We’ve all been there. You trekked all the way over the bridge from Cambridge to hit up Trader Joe’s for some groceries, and your roommate calls requesting you pick up a gallon of milk while you’re there—that should be fun to haul back in the snow. Or, you’re at Whole Foods and forget whether you have any eggs left, so you call your girlfriend but she isn’t answering the phone. MIT alum Sunny Long, who studied electrical engineering/computer science, became acutely aware of the hassles involved in urban grocery shopping during his senior year of school. He knew there had to be a way to optimize the process.
“It got me thinking that there are a lot of foodies in Boston who like to cook but don’t have an easy food delivery method,” he said.
After spending some time in Hong Kong, he decided to go back to the drawing board and approach the problem with a unique angle that distinguished his idea from services like Peapod or Instacart. What he came up with was Just Baguette: A delivery system combined with machine-learning based algorithms that can get to know customers’ preference and curate weekly personalized shopping lists for them. Long left his corporate job as a sales and trading analyst for Morgan Stanley to focus on this startup full-time this spring, and has since brought on six other MIT grads to the team. Ultimately, he hopes the service will save consumers time and energy.
“Our aim is to make the grocery shopping experience almost magical,” said Long.
For users, the first step is answering some basic questions to provide some sense of the quantity they’ll need each week. That means divulging how many people are in the household, and how many meals are typically cooked at home each week. Then, users are presented with a grid of foods in all different categories—from dairy products to different fish and fruit—and they can select the items they typically buy.
To boost the accuracy of Just Baguette’s services even further, users can upload receipts from previous grocery trips. This gives the system an even better idea of what their shopping habits are like. Finally, customers receive the curated list that Just Baguette will shop from, and can review it before it’s finalized. If they need to make a change, they can add or replace items from Just Baguette’s catalog with a simple swipe. After you are satisfied with your list, tap to approve. Once approved, the startup then works with local grocery stores to turn that list into a bag of groceries, which they’ll deliver.
"Our aim is to make the grocery shopping experience almost magical."
Long estimated that after a couple weeks—when the system has gotten to know a user’s preferences well enough—most users will only have to make one or two changes to the list. This is partly because even after the system draws up a list, a member of the Just Baguette team will themselves go through it to make sure it matches up with a user’s profile.
“Between the algorithms in place and the added element of human touch, it’s pretty accurate,” he added. “And so far, a lot of the feedback has been that people are surprised in a good way — they’ll say: ‘I didn’t think of putting oranges on my list, but it’s a great idea.’”
Just Baguette charges a subscription fee of $8 a month per household, which covers the weekly personalized grocery list and a weekly delivery. This cost is waived for your first month. And the startup promises item prices will be fair: “we don't like large markups.”
Plans for launch
Several weeks ago, Just Baguette launched a private alpha test with MIT and BU students participating, among others. They’re planning to make a push into a small area of Boston and Cambridge toward the end of this summer. While currently the startup—which is working out of MIT space—is bootstrapped, Long says they’re looking to raise a seed round this fall. Just Baguette works with Stop & Shop, H mart and Costco right now, but is aiming to expand to other stores, particularly Whole Foods, in a few weeks.
But the top priority right now, according to Long, is partnering up with local residences. For example, Just Baguette is currently making an effort to team up with Kendall Square apartment complexes to offer their curated grocery shopping experience for residents there. This will allow for bulk delivery to one location, but the only obstacle they face is figuring out how to time deliveries so that food stays fresh. One possible solution, he says, is to deliver groceries directly to tenants’ apartments, whether or not they’re home. (Imagine coming back from work to a stocked fridge?)
Down the road, the team has an array of new features they’re looking to add. For example, a health analytics system to tell you how healthy your list is—and make swap suggestions for improvement. Another is food tracking, which will allow the system to push reminders relating to the freshness of your food. For example, you might get an alert that you bought beef two days ago, and should consider using it before it goes bad.
“That’s powerful—because consumers today waste a lot of food,” added Long.
Images courtesy of Just Baguette.
