Addie’s Makes Norwood a Launching Pad for a New Model - the Efficient, Community Centered, Online Grocer

After several years of actively positioning itself to become “a center of innovation,” according to Norwood General Manager Tony Mazzucco, the Town of Norwood appears to be on the way to realizing its goal with the grand opening of Addie’s on Thursday, January 27th, the East Coast’s first exclusively drive-up grocer.

Norwood is recently home to Moderna’s in-house manufacturing facility, the newly relocated headquarters and best-in-class facilities of The Skating Club of Boston, and now Addie’s, a consumer goods company. This latest “start-up” underscores the town’s growing development as a hub for business where new things are happening, says Mr. Mazzucco.

Addie’s is not a grocery store, but a grocer, according to Jim McQuade, Addie’s Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Dad of Three who is reimagining the grocery shopping experience. He believes “grocer” better than “grocery store” describes  the importance that Addie’s places on taking care of its customer families. And the name, Addie’s, derives from the company’s North Star, which is to “add ease” or put customers “at ease.”

Westwood Minute/Darlene Wong Cancell. Jeremiah Strauss is Addie's Co-Founder and CTO, who built the platform for Addie's storage system that lets online shoppers know that an item is in stock.

“We believe in solving problems in a way that works for everybody,” he says. “Ultimately, in today’s world, convenience is brought to us at the expense of others, whether it’s other people, the environment, and so on. That can’t be our future. We’re so proud we’ve solved this problem. We have built this business in a way that takes care of our customers and also our communities and our environment,” says Mr. McQuade.

Taking care of the customer means respecting the customer’s most valuable commodity – time. “We are approaching that digital native world, where convenience is a part of life. We are also in a world where time is our most precious commodity. And so the time is now for a solution like this,” says Mr. McQuade.

After “obsessing” over the concept of Addie’s for a decade, but finding the timing was too early for his concept, Mr. McQuade says that COVID-19 has pulled the concept and the inevitable future together.

Westwood Minute/Darlene Wong Cancell. One of Addie's first official customers, after the grand opening ribbon cutting, rolls into the customer waiting area where Addie's team members will pack groceries into her car.

Before Thursday’s grand opening, the store experimented with a soft opening, limited to a  controlled number of invited customers. “It’s more busy families and kids in car seats than we can count, coming through and saying, ‘Where have you been all my life?’” observes Mr. McQuade. Addie’s has also served mobility constrained customers.

One memorable customer drove up, but instead of rolling down her window to speak with a team member, she showed a handwritten note. 

“And her handwritten note said, ‘Forgive me, I have COVID.’ And it was actually an incredible experience where for that lady, she could get everything that she needed in a completely safe way. Popping the trunk of her sedan meant that we put everything that she needed to feed herself and anybody else in her family into the car. Close it, smile, wave, and get her home,” Mr. McQuade recounts.

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Westwood Minute/Darlene Wong Cancell. Addie's stocks grocery items on shelves and in walk-in refrigerated storage, with no need for traditional display cases.

Mr. McQuade calls his store team – the only ones who need to set foot in the Addie’s building – the single most important part of Addie’s. Addie’s team members receive wages of $20 per hour and store supervisors receive $27 per hour. By taking care of his team who come from the community, Mr. McQuade notes that Addie’s is taking care of the community.

Sarah Bouchard, Norwood's Acting Director of Community Planning, remarks, “[Addie’s has] been partnering with our food pantries, our non-profit organizations. They’ve been very generous. . . . And they also pay higher than average wages. We’re happy to have them here to be able to offer those types of jobs for our community.” Addie’s is currently hiring for both team and supervisory positions.  “As a business, that’s something we really respect and encourage and that’s great that Addie’s has found a way to do that and is committed to doing that kind of work,” says Ms. Bouchard.

Westwood Minute/Darlene Wong Cancell. Norwood's General Manager Tony Mazzucco and Acting Director of Community Planning Sarah Bouchard were on hand to celebrate the grand opening of Addie's with a tour.

As for taking care of the environment, Mr. McQuade believes Addie’s offers a grocer's solution to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions. According to Mr. McQuade, Addie’s operates with one quarter of the electricity of a traditional supermarket. “That’s not just good for the environment. That’s fantastic for your produce,” he says.

Mr. McQuade explains. In a traditional, walk-in grocery store, produce is openly displayed in refrigerated units, “cascading cold air onto a floor that’s simultaneously heated for customer comfort.” At Addie’s, refrigerated items are kept in closed, cold storage until the point that a customer drives up, ready to accept delivery from a store employee who transports the items directly to the customer’s vehicle. Mr. McQuade estimates that it takes about 60 seconds to go from the store’s temperature controlled environment to the waiting vehicle.

On the inbound side of grocery supply, those same items also have a quick transport from the supplier’s vehicle to Addie’s large, walk-in cooler. It’s a matter of walking about 45 seconds from truck to cold storage, says Mr. McQuade. There is no time for produce to sit on a pallet, waiting to be loaded onto a display shelf. The only displays customers see will be online, when they make their purchases from Addie’s in advance of their in-person pick-up.

“We see Addie’s is probably going to be the future of the grocery business and we’re just happy to have them in Norwood as a reflection of what hopefully will be the first of many locations around the country,” says Norwood’s Economic Development Director Joe Collins.

Thanks to Jim McQuade and his family, Jeremiah Strauss, Tony Mazzucco, Sarah Bouchard, and Joe Collins for providing interviews and information for this article.

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