Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Uplift: Solving food desert issues, the world’s first Black-owned autonomous grocery store.

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Uplift: Solving food desert issues, the world’s first Black-owned autonomous grocery store. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald host this weekly Money Making Conversation
0:03
Speaker 1: Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show provides
0:06
Speaker 1: off for everyone, and I'm talking to you, my friend.
0:09
Speaker 2: I want you to come on board and be with us.
0:12
Speaker 2: Come along for this ride.
0:13
Speaker 1: It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and
0:16
Speaker 1: start living your own now. If you want to be
0:18
Speaker 1: a guest on my show, Money Making Conversation Masterclass, please
0:22
Speaker 1: visit our website, Moneymakingconversations dot com and click to be
0:26
Speaker 1: a guest button. If you're a small business owner, entrepreneur,
0:29
Speaker 1: motivational speaker, influencer or nonprofit I want you on my show. Now,
0:33
Speaker 1: let's get started. My guests are the visionary co founders
0:37
Speaker 1: of Nourish and bloom Market, the world's first black owned
0:41
Speaker 1: autonomous grocery store. During by mission to eliminate food deserts
0:46
Speaker 1: and empower underserved communities, they fuse cutting edge AI technology
0:51
Speaker 1: with healthy living. As a dynamic husband and wife duo,
0:55
Speaker 1: they are reshaping the future retail while building generational legacy
0:59
Speaker 1: through IT impact and ownership. Please welcome to the Money Making
1:03
Speaker 1: Conversations Julaia and Jamie Hemmings.
1:07
Speaker 2: How you doing Jelaia and Jamie Jay and Jay Jay
1:11
Speaker 2: and Jay JJJ. I love it. Let's talk about the
1:16
Speaker 2: name of your business.
1:17
Speaker 1: Is Norrish Norrish, I'll probably saying it wrong because I'm
1:20
Speaker 1: from the South and Bloom Market. Tell us how you
1:23
Speaker 1: came up with that name and what does it mean
1:27
Speaker 1: to you in particular?
1:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean nourish and bloom.
1:31
Speaker 4: I'll be thought it was the perfect name actually, because
1:34
Speaker 4: that's exactly what we set out to do. Our mission
1:36
Speaker 4: is twenty four to seven fresh food for everyone, right,
1:40
Speaker 4: and we know that food is the key ingredient to
1:43
Speaker 4: having good health and just being able to have overall
1:46
Speaker 4: good performance. And so if you nourish your body, well
1:49
Speaker 4: you'll be able to bloom in for us, that just
1:51
Speaker 4: felt like the right name, nourished the body, bloom.
1:54
Speaker 2: So there you go. We know it's Janie.
1:56
Speaker 1: I'm from inner city Houston, Texas, and I've always fought
2:02
Speaker 1: for financial literacy. You know, in certain community communities of
2:09
Speaker 1: color you have to find no banks and then you
2:12
Speaker 1: don't have the big box grocery stores into our communities.
2:16
Speaker 1: So define to me so we can be on the
2:19
Speaker 1: same page. Jamie, what exactly when you say food desert
2:22
Speaker 1: what are you talking about.
2:25
Speaker 5: Yeah, so when we're talking about food deserts, we're talking
2:28
Speaker 5: about you know, access and the miles associated with that.
2:34
Speaker 5: So when you're looking in an urban neighborhood, if it's
2:39
Speaker 5: more than you know, five miles away, then that's considered
2:43
Speaker 5: a food desert.
2:45
Speaker 3: In a rural area, I think it's.
2:48
Speaker 4: Sorry, rural area is more than five ye sorry, sorry,
2:52
Speaker 4: A rural area is more than five miles and an
2:55
Speaker 4: urban area is actually more than one mile away, So
2:58
Speaker 4: that would be the death definition of a food desert.
3:01
Speaker 3: So you know, if you're one.
3:02
Speaker 5: Mile away in an urban area from a grocery store,
3:06
Speaker 5: then that's considered a food desert. And if you're five
3:10
Speaker 5: miles away in a rural area, then that's considered a
3:13
Speaker 5: food desert.
3:14
Speaker 2: Good.
3:15
Speaker 1: So, Julia, how did you guys get into grocery business?
3:19
Speaker 1: You know, like you know, as we go through life,
3:21
Speaker 1: you know, I want to do this, I want to
3:22
Speaker 1: do this, but you're selling food or providing food. In
3:27
Speaker 1: my mind, I don't even know how you start that enterprise.
3:32
Speaker 1: Talk to me to the the process of you know,
3:34
Speaker 1: so we don't open the grocery store.
3:37
Speaker 4: Well, that's the I think we should start there because
3:39
Speaker 4: we did ever have thought in a million years that
3:41
Speaker 4: we were going to open.
3:42
Speaker 3: A grocery store. I mean, so I got into the.
3:44
Speaker 4: Food space because of our oldest son, who at two
3:47
Speaker 4: was diagnosed with autism, and they told us the most
3:49
Speaker 4: important thing that we could do to help him was
3:51
Speaker 4: to make sure he had a clean diet.
3:53
Speaker 6: Right.
3:53
Speaker 4: But Jamie and I were both working in corporate America
3:56
Speaker 4: busy schedules. It is probably many of your audience members.
3:58
Speaker 4: We were like, how are we going to make these
3:59
Speaker 4: healthy meals every day? But it was our son, so
4:02
Speaker 4: we knew we had to. And as we started to
4:05
Speaker 4: make those healthy meals, we became the first in the
4:07
Speaker 4: country to make meatless meals for kids based on traditional kids'
4:11
Speaker 4: favorite so that not only our son and our kids
4:13
Speaker 4: could have access to healthy food, but many kids could.
