12/29/2023 0 Comments Green zebra grocery locations![]() His family burger chain temporarily closed, the movie business closed and he was invested in a chain of gyms and they closed during the pandemic as well. He and his businesses, like so many others, were deeply affected by the severity of the pandemic. Some people ask me if I blame Mark Wahlberg for not investing after he said he would. On top of that, our primary lender called their loan, which was the final straw for us. We needed a Hail Mary and like many a close football game, we didn’t land it. ![]() ![]() We fought like hell to keep the Green Zebra afloat but we just couldn’t raise additional capital and meanwhile, costs were soaring, our supply chain was suffering and sales in our other two stores were starting to decline because unlike the large chain stores, who have deep cash reserves, we definitely did not have the luxury of absorbing the increased costs. ![]() And while we did reopen our PSU store, the business district store was permanently closed. So we closed two of our four stores and closed our store-support office in an effort to stem the bleeding. This was at a time when we were hemorrhaging cash because one of our stores was on a college campus and the campus shut down during the pandemic and another of our locations was in a business district and almost no one was going to the office. He said if I could raise another $4m, he would move forward with his investment. At a time when we really needed the investment, we couldn’t get it. That’s when things started to go South for us. We had dreams of 100 stores on the West Coast and I often said that if 7-11 copies us, that’s a big win because it means we changed what it means to be a convenience store in America-for the better of course! And then in March of 2020, the pandemic hit, and our primary investor, Mark Wahlberg (I know, kind of weird right?) said he would like to hit the pause button on his investment. In February of 2020, we were just 14 days away from closing our Series B round of financing that would help us grow our next 10 stores. Our stores were designed to be shopped by the meal and our eaters (aka customers) generally bought a few things each day-so we saw many of our neighbors on the daily and we got to know them and forged many friendships throughout our 10-year history.Īll of our stores were profitable prior to the pandemic. We focused on opening stores in underserved neighborhoods. Our goal at Green Zebra was to disrupt the traditional convenience store model and make it healthier, offer more locally focused, healthy foods and beverages, and take care of our staff and neighbors, with fair wage jobs and great healthcare benefits. Many neighborhoods lack access to healthy foods and only have a convenience store to serve the needs of the community. Most convenience stores are not involved in supporting their communities and many actually contribute to negative health and financial outcomes with their low-quality food offerings, poor pay, lack of benefits, and emphasis on selling lottery tickets, which is basically a de facto regressive tax on the poor. Convenience stores are often not the best places for people to work because they are known for paying less than other food retailers and not offering full benefits or a safe and clean place to work. Most convenience stores make their money selling cigarettes, lottery tickets, giant sugary drinks, and junk food. Our model was a mash-up between Whole Foods and 7-11. Green Zebra Grocery was founded a little over 10 years ago with a mission to increase access to healthy food. On March 31st, 2023, Green Zebra Grocery closed its doors permanently.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |