As the race to try to deliver your groceries — and everything else — at hyper-speed heats up, one startup is launching in ATL with a different take on delivery. The Rounds, founded by UGA alum Alexander Torrey and co-founder Byungwoo Ko, is betting that zero-waste delivery and refills are the future of city living.
Designed as a local, sustainable alternative to Amazon, The Rounds is a new take on the traditional “milkman” model, delivering and refilling everyday staples in reusable containers. After explosive growth across the east coast in Philadelphia, DC and Miami, the startup this week is launching in Atlanta.
But instead of hyper-fast fulfillment of last-minute wants, The Rounds is focused on hyper-efficient prediction and scheduled delivery to avoid your last-minute needs. With predictive data science, The Rounds manages the inventory of all the essential goods in your home, refilling personalized amounts based on your individual household’s usage and delivering in reusable containers with no packaging waste on a set weekly schedule.
“The way we get everyday essentials in cities is not sustainable. Consumers prioritize convenience and have turned to online ordering for everything, which generates tons of excess packaging and waste,” Torrey said in a press release. “The pandemic has only accelerated this trend, leading to more packaging waste ending up in landfills, rivers, and oceans.”
The Rounds places a strong emphasis on community, too, with partners like Chrome Yellow Coffee, prioritizing sourcing from local Atlanta producers. They’re anticipated to bring over 70 jobs to the Atlanta market in 2022, including a force of Rounders (delivery folks riding e-bikes) which consists of full-time employees paid living wages and contrasts the exploitative contract labor utilized by most major delivery brands.
As Mayor Dickens re-commits to getting Atlanta on track to meet its goal of using only renewable energy by 2035, Georgia residents continue to throw away over 1 million pounds of plastic trash each year.
“Our mission at The Rounds is to help solve this dilemma by making everyday sustainable choices truly effortless,” Torrey said.