4:15
Speaker 4: And so that's how we got into the food business
4:19
Speaker 4: many years ago and vowed actually to get out of
4:23
Speaker 4: it because food is tough. You know, it's not an
4:26
Speaker 4: easy space.
4:26
Speaker 3: To be in.
4:28
Speaker 4: We were a brand, we were in over one hundred
4:30
Speaker 4: and fifty grocery stores around the country, but you know,
4:33
Speaker 4: it was a really.
4:33
Speaker 3: Tough business to be in.
4:35
Speaker 4: So we decided as you know, after about six years
4:38
Speaker 4: to definitely pivot, we jumped into the tech space and
4:42
Speaker 4: only got back into the grocery space during COVID, and
4:45
Speaker 4: I saw all of the challenges around food accessibility. I
4:49
Speaker 4: knew with our background also being in tech, that AI
4:53
Speaker 4: could really impact how food was delivered and you didn't
4:56
Speaker 4: have to worry about whether a grocery store was open,
4:59
Speaker 4: or whether the hours were limited based on your schedules,
5:02
Speaker 4: and all of those different things that we could.
5:04
Speaker 3: Use AI to really drive access.
5:07
Speaker 4: And so that's what made me get motivated, is just
5:09
Speaker 4: seeing just all the challenges that us as a collective
5:12
Speaker 4: felt during that time.
5:14
Speaker 1: No, Jela Jelaila, you you let out a little statement
5:17
Speaker 1: by our backgrounds in tech. Now that means I gotta
5:21
Speaker 1: go a little bit further back on this relationship.
5:23
Speaker 2: Now. That's why I'm sticking with her, Jami, because.
5:25
Speaker 1: You let a little you dropped a little a little
5:28
Speaker 1: germ of tech talk and then you slid over.
5:31
Speaker 2: The AI real quick.
5:34
Speaker 1: Give was it our educational background or background that led
5:36
Speaker 1: you into that tech space that you were doing prior
5:39
Speaker 1: to the meatless industry, they had you in over one
5:42
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty stores nationwide.
5:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I mean for both of us, we have
5:46
Speaker 4: similar backgrounds, so we both have MBAs and business not
5:52
Speaker 4: formally formally trained in tech. We're street talk, right, So
5:56
Speaker 4: what does.
5:57
Speaker 2: That mean street talk? I gotta say the phone over here.
6:01
Speaker 1: You are not gonna let me Ju Laila get away
6:03
Speaker 1: with this conversation.
6:07
Speaker 2: Oh no, no no, no no no no no, let's start. Ja.
6:12
Speaker 7: Stop talking to you, Jamie, Jamie. Now now what you
6:16
Speaker 7: can't do to me, brother is bring your fans talking
6:19
Speaker 7: wife on my show. And then under the two words.
6:23
Speaker 1: We both got nbas, but we learned our tech, you know,
6:28
Speaker 1: street street talk.
6:32
Speaker 3: Everything.
6:33
Speaker 2: Let me tell.
6:34
Speaker 3: You our formal education is. However, our tech education it.
6:39
Speaker 4: Came about because we saw a need and we were like, okay,
6:43
Speaker 4: we need to figure out how.
6:44
Speaker 3: To do this.
6:44
Speaker 1: Put that NBA mind together, the NBA mind together.
6:50
Speaker 3: How hard can this be?
6:51
Speaker 4: I always say it's probably good that you don't have
6:53
Speaker 4: a background in certain things because you think it's.
6:55
Speaker 3: Not so hard. How hard can it be?
6:57
Speaker 4: Right? But we were able to partner with really good
7:00
Speaker 4: developers and then really got our hands dirty.
7:04
Speaker 3: And started figuring out.
7:04
Speaker 4: I started to learn how to do Python and all
7:06
Speaker 4: those different things. I just you know, went online and
7:09
Speaker 4: started to teach myself as much as I could, and
7:12
Speaker 4: then also hired a really amazing team that worked alongside
7:16
Speaker 4: us to ensure that we could bring our idea to fruition.
7:19
Speaker 5: But the biggest thing is that, you know, we developed
7:22
Speaker 5: two tech platforms. So you know, going back, so yes,
7:26
Speaker 5: we started off in the food industry, right and then
7:30
Speaker 5: fast forward, we actually developed two tech platforms. So one platform,
7:36
Speaker 5: well they're both scheduling platforms. One was in the cannabis
7:40
Speaker 5: industry and one was in the pharmaceutical industry. And so
7:43
Speaker 5: you know, we were you know, both pharmaceutical reps. Jula was,
7:47
Speaker 5: she's been in the pharma game for you know a
7:49
Speaker 5: long time. You know, I did my tone in and
7:52
Speaker 5: so what we saw was that there was like this
7:56
Speaker 5: this scheduling conflict between pharmaceutical reps and doors and so
8:01
Speaker 5: for us, we wanted.
8:02
Speaker 3: To create a solution.
8:04
Speaker 5: So what we did was that we created a solution,
8:07
Speaker 5: and it was a scheduling platform to where you know, uh,
8:10
Speaker 5: pharmaceutical reps can go in there book of time, you
8:13
Speaker 5: know with the doctor. Uh if the doctor wasn't available,
8:16
Speaker 5: the doctor would just say, hey, you know what I'm
8:18
Speaker 5: not available, and then.
8:19
Speaker 3: It would just bring in another doctor.
8:22
Speaker 5: So we had that platform, and then we also had
8:24
Speaker 5: another platform where it was scheduling between the between the
8:31
Speaker 5: dispensaries and also the vendors. So that's how you know,
8:36
Speaker 5: we built our first, you know, two platforms, you know,
8:40
Speaker 5: going into tech, and then fast forward from there, we
8:43
Speaker 5: combined that idea of food and tech and then now
8:47
Speaker 5: here we are market.
8:50
Speaker 2: I'm so done with both, y'all.
