New Grocery Store Housed in a Shipping Container

Cities across the U.S. are battling “food deserts,” which are typically lower-income neighborhoods that don’t have a grocery store. Among the businesses seeking to overcome that problem is black-owned, Atlanta-based Nutrition + Bloom Market, which runs three AI-powered zero-checkout grocery stores.

The company’s first two stores – one in Fayetteville, Ga., and the other on Atlanta’s west side – are housed in conventional buildings. But the brand’s latest concept, which debuted last month in Atlanta’s Pittsburgh Yards development, is housed in a shipping container.

Nourish + Bloom co-founders Jilea and Jamie Hemmings note that the Pittsburgh neighborhood is an appropriate place for such an effort, as it was founded in 1883 by formerly enslaved people and grew into one of the city’s earliest and most vibrant centers of Black entrepreneurship and homeownership.

The former industrial and rail site, which sits about 4 miles south of downtown Atlanta, was reborn in late 2020 as a community-driven development designed to grow equitable career, entrepreneurship and wealth-building opportunities for the neighborhood’s residents. The latest Nourish + Bloom Market is set within the development’s unique Container Courtyard, which is home to a variety of Black-owned retail and service businesses all housed in such vessels.

“We build and deploy zero checkout retail technology for the places people live, work, learn and travel, and we are the only solution that leaves no one behind,” said Jilea Hemmings, CEO and Co-Founder of Nourish + Bloom Market. “Bringing that to Pittsburgh Yards, in a neighborhood that has waited far too long for reliable access to fresh food, is exactly why we started this company.”

Using a combination of artificial intelligence, computer vision and smart sensors lets customers walk in, select their items, and leave without stopping to scan or wait in a checkout line. The store operates around the clock, carries fresh produce, meat, dairy, baked goods, prepared meals and household essentials, and is staffed by team members on hand to assist. The market accepts SNAP and EBT benefits, reflecting the company’s founding commitment to making healthy food accessible to everyone.

The opening advances the shared goals of the city of Atlanta and Invest Atlanta, which have made eliminating food deserts a priority through efforts such as Invest Atlanta’s Grocery Store Initiative. In addition, Nourish + Bloom Market has been a partner in the Atlanta Beltline’s Digital Inclusion and Smart Cities Initiative, which uses technology to address urban challenges including food access, connectivity and wellness.

Nourish + Bloom is also planning another container-based store, on Atlanta’s Freedom Parkway, according to the brand’s website. Specifics on when that locale will open were not immediately available.