Has the “Buy Black” movement made a difference for food entrepreneurs?

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Ashley Rouse was terrified when she began receiving media inquiries for major publications featuring black-owned businesses last June. The founder and CEO of Brooklyn-based Trade Street Jam Co. said her team experienced “crazy growth” between January and June, with monthly sales skyrocketing from $ 1,500 to $ 80,000, and that she was holding on to a thread to follow.

“At the beginning of June, I was 8 months pregnant and swollen all over,” Rouse recalls. “I was up day and night with my husband, my mother and a team of two, desperately trying to follow these blessings that I had prayed for so long. But I was. Tired!”

The murder of George Floyd mobilized hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets around the world in protest against police brutality and in solidarity with black life last summer; at the same time, dozens of social media posts and roundups have been circulated online with headlines such as “How to Support Black-Owned Businesses” and “Support Black-Owned Restaurants Now!”

Many black food companies and entrepreneurs have seen an influx of customers. According to a press release from Yelp, in 2020 the company saw a 2,400% increase in searches for “black-owned” restaurants compared to 2019. “When I started getting calls and e- mails, all I could think of was, ‘Holy shit. It’s going to snowball, ”Rouse said. “And that’s what he did. Between June and December 2020, Trade Street Jam Co. appeared in nearly 150 roundups or features, including Food Network, People, and The New York Times.

“I almost passed out for the rest of the year,” Rouse says. “We made $ 100,000 every month after that. I hate to say it, but it was like a perfect storm.

For many business owners, seeing a resurgence of interest from new customers (and the increase in sales it has brought) accompanied by a repetitive and public devaluation of their humanity is mild at best. -bitter. And that has left many struggling with the implications of this change.

“I think it was an invitation for people to explore their curiosity,” says Todd Minor, co-owner of Nana’s Southern Kitchen in Kent, Washington. “It exposed Nana to so many different types of people.”

Todd Minor from Nana's Southern Kitchen.  (Photo credit: Vetala Hawkins)

Todd Minor from Nana’s Southern Kitchen. (Photo credit: Vetala Hawkins)

Minor serves fried chicken and other Southern staples in a take-out format, and he says the community supported the restaurant during the first half of the year despite ordering from home statewide. Then, during the first week of June, its customer pool grew dramatically. By the end of 2020, its first full year of operation, the restaurant had far exceeded expectations, serving 35,000 customers.

It’s unclear whether people like Minor will see the same fervor from new customers in the months to come, as Black Lives Matters coverage has been replaced by other news. But Minor hopes he can keep many of the relationships he’s forged over the past year.

“We have won these customers for life. The majority of them have become Nana’s clients and not only [for] opportunistic support for black businesses or because of the current expectation of doing so, ”he says. And, he adds, “I still expect Juneteenth to be a big day.”

Other black business owners across the country have also seen the wave of new customers die off, but they’re here for the long haul.

“Many of us are still in the spotlight [in the media]Rouse says. “I think racism is still very much in everyone’s mind. This is the start of a process that will take decades. “

Capture corporate dollars

Along with increased customer interest, a number of Fortune 500 companies have publicly reported donating to Black Lives Matter and social justice groups, advancing racial equity, and providing capital and other means. support for black-owned businesses. But was it just performance, or are companies still delivering on promises they made last year?

Rouse says several companies and brands have contacted her for collaborations and partnerships. Even though “it’s hard to say what people’s intentions are,” she says, those she’s worked with went “the extra mile to make sure it wasn’t a one-time thing.”

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