8:53
Speaker 1: I'm so done with both for y'all in a good way,
8:56
Speaker 1: because my was you got to explain when you say
8:59
Speaker 1: people we you say things like I'm mad at both
9:01
Speaker 1: for y'all, Well, I'm really mad at both, y'all. First
9:04
Speaker 1: of all, we started meatless meals for kids.
9:08
Speaker 2: Let's get that out of the way, Okay.
9:10
Speaker 1: Then he's gonna slide in NBA's just a couple of
9:14
Speaker 1: NBA's on the business side, and then she gonna slide
9:17
Speaker 1: in it. But then she gonna back it and go
9:20
Speaker 1: We street learned, Street learn, Street.
9:22
Speaker 2: Learning, and Jamie gonna slide in.
9:25
Speaker 1: We developed two scheduling platform with We scheduled two scheduling platform,
9:30
Speaker 1: one for cannabis and one for pharmaceuticals. You knew, like
9:34
Speaker 1: if your doctor isn't there, it just slide in another doctor.
9:37
Speaker 1: I went, that just happened to me this week.
9:43
Speaker 2: On my chart. I went on my chart, which is
9:45
Speaker 2: Emory Hospital. I said, I couldn't do October fourth. They
9:49
Speaker 2: just lived another doctor right in Now black people and now.
10:00
Speaker 2: And I'm so proud of you.
10:02
Speaker 1: But that's what money making conversations, master classes all about
10:05
Speaker 1: bringing and showcase because you guys are stars, you know,
10:08
Speaker 1: and sometimes in this industry with entrepreneurs being such a.
10:13
Speaker 2: Brand word now and how do you get there?
10:16
Speaker 1: But it's too planning, and you guys are doing it
10:19
Speaker 1: as a husband and wife team.
10:21
Speaker 2: And I felt that when I was doing my background our.
10:24
Speaker 1: Research on you guys, I really want to tell as
10:26
Speaker 1: much of the overall story of you two outside of
10:30
Speaker 1: the autonomous grocery store, because that's what that's the end
10:33
Speaker 1: game of this conversation, that you guys are not only
10:36
Speaker 1: giving back to the community because technically you don't have to.
10:39
Speaker 2: Okay, life has been good to you.
10:41
Speaker 1: God has blessed you guys, But in the process of
10:44
Speaker 1: doing that, you want to change your community. That's what's
10:47
Speaker 1: driving this interview right now. But with Lord we need
10:51
Speaker 1: to know, y'all to just stumbled upon this idea to
10:57
Speaker 1: let the world, and I.
11:00
Speaker 3: Think there's something to that.
11:01
Speaker 4: Sometimes when you're going through things in life, you don't
11:03
Speaker 4: even realize how those experiences are gonna shape what you're gonna.
11:07
Speaker 3: End up doing.
11:10
Speaker 2: You're not gonna do that. You're not gonna do.
11:12
Speaker 1: Me like that.
11:13
Speaker 2: You stumble like four times on this interview.
11:17
Speaker 1: I want to be around you when you fall, because
11:19
Speaker 1: you're gonna because you're gonna fall on money.
11:22
Speaker 2: I know that fact.
11:23
Speaker 3: You're not gonna your lips to gods.
11:29
Speaker 2: You're gonna fallold some money. So it was when I
11:31
Speaker 2: was going through the questions, it was an interesting thing here, Jamie.
11:35
Speaker 2: It was said, there there's more than tech. It's our story.
11:39
Speaker 1: We are married couple, raising three kids, caring for an
11:41
Speaker 1: aging parent, and building legacy in real time.
11:45
Speaker 2: Talk to me about that.
11:47
Speaker 5: Yeah, so you know it's it's a reality, right, you
11:50
Speaker 5: know where you know, raising you know three black children.
11:54
Speaker 5: You know our oldest has you know a disability, our
11:58
Speaker 5: you know youngest son, you know he has you know, dyslexia.
12:03
Speaker 5: And so for us going through this journey and building
12:07
Speaker 5: this amazing business, it's like yes, we're a married couple.
12:13
Speaker 3: We're in business, but then we're also parents.
12:16
Speaker 5: So it's like, once we deal with all the nonsense
12:19
Speaker 5: that we have to deal with in the business, when
12:21
Speaker 5: we come home, we have to be parents. You know,
12:24
Speaker 5: we have to be there when our daughter, because we
12:26
Speaker 5: know our youngest child, you know, our daughter, you know,
12:31
Speaker 5: when when she got some things going on, you know, we.
12:33
Speaker 2: Got to be there for her.
12:35
Speaker 5: And for our boys, we also have to make sure
12:38
Speaker 5: that we're there for them. So that family dynamic, you know,
12:41
Speaker 5: for us, it's very important, and we're a tight knit group,
12:45
Speaker 5: you know, and so that balance sometimes can be very
12:49
Speaker 5: difficult because a lot of times, you know, we're away,
12:51
Speaker 5: you know, we're at the store, we're at other places.
12:54
Speaker 5: You know, we're doing different things, we're in meetings, and
12:57
Speaker 5: so for us, it's like we're trying to in this
13:00
Speaker 5: balance of being a married couple, you know, being parents,
13:05
Speaker 5: I mean.
13:06
Speaker 4: And also you know it taking care of my mom
13:08
Speaker 4: who has who has the beginning stages of dementia. But
13:11
Speaker 4: I mean, I think that the balance comes in because
13:13
Speaker 4: we make sure that they're involved. So our kids are
13:15
Speaker 4: involved in the business, they're working the day to day operations,
13:18
Speaker 4: like they don't have a choice. I was like, we're
13:20
Speaker 4: building this thing and you're building it too.
13:22
Speaker 5: So you know what they have to realize is that listen,
13:26
Speaker 5: mom and dad is working really hard and they see that,
13:29
Speaker 5: like they really they really see it.
