A new shop on Madison’s west side is offering small Wisconsin farms a retail outlet without requiring them to staff a farmers market or meet the volume demands of larger grocery buyers. Grandad’s Farm Stop opened in late September, with farmers setting their own prices and leaving products for the store to sell on consignment. Owner Patrick Randolph said the goal is to help producers reach customers while keeping more of each sale with the people who grew or made the goods. Randolph said farmers receive about 70 cents of each dollar spent at the shop. By comparison, he estimated that farmers receive about 15 cents per dollar spent at an average grocery store. Those figures are Randolph’s estimates. The idea grew out of Randolph’s experience helping manage a small community-supported agriculture farm in Dunn, Wisconsin, about six years ago. The farm produced more than it had places to sell, he said. That led him to imagine a store where growers could drop off products and have someone else handle sales. Farmers markets can mean long workdays and operate seasonally, Randolph said, while co-ops may require suppliers to provide a certain volume on a regular schedule—requirements that can be difficult for smaller operations to meet. Grandad’s is intended to offer an option between those channels. All products at the shop are Wisconsin-grown, Wisconsin-made or come from a Wisconsin business; Randolph said most suppliers are currently within about 45 minutes of the store. The business is modeled in part on Argus Farm Stop, a similar local-food retailer in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Manager Bailey Buettner said the store also aims to help customers see the people and land behind the food they buy. In its first days, Buettner said, the shop had already drawn neighborhood walkers and cyclists, with some customers returning often enough to become familiar faces. The store includes a café serving locally roasted coffee and locally made pastries. Randolph said the business plans to keep produce available year-round by working with indoor growers and to add more products as it develops toward a broader one-stop shopping option. Randolph said small farmers and food businesses help nourish the community and should receive as much of the market price as possible.