Nourish + Bloom Market Will Open 500  Autonomous Grocery Stores

Nourish + Bloom Market has partnered with UST, a move which will allow the autonomous grocery store to be able to deploy 500-plus stores in the US.

The startup’s first store opened last month in Fayetteville, GA. Nourish + Bloom Market is an autonomous grocery store with robotic delivery and the “first African American owned autonomous grocery store in the world.” The 1,500-square-foot Fayetteville store stocks more than 1,500 SKUs, such as produce, meats, baked goods, dairy and prepared meals, alongside everyday grocery items with no checkout. Autonomous shopping, vending, and robotic delivery provide round-the-clock access.

The new store is the result of the unique collaboration of three technology companies, Hitachi Vantara, SHEKEL Brainweigh, and UST. UST has provided an end-to-end solution and project management services for implementing a Hybrid Frictionless Check-Out Store, enabling Nourish + Bloom Market to drive their store operations at ease in the long run.

“The idea of the store occurred to us during the pandemic,” said Jilea Hemmings, Founder, and CEO of Nourish + Bloom Market. “We wanted to provide a solution for customers where they wouldn’t have to wait in line or touch anything while checking out. With UST’s help, we have successfully created a Hybrid autonomous technology to offer that solution and combat food insecurities in underserved communities. We are confident that this technology will change how customers shop in the next 3 to 5 years.”

Customers can now shop without checkout lines and have 24x7x365 access to real food and environmentally friendly household supplies. Delivery robots named Nourish and Bloom can also deliver products in temperature-controlled compartments right at the customer’s doorstep. UST’s innovative digital solutions have helped design a quick retail shopping experience.

“The store uses UST Vision Checkout for large merchandise assortment outside an autonomous store,” said Subhodip Bandyopadhyay, General Manager-Emerging Technology, UST.  “UST Vision Checkout is a self-checkout POS that uses Computer Vision to identify SKUs. Along with this, Voice and Gesture AI technology leads to a 3X faster checkout experience for customers of Nourish & Bloom. Hybrid autonomous store technology uses Intel’s Edge optimized technology infrastructure and uses multiple Microsoft technologies including Azure Cloud.”

The automated product recognition in Nourish & Bloom Market WIWO store is performed by Shekel Product Aware Technology (PAT), based on patented IoT Load sensors, AI models, and Machine Learning algorithms. SHEKEL’s product identification technology enables accurate and real-time product recognition technology. Hitachi’s 3D LiDAR technology enables monitoring customers and linking products to their shopping cart without compromising customer privacy.