13:30
Speaker 3: And for us, that's important for them to see that.
13:34
Speaker 1: You know, she wasn't gonna let you talk too long
13:35
Speaker 1: that chamber. How might I go ten thousand one, ten
13:39
Speaker 1: thousand two, like jump.
13:43
Speaker 2: Rope with her.
13:46
Speaker 1: To get in to get But I will tell you
13:50
Speaker 1: just something about motivation for your child who has dyslexia. Uh.
13:55
Speaker 1: Steven A. Smith and dyslexia as a child. So you
14:00
Speaker 1: can set your child in front of TV and point
14:03
Speaker 1: at that young man right there and say that can
14:05
Speaker 1: be you. And one of the most articulate, intelligent men
14:11
Speaker 1: in television.
14:12
Speaker 3: Absolutely Steve Smith, right.
14:16
Speaker 1: And the dyslexia. Uh, it was something he was born
14:19
Speaker 1: with and he was able to overcome it. And he
14:22
Speaker 1: is in his book popular book Straight Shooter that he wrote,
14:24
Speaker 1: he talks about it in the detail because sometimes you
14:26
Speaker 1: got a child, got to see that, see the possibilities
14:30
Speaker 1: and uh. And and when you see him, you go
14:33
Speaker 1: unless he tells you that you don't know that was
14:36
Speaker 1: part of his past. And that's part of what this
14:38
Speaker 1: conversation is about is a journey. And that's why I'm
14:41
Speaker 1: so engaged with you as in a couple, because AI
14:45
Speaker 1: is where we're at today. You know, I will tell
14:47
Speaker 1: you when I heard it about three years ago, I
14:51
Speaker 1: was like, okay, whatever, whatever, It's a major part of
14:54
Speaker 1: my company.
14:55
Speaker 6: Now.
14:56
Speaker 1: How I use AI, whether I use it for different platforms,
14:59
Speaker 1: I do use it. So but you said somebody in
15:01
Speaker 1: one of your questions, Jualaila, people.
15:04
Speaker 2: Are not ready for AI. What do you mean by that?
15:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean well many say I'm not We hear that, right,
15:11
Speaker 4: and that's that's a lot of feedback that we get that, Oh,
15:13
Speaker 4: I don't want to I don't want to mess with AI,
15:14
Speaker 4: and they don't even realize that AI is a part
15:17
Speaker 4: of everything that they do.
15:18
Speaker 3: If you have a smartphone in your.
15:20
Speaker 4: Possession, you know AI is involved, right, If you have
15:23
Speaker 4: a lexus, AI is involved. But you know, I think
15:26
Speaker 4: as a culture, and especially as a black culture, we
15:29
Speaker 4: tend to be protective and pause and kind of wait
15:33
Speaker 4: to see what happens first before we jump into the
15:35
Speaker 4: next level of innovation. But in this case, we don't
15:38
Speaker 4: have that opportunity or that time. You know, AI is here,
15:41
Speaker 4: it's not going anywhere. It's you know, it's incorporated into
15:44
Speaker 4: every single aspect of all things that we do at
15:47
Speaker 4: this point, even to grocery, right, and so how at
15:51
Speaker 4: this point for us, you know, we all just have
15:53
Speaker 4: to get on board and start to embrace and see
15:55
Speaker 4: how we can incorporate it into especially our work life,
15:58
Speaker 4: because AI is that.
16:00
Speaker 2: Now we talked about.
16:02
Speaker 1: Don just get back to the journey of why y'all
16:04
Speaker 1: contacted Rashawn McDonald Money Making Conversation.
16:08
Speaker 2: We got to get rid of these food deserts and
16:10
Speaker 2: then you went to lail. I don't know how we
16:13
Speaker 2: got in the food business. The bottom line is the
16:16
Speaker 2: hardest business in the world. Shot. We got out of
16:20
Speaker 2: the meatless game where.
16:21
Speaker 1: We were spelling weed, were telling weed over there, cannabis
16:24
Speaker 1: and schedule the doctors.
16:27
Speaker 2: But we came back because we crazy. We crazy. Stay
16:32
Speaker 2: with us.
16:33
Speaker 8: More Money Making Conversation master class coming up next. Welcome
16:41
Speaker 8: back to Money Making Conversation master Class with me Rashawan McDonalds.
16:45
Speaker 2: So, how do you done? You to Javin, how do
16:47
Speaker 2: you get into this?
16:48
Speaker 1: How do you because it's a one point three trillion
16:51
Speaker 1: dollar business. It's a slow moving business, and I have
16:55
Speaker 1: to believe it's one of those business where everybody can't
16:58
Speaker 1: get into the party.
17:00
Speaker 2: How did you get in?
17:03
Speaker 5: So are we okay? So are we talking about? How
17:05
Speaker 5: did we get into the autonomous grocery game?
17:08
Speaker 1: Before you would you have to get in the grocery
17:10
Speaker 1: game before you become automatic?
17:12
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, before you get technology? Or
17:14
Speaker 2: did you just started simultaneously?
17:17
Speaker 3: This was all in baby?
17:23
Speaker 2: What happened to that? I stumbled in? What happened to that?
17:26
Speaker 2: I learned take on the on the fly? Now, Man,
17:30
Speaker 2: it's a whole land.
17:31
Speaker 1: We went Ai and grouchy simultaneously, because you know the
17:35
Speaker 1: only way I.
17:36
Speaker 3: Was gonna do it.
17:38
Speaker 4: So when we had this idea, this was back in
17:41
Speaker 4: twenty twenty, on the pandemic, right.
17:43
Speaker 1: Right, too much, I stopped stop looking at if I
17:46
Speaker 1: could cut this green off. I stopped looking at him
17:48
Speaker 1: because she's just smiling because he about to jump rope
17:51
Speaker 1: right into this conversation.
