Forget turning 21 or paying taxes for the first time — you know you're truly an adult when grocery shopping transforms from a fun, exciting adventure into a dreaded chore you never seem to have enough time for.
The good news is that startup founders Louise Fritjofsson and Kari Morris have found a way to bring back some of that joy with their online grocery marketplace called Martie.
They sell shelf-stable food from brands like Bonne Maman and Fishwife, as well as household essentials (candles are essential, right?), pet supplies, cleaning products, and more — all at up to 70% off local grocery store prices. Not to mention occasional freebies mixed in if you're quick on the draw with notifications.
How are these savings possible?
It sounds too good to be true, and when I first heard about Martie, that's what I thought too. (I mean, 46% off Tate's cookies? Can't be real.) But then I found out that Martie is actually solving multiple issues at once, because it's working with high-quality brands to resell "overstock" items that are in great condition but that might have had something like a packaging change or a seasonal redesign (like spooky candy in November).
Martie is the connector between these brands, with overstock and customers who are ready to score some steep discounts. (Plus, this also means those overstock products don't eventually end up in landfills.) There's also no membership fee, and shipping is free over $50.
The premium feel of Martie's site and app design, along with its grassroots street cred, also appear to entice more high-quality brands than you might expect to see at a traditional big-box clearance store, too.
It's so popular that Fritjofsson says Martie has now helped more than half a million registered customers.
Can grocery shopping ever be whimsical?
Fritjofsson and Morris didn't launch Martie in 2021 exclusively to make grocery shopping fun for adults, but with such significant discounts, it's now easier and less risky to try out new, exciting items.
"We're seeing this shift," Fritjofsson told The Cool Down in an exclusive conversation. Instead of shoppers opening the app or going online with their grocery list in hand, 60% of Martie users "come specifically to discover new [items]."
"They want the treasure hunt," she said. "They want to go through everything that we have."
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Would you be more likely to shop at a store that paid you for your old stuff? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. |
Absolutely 💯 Fritjofsson reported that Martie launches between 40-60 new products on the site every day, and many customers are now coming back on an ongoing basis "just to see what's new and see if it's their time to shop." Martie averages about 300 new products every week.
Case in point: Minutes after opening the Martie app, I somehow had five new brands in my cart, including a cashew butter spread I'd been meaning to try and a new type of dairy-free ginger snap that will allow me to finally enjoy dessert with my butter-tolerant friends. Not everything comes at a mind-blowing discount, but prices generally range from "good deal" to "major steal" territory.
"We thought everyone would be driven by just the prices, because you save on average about $60 when you shop with Martie, but it's turning out to be this amazing way for people to try new brands and products without taking the plunge to pay full price," Fritjofsson said in a previous conversation with TCD.
What's new at Martie besides big savings on food?
Martie started out by selling shelf-stable grocery products, but now that it has also expanded into categories like beauty products, pet care, and home goods, the team is seeing a new opportunity: Helping brands that don't know what to do with items like kitchen appliances and other electronics that customers have returned.
It's a huge logistical headache for companies to deal with: Brands "still haven't figured out enough pathways for returned items to find a new home," Fritjofsson told us. Returns are "extremely cumbersome for them to figure out what to do with."
Unless companies have built out their own re-commerce sales division (think: Patagonia's Worn Wear resale site), it's often more cost-effective for them to throw the items away than try to resell them. In fact, in 2022 alone, 9.5 billion pounds of returned products went straight into landfills. That's billion with a B.
But complicated logistics like these are where Martie shines. So last month, the company launched its first-ever re-commerce offerings on the app. And it's a win-win-win: Martie saves these items from ending up in landfills, customers get huge discounts on the product because they're technically no longer "new," and the original brands don't have to write off the returns as total losses.
What's the first 'open box' opportunity for users?
"We're super excited to partner with and open up this new part of the site … where you will see a new type of [product] tiles [that say] 'this is a return,' Fritjofsson said. "So you can decide … if you want to click and collect them. And of course, all of these products still will have the warranty that you're used to getting."
Martie's first re-commerce partnership launched this past month with the brand Moritz & Moritz, which sells cookware and dinnerware like streamlined pots and pans, with more money-saving opportunities coming soon.
While selling returned or "open box" items (which are basically new, as they're still in the original packaging) items may feel like a far cry from the company's origins in shelf-stable food, for Fritjofsson the re-commerce angle is just another step "in trying to solve this circular economy problem which we're operating in and finding new homes for inventory that we think is great, that deserves a second chance."
Plus, "the discounts will be very significant," Fritjofsson noted.
OK, so one more big question: Why is Martie called Martie?
"You know what? I have two kids, and naming Martie probably took me longer," Fritjofsson told us.
Part of the name comes from mart, like you're going to the mart to shop, and the team also liked the idea that when you shop at Martie "you are a smartie," she said.
The last reason? Sometimes it's as simple as what's even possible, Fritjofsson acknowledged with a laugh. "I could buy [the domain] martie dot com. And we didn't have to be yadayada dot app or yadayada dot go."
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