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Foxtrot's co-founders- Mike LaVitola, CEO and Taylor Bloom, CTO
Walk into any typical American grocery store and you’ll be inundated by choice. There might be 100 types of cereal or wines to choose from. At some point, more choice isn’t better.
Meet Foxtrot, a company dedicated to getting Chicago residents quality, curated items fast. Instead of dozens of choices, the company works hard to curate different packages – wine and cheese pairings, or the tastiest chocolate – and deliver them to their customers. Holding a cocktail party? Have Foxtrot suggest drink recipes and then deliver them to your door. Need a bit of ice cream therapy? Foxtrot can suggest your next favorite flavor.
After launching their product a year ago, Foxtrot is now moving from a totally online presence to a brick and mortar store in Lincoln Park. It’s proof that with ever expanding choices, customers are looking for authentic, quality items that have a story behind them. “Being in the store will allow us to be more creative," said Mike LaVitola, CEO of Foxtrot.
The original idea, which the team vetted while at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, was simple: “We thought it would be interesting if you could curate a menu of really good different beers, wine, spirits, fresh foods and pair that curated menu with the on-demand delivery,” said LaVitola.
It’s a luxury version of online shopping – get curated goods, many of them local, hand picked by a company that cares about quality.
So far, the curated model has worked well for Foxtrot. “People weren’t looking for 100 different choices of wine, they wanted 10 to 20 and for us to tell them why we liked them and a bit of a story around them,” LaVitola said.
From Online to Brick and Mortar
The model has been so successful that Foxtrot is already feeling some growing pains. Having started small, the company outsourced delivery and inventory. Sometimes, that meant the team wasn’t able to carry all the items they wanted and maintaining quality delivery was a concern. “We were sort of the hub in the middle that connected our inventory partners with third-party deliver services. As we kept growing, it became increasingly tough to continue to deliver a good service,” LaVitola said.
Having a physical space should resolve those issues. “It’s been refreshing to build the store with the menu and the list of products we’ve wanted to carry,” LaVitola said.
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LaVitola isn’t just focusing on the store. Earlier this year Foxtrot built a new app to make it easier for customers to order on the go (the Android version launched last month). Opening the company’s first store will require maintaining the visually appealing nature of the website. “This isn’t going to be a warehouse for goods, it’s going to be a reflection of the brand,” LaVitola said.
Most of their customers are scattered around the north side and they have a core group in Lincoln Park. As the company expands, they hope their footprint does too.
The team works hard to curate new and interesting products and puts a focus on finding amazing local gems. LaVitola says they scour the city looking for new things to introduce to their customers, but that friends and family often introduce them to things too. “There are so many interesting food and drink products that we kind of want to give them a platform to reach a new audience. The app gives us a way to tell a story about the product,” said LaVitola.
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