17:53
Speaker 5: She's about to no, but I know she's gonna jump in.
17:59
Speaker 5: You know, But this idea, it started back in twenty
18:02
Speaker 5: twenty during the pandemic right. And so even during that time,
18:06
Speaker 5: just creating a business was absolutely crazy, right because of
18:10
Speaker 5: I think that was going on. But for us, we
18:13
Speaker 5: saw something, We saw an opportunity, right, and so yes,
18:18
Speaker 5: we have, you know, experience in food, we have experience
18:21
Speaker 5: in tech. And so we said to ourselves, listen, you know,
18:25
Speaker 5: we're in this community. You know, our kids are, you know,
18:27
Speaker 5: in this community, and we saw a need in this area.
18:31
Speaker 5: So we said to ourselves, hey, you know what, let's
18:34
Speaker 5: go ahead and open up a store. Right. So then
18:38
Speaker 5: we started like going back and forth, well what type
18:40
Speaker 5: of store should we do? You know, we were in
18:42
Speaker 5: the food business before, you know, what are we going
18:44
Speaker 5: to do? So we said to ourselves, hey, you know what,
18:47
Speaker 5: let's let's do maybe some type of like grocery store
18:50
Speaker 5: in this neighborhood because the fact that, you know, there's
18:53
Speaker 5: no grocery stores that are nearby, so in this little place,
18:57
Speaker 5: let's develop something.
18:59
Speaker 3: And then we were like, but wait a minute.
19:01
Speaker 5: You know, it's the pandemic, right, Ain't nobody want to
19:03
Speaker 5: touch each other and be around each other and things
19:06
Speaker 5: like that. So we're like, okay, what can we do
19:09
Speaker 5: that's innovative and different? And so we knew about this technology.
19:13
Speaker 5: The technology autonomous technology has been around for a very
19:17
Speaker 5: long time, and so for us, we said to ourselves, hey,
19:20
Speaker 5: you know what, let's let's let's do that. Let's do
19:23
Speaker 5: something different, because if people don't want to be in
19:26
Speaker 5: contact with each other, let's create something to where they
19:30
Speaker 5: can have twenty four hour access to food. And so
19:35
Speaker 5: from there we just we just went in. We went in,
19:40
Speaker 5: we strategized, we planned it, and when I tell you,
19:43
Speaker 5: in less than a year, we were able to open.
19:45
Speaker 1: Up our first store. Okay with the autonomous technology. Okay, cool,
19:50
Speaker 1: so these are not prototypes. You guys have actual stores, correct, Yeah, okay,
19:56
Speaker 1: is jump open time. Let's talk about from prototype to reality.
20:02
Speaker 1: We're working one people maybe using your storefront and don't
20:07
Speaker 1: even know it.
20:08
Speaker 2: Talk to us.
20:09
Speaker 3: Yeah.
20:10
Speaker 4: So we started, as Jamie said, the first store right
20:12
Speaker 4: where we were in the community.
20:14
Speaker 3: So that was a food desert.
20:15
Speaker 4: I do want to make sure that we talk about
20:17
Speaker 4: that because the closest grocery store was fifteen minutes away,
20:19
Speaker 4: so That'sville, Georgia.
20:21
Speaker 3: So that was our flagship store.
20:22
Speaker 2: I've read about that.
20:24
Speaker 4: So that we opened and so we were really excited
20:27
Speaker 4: about opening that store. And then we learned, as you know,
20:31
Speaker 4: quickly on as we were opening our store, we talked
20:33
Speaker 4: about our mission being twenty four to seven access for everyone,
20:36
Speaker 4: that we couldn't service everyone and so if you had
20:40
Speaker 4: EBT in frictionless checkout, you couldn't take it. And so
20:43
Speaker 4: for us, at that point we went back and started
20:46
Speaker 4: to redevelop our solution and kept our flagship store open,
20:50
Speaker 4: still operational, but we said, we got to make sure
20:53
Speaker 4: that everybody can shop in our stores. And so this
20:55
Speaker 4: year we actually became the first in the country to
20:57
Speaker 4: be able to accept EBT in this zero check out environment,
21:01
Speaker 4: and that was perfect timing for where we opened our
21:03
Speaker 4: second store in Cascade Heights, which is also a historic
21:06
Speaker 4: food desert. Amazing history in Cascade Heights area in Atlanta,
21:11
Speaker 4: but when it came to food accessibility, it was really
21:14
Speaker 4: tough for those residents, and so we were super excited
21:16
Speaker 4: to then bring our technology and our grocery store solution
21:19
Speaker 4: to that community.
21:20
Speaker 3: So that's our second store.
21:22
Speaker 4: So those are the two areas currently and we're building
21:25
Speaker 4: three more stores right now.
21:27
Speaker 1: Okay from my audience and me, EBT stands for what
21:31
Speaker 1: and who uses EBT.
21:33
Speaker 4: So EBT is the government subsidy for food access so
21:36
Speaker 4: sometimes called SNAP. It's supplemental nutritional benefits that the government
21:41
Speaker 4: provides if you meet a certain income qualification.
21:44
Speaker 3: And so.
21:46
Speaker 4: You know, even that technology has evolved, right, It used
21:48
Speaker 4: to be like paper like dollars, and now everyone has
21:51
Speaker 4: a hard based version of that. But prior to us,
21:56
Speaker 4: if you came into a store like ours with this
21:59
Speaker 4: level of tech technology is the method of checkout, you
22:02
Speaker 4: couldn't shop. And so you know, we said that's not okay.
22:06
Speaker 4: And so for us, we went back and started to
22:09
Speaker 4: redevelop our technology so that if you do have SNAP,
22:11
Speaker 4: you can shop, because you should be able to shop
22:13
Speaker 4: anywhere that you.
