On a windy weekday in early December, a couple hovered near the door of Nourish + Bloom, the new 24-hour contactless food market in southwest Atlanta.
They were having trouble getting inside, so I offered to help. Entry requires scanning a QR code, downloading the app, creating an account and entering payment information to generate another QR code that allows access to the market and shopping.
Curiosity had brought the three of us to this triangle of streets in historic Cascade Heights formed by Cascade Road SW, Benjamin E. Mays Drive SW and Beecher Road SW — where the nearest options for groceries are the Cascade Food Mart and the Family Dollar across the street.
A few weeks earlier, the city of Atlanta had announced the grand opening of Nourish + Bloom, a micro market designed to improve access to fresh food in areas that have struggled to attract a major supermarket.
Last spring, councilwoman Marci Collier Overstreet said she had been lobbying for seven years to secure funding for a grocery store in southwest Atlanta. Eloisa Klementich, CEO and president of Invest Atlanta, the city’s instrument for economic development, said the city has invited grocery stores to underserved areas of Atlanta but grocers have been resistant. The city has since announced plans for community markets in some neighborhoods.
Nourish + Bloom, a concept that first launched in Fayetteville in 2022, is billed as the first city-supported, AI-powered grocery store. Founders Jilea and Jamie Hemmings appeared on Shark Tank in 2023. They left the show without an offer but did gain a $600,000 Economic Opportunity Fund Food Access Grant to bring market locations to Cascade Heights and Pittsburgh Yards.
Supporters of the business have said it offers greater food access in food scarce neighborhoods while minimizing high costs of labor and operations — only one person (or none) staff the stores.
Critics have said the prices are too high, the potential for theft is too great and the people most in need of food may not have cellphones or credit cards to enter the stores.
I’m not ready to give up on the concept yet. All too often we attribute the existence of food deserts to characteristics of the people or the places where they are located without considering the industry practices that got us to this point.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, Americans did more than half their grocery shopping at independent stores while the big chains only accounted for about 25% of grocery sales. Independent stores were often the most innovative — the first to offer enhancements such as self-service and loyalty programs, which big chains then scrambled to replicate. Back then there was enough market share to go around, with healthy competition between chains and independent stores for grocery dollars.
But under the Reagan administration, a midcentury antitrust law that banned grocery suppliers from giving pricing deals to retailers (and banned retailers from asking for them) lost its teeth. Big chains swooped in demanding favorable pricing from suppliers while also gobbling up smaller grocers.
The independent stores that remained struggled to pay higher rates passed on to them by the grocery suppliers who sought to minimize their losses.
All of this coincides with the proliferation of food deserts in urban and rural areas.
But concepts like Nourish + Bloom signal a return to the spirit of innovation that once fueled independent grocery stores in the battle against the big guys.
I managed to enter Nourish + Bloom with the app generated code and held the door for the couple, Annita Bridges and Robert Alexander, recent retirees who relocated to Audobon Forest from Oklahoma City about a year ago.
Once we were inside, I scanned my phone again to enter through a gate and into the market. I tried to scan for Bridges as well, but the gate flashed red and closed. Craning their necks to view inside, the couple waited in the small entryway while I entered the market to examine what was on the shelves. I asked them what they thought of food access in their neighborhood.
“I would like to see a better variety of fresh produce,” said Bridges, who mostly shops at the Publix 4 miles down the road.
Alexander thought Nourish + Bloom represented the convenience store of the future. He figured it was small enough that food would have to be replenished regularly, a factor that would help ensure the foods are fresh.
The shelves were filled with a range of grocery staples from oranges and bacon to cereal and milk. A section of prepared foods included sandwiches and grab-and-go meals such as jerk chicken bowls.
The brands were the same ones you would find in the big supermarkets and as expected, when I did a price comparison on a few items, the prices were higher at Nourish + Bloom. The juice I purchased costs $6 at the manufacturer’s retail store. Nourish + Bloom charges the same. At Kroger, the juice is $4.29 and at Walmart it costs $3.88.
Nourish + Bloom does accept SNAP benefits but anyone trying to stretch their food budget may find it hard to justify spending more for items they can get cheaper at the big stores, even if those stores are not conveniently located.
As more locations open, I hope Nourish + Bloom will find a way to do what so many other independent grocers have not managed to do — survive long enough for bigger grocers to view them as worthy competitors.
If profit-hungry supermarkets see a small independent store thriving in an underserved neighborhood, they might also see some value in returning to the places they have long neglected.
Read more on the Real Life blog (ajc.com/opinion/real-life-blog/), find Nedra on Facebook (facebook.com/AJCRealLifeColumn) and X (@nrhoneajc) or email her at nedra.rhone@ajc.com.
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