Here's What To Know About Nourish + Bloom Market From Shark Tank
The best grocery stores in America offer fresh food items, competitive pricing, and knowledgeable employees. Now imagine a supermarket that checks those necessary boxes yet offers a fast and easy-to-navigate grab-and-go shopping experience. Jilea and Jamie Hemmings opened the first Black-owned autonomous grocery store, Nourish + Bloom Market, in Fayetteville, Georgia, in 2022. The dedicated, morally sound business owners are eager to expand Nourish + Bloom's footprint by pitching their one-of-a-kind food store on ABC's "Shark Tank." Yet, what makes this modern-day food market so different from the rest?
Nourish + Bloom is the first 100% AI-powered supermarket open for business 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Customers input their payment information before scanning a bar code for entry. Thanks to ceiling cameras and weight-sensitive shelves, once patrons collect their desired food items, payments are processed as customers exit the store hassle-free. Even though Nourish + Bloom employees are available for questions and friendly banter, customers no longer need to wait in long lines to endure a fully-fledged checkout experience. This bodega-style market also has a fully functioning kitchen that makes ready-to-order entrées.
Beyond using highly advanced technology, the Hemmings' are committed to providing nutritious food to all communities. For these two successful business owners, potentially securing an investment on Season 15, Episode 18 of "Shark Tank" is just one part of their evolving mission to increase food security for all.
Nourish + Bloom's founders are on a mission to provide healthy food to communities in need
Before Nourish + Bloom became a brick-and-mortar reality, Jamie and Jilea Hemmings both had flourishing jobs in the tech industry and experienced moderate success with a previous food business. Their eldest son's battle with Autism spurred the couple to prioritize healthy food. In 2009, the couple developed Greenie Tots: frozen meatless meals for kids. While Greenie Tots was once available in over 100 stores nationwide and even granted the Hemmings an opportunity to appear on "Shark Tank," the company owners put their trust in a faulty investor, and the business closed in 2016. Upon moving from Chicago to Fayetteville, Georgia, in 2019, Jilea Hemmings quickly noticed a lack of healthy food options in their new town.
The couple's drive to create Greenie Tots spurred into a bigger mission to create a fully functional market for the greater community. The business owners' goals were to fuse the ease and convenience of technology with a fully accessible food market for anyone in the surrounding area who wished to have more quality food options. Not only does Nourish + Bloom provide customers with healthy and filling snack foods and a kitchen that shells out made-to-order entrées, but this high-tech market now offers nutritious grab-and-go meals. Jilea and Jamie Hemmings hope to secure a deal on "Shark Tank" to expand their autonomous food markets to more communities hoping to access nutritious food.
What are Nourish + Bloom's chances of expansion in the retail marketplace?
Since opening its doors in 2022, Nourish + Bloom has provided the community of Fayetteville, Georgia, with a nutritious food store. Yet, this high-tech market has also garnered additional intrigue for its state-of-the-art technology. All purchases are streamlined through the Nourish + Bloom app. Surprisingly, if you live within a three-mile radius of the brick-and-mortar location, temperature-controlled robots can deliver your recently purchased groceries.
Based on the majority of Google reviews, most patrons have been happy with the experience at Nourish + Bloom, apart from some customers who felt confused by the AI-generated shopping experience and hoped for more assistance setting up their accounts. However, many customers stand behind the quality and taste of the market's made-to-order entrées.
Company owners Jilea and Jamie Hemmings are set on expanding their high-tech food stores across Georgia and into Texas. In 2023, the couple planned to start a funding campaign for their second location, but the campaign is no longer up and running. Last month, the couple revealed plans to open three small-scale tech-friendly food markets in the greater Atlanta area, strategically placing them in food deserts to broaden the range of accessible healthy food. Whether or not Nourish + Bloom receives buy-in from "Shark Tank" investors to expand their mission for greater food security, Nourish + Bloom is still providing the Fayetteville community with healthy food options, perfect cheeseburgers, and jerk chicken plates.