22:14
Speaker 2: Want to shop.
22:19
Speaker 4: I mean, just to be just to be clear about
22:21
Speaker 4: the shopping part, right, is that you know, people could
22:25
Speaker 4: go to, you know, an autonomous store to shop.
22:29
Speaker 3: But here's the difference.
22:31
Speaker 4: They would have to be taken out of that environment
22:34
Speaker 4: and they would have to check out separately from that
22:38
Speaker 4: autonomous grocery store. We are actually the first company to
22:43
Speaker 4: provide people with EBT SNAP benefits that they could actually
22:47
Speaker 4: shop inside our frictionless store, pick up an item, walk out,
22:52
Speaker 4: and they're done. They don't have to sit there and
22:54
Speaker 4: talk to a staff member separately to go ahead and
22:57
Speaker 4: do that.
22:58
Speaker 3: So that's dignity back, right.
22:59
Speaker 4: Just because you might have to have some assistance at
23:02
Speaker 4: the time in your life doesn't mean that you have
23:03
Speaker 4: to be you know, and have that embarrassment or that
23:05
Speaker 4: level of exactly. So now you get to shop them
23:09
Speaker 4: the same method as everybody else.
23:10
Speaker 1: Okay, now it comes down to the big question security.
23:14
Speaker 1: How do you stop people for buying ticket stuff they
23:17
Speaker 1: not buying?
23:18
Speaker 2: Well, we through that stuff, because that's that's in my mind.
23:21
Speaker 1: Go Okay, you're in the store there.
23:30
Speaker 2: I know people. I'm not saying people, but I do
23:33
Speaker 2: know people exactly shot McDonald college in.
23:38
Speaker 3: That exactly exactly.
23:42
Speaker 4: So when you come into the store, there's a turnstyle,
23:45
Speaker 4: and the turnstyle is when you scan your app or
23:47
Speaker 4: you tap your card at that point and authorization is taken.
23:50
Speaker 3: The door doesn't even open unless you have fun.
23:53
Speaker 2: Now, I got all that, I got all that I
23:55
Speaker 2: was with and.
23:56
Speaker 4: There's fifty plus cameras on the ceiling, right, So the
24:01
Speaker 4: technology is watching what you're picking up and what you're
24:03
Speaker 4: putting back, not to scary, but I mean it's also
24:06
Speaker 4: identifying who you are, right, So I mean what we've found, honestly,
24:10
Speaker 4: it's been a huge deterrence because what you've seen in
24:12
Speaker 4: the grocery industry about shrinkage is that, especially post pandemic,
24:15
Speaker 4: where everybody went to that self checkout process, there's a
24:18
Speaker 4: tremendous amount of honest shrink. And honest shrink is I'm
24:21
Speaker 4: at the grocery store. I put a case of water
24:22
Speaker 4: under my cart. I got all this stuff in the
24:24
Speaker 4: main cart, and by the time I check out and
24:27
Speaker 4: I put the bags back, and I forgot I had
24:28
Speaker 4: that water underneath the cart. And you walk out with
24:30
Speaker 4: that water for free. And so a lot of retailers
24:33
Speaker 4: are seeing a tremendous amount of increase in shrinkage for
24:36
Speaker 4: the honest shrink the ones that you do you don't
24:37
Speaker 4: even know realize that you didn't bring up that one.
24:41
Speaker 4: All of that gets taken away with our technology, right,
24:44
Speaker 4: So we found that a shrink for us is extremely low.
24:47
Speaker 3: And secondly, more people are so.
24:49
Speaker 4: Like cautious, like they're just like, I want to make
24:51
Speaker 4: sure I paid.
24:52
Speaker 3: Like because I hey, like they know they'll send an email.
24:54
Speaker 3: Let's want to make sure, let's steal it all I
24:56
Speaker 3: was charged. And so we nominally right because they see.
24:59
Speaker 2: It cameras pop out.
25:02
Speaker 4: Hey, so yeah, and they're also just happy to have
25:06
Speaker 4: an option. Right, We're going in the areas that have
25:08
Speaker 4: been begging for food, absolutely and now they do.
25:12
Speaker 1: So I'm there with you got all these cameras, So
25:16
Speaker 1: somebody has something that they didn't purchase or how does
25:21
Speaker 1: that work because you told about the cameras. You told
25:23
Speaker 1: them about all the scanners. Okay, so they go through
25:27
Speaker 1: the checkout sign self checkout.
25:30
Speaker 5: No, no, there's no, there's no there's no checkouts. So okay,
25:34
Speaker 5: so I'll break it down. Okay, when you when you.
25:37
Speaker 4: First enter our store, Okay, Before that, we actually have
25:40
Speaker 4: our Nurse and Blue Market app.
25:42
Speaker 2: Okay, so you would have to add.
25:44
Speaker 4: Your payments your debit card, credit card, or your.
25:48
Speaker 5: Ebt and you can add that to the app. Okay,
25:50
Speaker 5: you also have another option to where you can just
25:53
Speaker 5: tell but from there, we've already captured your payment information.
25:59
Speaker 5: So one you actually walk inside the store, the cameras
26:03
Speaker 5: up above is actually tracking you everywhere within the store.
26:09
Speaker 3: So whatever you pick up or put back, that system knows.
26:12
Speaker 4: So you know, if you pick something up and you
26:15
Speaker 4: want to throw it across the room to your homeboy.
26:16
Speaker 3: Hey, go out ahead, you already got charged.
26:20
Speaker 4: If you want to eat half of it in the
26:23
Speaker 4: if you want to go around and drink everything and
26:25
Speaker 4: put it back on the shelf and eat and go
26:27
Speaker 4: round of ahead, knock yourself out.
26:28
Speaker 3: But when you leave that store, you're gonna get charged.
