegkosar.hu)
Web Grocery Basket by Zoltán Rácz, Hungary
Web Grocery Basket by Zoltán Rácz, Hungary
This Szeged-based company sells vegetables and fruit. Every Wednesday, the company buys healthy and fresh vegetables and fruit from the same local farmers, who are committed to organic and ecological farming. Then, on Thursday, they sort them into boxes or baskets, which they deliver to five surrounding towns and the capital. The customers can pick up their baskets (which they have ordered online) at one of the delivery points, which can be a school, a yoga club or a private house. The Waldorf School in Szeged was one of the first delivery points, when the company was started three years ago.
The customers get a fix basket, in which there are 10 to 14 different types of seasonal vegetables and fruit, for example 1 kg of tomatoes, 1 kg of potatoes, some carrots, apples, or even honey or home-made jam. However, if you want something special, you only have to write an e-mail and you will get it.
A typical Web Grocery Basket customer is extremely conscious about healthy living. They do not want to cook from vegetables treated with chemicals. Secondly, they want to buy from small local farmers. Thirdly, they want to belong to a community and build civil society. In order to get this, and it is quite surprising, they do not mind that the products are not the cheapest ones or that they have to carry the basket home from the delivery point or that they cannot get it on Tuesday.
There are some similar initiatives in Europe, for example in Germany and France. When the company owner, a parent at the Waldorf School, read articles about them, he immediately decided to run a company like those.
When he started the company, he bought the products from his local farmer friends every week, but now the company also owns an organic farm where a lot of vegetables are grown. However, they keep buying from the increased network of farmers, as they get more and more orders. Therefore, the company is continuously extending.
This business was started only from a few euros, so if you would like to start something similar, you do not need a lot of money, just some friends to help you in the beginning.
VOCABULARY:
organic farming: Vegetable and livestock production using natural instead of using synthetic agrochemicals.
delivery: the job of taking things such as letters, parcels, or goods to a person or place
seasonal: happening or existing only at a particular time of the year
(to take) initiative: to be the first person to do something that solves a problem or improves a situation
civil society: "third sector" of society, different from government and business
to extend: to make something bigger or longer
network: a group of people who know each other or who work together
When he started the company, he bought the products from his local farmer friends every week, but now the company also owns an organic farm where a lot of vegetables are grown. However, they keep buying from the increased network of farmers, as they get more and more orders. Therefore, the company is continuously extending.
VOCABULARY:
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ReplyDeleteThis is a very good text! I didn't know what civil society was, but now I do. It is great that the business was started only with a few euros. Congratulations with your work!
ReplyDeleteThis idea is great, buying you're vegestables from the farmers is a great idea. Sorting them the day after is nice because the vegestables are still fresh. I think it's a good thing to sort it quick as possible. I like the work that you guys are doing keep it up!
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