26:30
Speaker 2: Right.
26:32
Speaker 5: It's a very intelligent system. And so it's a combination
26:37
Speaker 5: of weighted sensors on the shelves and that's how we
26:39
Speaker 5: can tell so like when if you pick something up
26:41
Speaker 5: and drink it and put it back, it can tell
26:44
Speaker 5: that weight difference. And then also we have our cameras
26:47
Speaker 5: up above that's also tracking what you're picking up and
26:51
Speaker 5: who is actually within the store itself. So it's a
26:54
Speaker 5: very smart system. So once you're inside, there is no stealing.
26:57
Speaker 5: Once you're inside and you walk out with the item,
27:00
Speaker 5: you take an item.
27:01
Speaker 2: You're paying for it.
27:02
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm talking to Jelaya and Jamie Hemmings, the founders
27:07
Speaker 1: co visionary.
27:08
Speaker 2: They are visionary.
27:09
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you I've had the people on the show,
27:11
Speaker 1: but these two are visionaries. Co founders of Norrish and
27:15
Speaker 1: bloom Market started in Fairville and Cascade. You have two
27:19
Speaker 1: locations when we talked about grocery stores.
27:21
Speaker 2: Now, when I went through my.
27:23
Speaker 1: Questions that were sent to me, they said, dude, you
27:25
Speaker 1: have too high ya I have some high visibility locations
27:29
Speaker 1: like a Mercedes been Stadium.
27:30
Speaker 2: Is that correct? We do? Okay, but you didn't mention that.
27:35
Speaker 3: I know. That's that our technology has evolved.
27:40
Speaker 2: Again again miss Stumbler information Jamie I was.
27:48
Speaker 1: I was like, resisted, Jamie, maybe she's bringing this because
27:52
Speaker 1: she she said, that's it.
27:54
Speaker 3: No technology you continue to see involved.
27:57
Speaker 4: So what we realized was that everyone might not be
28:01
Speaker 4: at the space to have a right and so we
28:04
Speaker 4: realized that we could still service through utilizing the same
28:08
Speaker 4: technology that Jamie described, but condensing it down to a
28:11
Speaker 4: single door. So think about a fridge door in a
28:13
Speaker 4: grocery store embedded with our technology that you can tap
28:16
Speaker 4: a card or you can scan our app and door opens,
28:19
Speaker 4: you can grab whatever you want and be able to
28:21
Speaker 4: walk out. So we've been able to support Mercedes Benz
28:23
Speaker 4: Stadium employees so that when maybe there's not an event
28:26
Speaker 4: or game, that they still have access to good food
28:29
Speaker 4: because our fridges are supporting them there. And we've actually
28:33
Speaker 4: helped American Heart Association with that as well, and so
28:37
Speaker 4: just how do we get into food deserts as fast
28:39
Speaker 4: as we can. We can implement those really quickly and
28:42
Speaker 4: deploy those super fast so that we can ensure that,
28:45
Speaker 4: you know, the food desert issues goes away as quickly
28:49
Speaker 4: as possible.
28:50
Speaker 1: And the information I got to pull out a hard Jamie.
28:53
Speaker 2: Is too much, too much. I know, I'm messing what
29:01
Speaker 2: you delated, But Jamie, he's no better. He's no better.
29:05
Speaker 3: I'm not.
29:06
Speaker 6: This is an old man conversation and we can't get
29:08
Speaker 6: up on you.
29:10
Speaker 2: He is no better.
29:11
Speaker 6: Now together now, a couple of NBA, ordinary people.
29:23
Speaker 1: Ordinary kids be going They just not telling the truth.
29:29
Speaker 1: Uh e b ts. We talked about that they are
29:31
Speaker 1: under threat, and we talked about that when the Trump
29:33
Speaker 1: administration or the administration in general, how would that impact
29:37
Speaker 1: what you're trying to accomplish, what your committed technology efforts.
29:42
Speaker 2: And in these communities that lack banks, that lack.
29:46
Speaker 1: Food or food is reasonably priced, not that corner drug
29:51
Speaker 1: store got old stuff or stuff that's priced out of
29:54
Speaker 1: line or don't have the stuff that they will get
29:56
Speaker 1: if you walked out of the community and you see
29:58
Speaker 1: that available on other people's share how's that dealing with
30:01
Speaker 1: you and what impact can that have on your business?
30:04
Speaker 3: I mean it has significant impact.
30:06
Speaker 4: I think you know when you see the cuts that
30:08
Speaker 4: he's looking to do over the next ten.
30:10
Speaker 3: Years for Snap, right, I think you know.
30:12
Speaker 4: So for us, it's you know, so that you know
30:15
Speaker 4: that could be you know, a meal or two or
30:17
Speaker 4: three that's missed when you think about it and quantify
30:19
Speaker 4: it for a family. And so that's why, in addition
30:24
Speaker 4: to just providing food, we're really passionate about workforce innovation
30:29
Speaker 4: and how are we helping our communities to be a
30:31
Speaker 4: part of this new tech revolution, right, because we have
30:34
Speaker 4: to start coming up with additional income power because you know,
30:38
Speaker 4: for them, they're trying to pull as many resources as
30:40
Speaker 4: they can from us and we have to replace that
30:43
Speaker 4: and AI can help us do that. And so that's
30:44
Speaker 4: why we've been doing a lot around workforce. But an
30:47
Speaker 4: interesting thing about Snap is that when you think about
30:49
Speaker 4: these big box stores, about thirty percent of their revenue.
30:52
Speaker 4: So think about a Walmart, right, because people are like
30:54
Speaker 4: Snap and they turn their face down, but thirty percent
30:57
Speaker 4: of Walmart's revenue comes from eb T, right, So this
31:00
Speaker 4: is a pretty significant I mean that's a multi you know,
31:03
Speaker 4: trillion dollar company at this point, right, Like, think about
31:06
Speaker 4: that and the impact that it's going to have. So
31:08
Speaker 4: I'm hoping that these big block stores along with us,
31:11
Speaker 4: will you know, shout that this is really going to
31:13
Speaker 4: not only impact these communities, but it's going to impact
31:15
Speaker 4: the businesses that serve these communities as well. But that's
31:20
Speaker 4: why we're just pushing for local first, and so we
31:23
Speaker 4: can keep our costs down as much as possible so
31:25
Speaker 4: that they can afford more working with farms locally as well,
31:30
Speaker 4: and just you know, helping them to gain this necessary
31:33
Speaker 4: skills necessary that they need to be able to participate
31:37
Speaker 4: so that we can help them to earn some additional
31:39
Speaker 4: dollars for their family.
31:40
Speaker 1: I would tell you some Jalala and Jamie Hemmings, it's
31:45
Speaker 1: a blessing man. I you know, sometimes my platform I
31:53
Speaker 1: wish was bigger because people more people need to hear
31:56
Speaker 1: your story. More people need to be more people of
31:59
Speaker 1: our community to be proud of what you're doing.
32:02
Speaker 2: But they don't know what you're doing.
32:04
Speaker 1: And so every once when I get an interview on
32:07
Speaker 1: my show, that just frusted me, frustrating me because I
32:09
Speaker 1: would what could I do more.
32:10
Speaker 2: What can I get the word ou because.
32:12
Speaker 1: Y'all are so brilliant, y'all so yeah, So I'm lucky
32:16
Speaker 1: to interview you.
32:17
Speaker 2: I'm lucky to have y'all in my life today.
32:20
Speaker 1: And I believe forty years from now, you know, you
32:23
Speaker 1: guys are gonna be a legacy for somebody to look
32:25
Speaker 1: back and go, you know.
32:26
Speaker 2: Them Hmmings, that's what they did, the Hymans.
32:28
Speaker 1: The Hemmings family can be our Rockefeller family could be
32:31
Speaker 1: you know, our Kennedy type family. And I believe that
32:35
Speaker 1: because but what I will tell y'all on this show,
32:38
Speaker 1: stop underselling y'allselves.
32:40
Speaker 2: Y'all are too brilliant, amazing.
32:43
Speaker 1: I'm not selling. I'm not saying y'all all, but I'm
32:45
Speaker 1: just talking about Stan McDonough. Y'all are too brilliant, amazing
32:49
Speaker 1: individuals who understand the ability to pivot, understand the ability
32:56
Speaker 1: to overcome the arts, and you give back and along
33:00
Speaker 1: the way many people benefit from that. And I want
33:03
Speaker 1: to tell you that for myself, I've been around long
33:06
Speaker 1: enough and I made a lot of people famous in
33:08
Speaker 1: this life and made a lot of people a lot
33:10
Speaker 1: of money in this life.
33:12
Speaker 2: You two people are very very special. That's all I
33:16
Speaker 2: got to say. That's all.
33:17
Speaker 3: I we appreciate that. That doesn't mean a lot.
33:22
Speaker 4: It's a lot of hard work and sometimes we feel
33:25
Speaker 4: like we're.
33:28
Speaker 3: That's how we have each other.
33:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's any platforms like you all.
33:33
Speaker 4: This really helped to share like what we're doing because
33:36
Speaker 4: we wanted, I mean, it doesn't want to just be
33:38
Speaker 4: an Atlanta thing, and we've actually started to go outside
33:40
Speaker 4: of Atlanta.
33:40
Speaker 3: We want to really help food deserts all over the country.
33:43
Speaker 1: Well, I'm gonna do my best to uh make some
33:46
Speaker 1: connections and if I can get other interviews, other platforms
33:49
Speaker 1: for you, the TV mediums. So if you get some calls, hey,
33:53
Speaker 1: we heard with Sean McDonald's about you know that I'm
33:57
Speaker 1: out there.
33:57
Speaker 2: I'm a bullhorned for the Hemings. Okay, you know, but
34:02
Speaker 2: you this is great.
34:03
Speaker 1: This has been a fun interview, but an informative interview
34:06
Speaker 1: and a journey down memory lane from of y'all ain't
34:09
Speaker 1: got good memory Okay, numbling at the money.
34:12
Speaker 2: Let me just read it. Let me as we close
34:15
Speaker 2: the show, let me.
34:15
Speaker 1: Let y'all know about the Hemi's meatless meatless meals for kids. Uh,
34:21
Speaker 1: they stumbled on some tech here and while they was stumbling,
34:25
Speaker 1: because they got two nbas. They are created a scheduling
34:29
Speaker 1: platform for cannabis, and they're scheduling platform for pharmaceuticals. And
34:34
Speaker 1: if you need a doctor, just undo that doctor.
34:38
Speaker 2: Another doctor slide and the slot.
34:39
Speaker 1: They started an autonomous grocery store in Fairville, not one
34:43
Speaker 1: of the Cascade. They got their little stores and men
34:45
Speaker 1: say these bands and troll those studios, but they don't
34:47
Speaker 1: say that really loud because that makes them sound too good.
34:50
Speaker 1: But I'm here to tell you they are fantastic. They're
34:54
Speaker 1: making a ground many great movement in the grocery store industry,
34:58
Speaker 1: and she's they're using a to do it. Thank you
35:01
Speaker 1: for coming on Money Making Conversations Masterclass, y'all, a blessed you,
35:04
Speaker 1: Thank you, hemmy.
35:05
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having us.
35:10
Speaker 8: This has been Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashaun McDonald.
35:14
Speaker 8: Thanks to our guests and our audience. Visit Moneymakingconversations dot
35:19
Speaker 8: com to listen and register to be a guest.