For residents of Bushwick, Brooklyn, snacks like Slim Jim and Arizona Iced Tea may be readily available (and inexpensive) at a slew of neighborhood bodegas, but the same can’t necessarily be said for their better-for-you counterparts—like Chomps grass-fed beef sticks or Sound’s low-sugar sparkling tea.

Since debuting a year ago, a nonprofit called Wellfare has worked to change that. It distributes free boxes of premium CPG food products to low-income families in Bushwick, with plans to expand to East Harlem this month.

“A lot of these food brands that are making all these innovative products are hitting Whole Foods, and hitting Sprouts, and all these great grocery stores,” founder and CEO Cole Riley told Retail Brew. “At the end of the day, they are premium products that are [sold] at higher prices. And when you look at neighborhoods, whether in New York City or across the country, that really rely on low-cost grocery options, families that have to go to food pantries, they cannot access this big wave of premium products.”

Well-placed

In early 2020, Riley was just a few months into running a food content studio in New York City when the pandemic hit. He quickly pivoted to found an initiative called Founders Give, rallying food and bev companies from Kind to Chobani to donate products to frontline health care workers across the city.

• The 10-week-long project ultimately brought together 300+ brands, delivering 2.2 million products to first responders in New York City, according to the campaign.

Now with a number of industry connections, Riley said he saw an “opportunity to build something that’s pointed at communities,” and debuted Wellfare in February 2021 with the goal to “flip the food-pantry model.”

Outside the box: The nonprofit works with brands—including LaCroix and Vital Proteins—to collect donated, pre-packaged snacks and bevs (all shelf-stable), and then organizes them into boxes and delivers them to participants who are either living in public housing or enrolled in SNAP—straight to their doors or to a pickup point.

Every two weeks, they receive boxes containing $150–$175 worth of goods like chickpea pasta or low-sugar cereal (Riley noted that it’s in need of more bev partners since the price of shipping them has been so high).

Along with donations from brands, it’s gotten financial support from Whole Foods and The Coca-Cola Foundation, and has industry leaders like Imperfect Foods co-founder Benjamin Chesler on its board.

• In Brooklyn, Wellfare now typically serves 1,100+ people, with ~50 families signing up every two weeks, Riley said.

Click here to read more.—EC

Another day, another company dipping its toes into secondhand: Childrenswear subscription service Dopple yesterday made the leap into resale in partnership with Treet, a resale-as-a-service company.

Fashion statement: Entering the resale market was pretty intuitive for Dopple. “Kids wear out clothes, so there’s just not as many cycles you can get,” CEO and co-founder Chao Wang told Retail Brew. “So that’s why renting is not great for kids. You’re not going to get as many turns as you would out of a…gown or something.”

• With the new service, called ReDopple, anyone can purchase secondhand goods from Dopple’s 380+ brands—like Bonpoint and Rylee + Cru—while sellers can get 80% of the sale value in cash or 100% in credit to use at Dopple.

The big picture: Dopple is cashing in on a resale market that’s expected to reach $77 billion by 2025, according to a 2021 ThredUp report.

• One in two moms with young kids plan to spend more on secondhand in the next five years, per ThredUp.

“We noticed there were all these Facebook buy, sell, trade, groups, and they’re mostly moms buying, selling, and trading these specific brands that we carry,” Wang said. “So we’re like, ‘Okay, there’s definitely an appetite for like slow fashion that has resale value.’”

+1: Read more about resale’s big picture in our Q&A with ThredUp CEO James Reinhart.—KM

Since debuting The Folklore in 2018, founder and CEO Amira Rasool wanted to shine a spotlight on emerging designers and brands from Africa. And over the years, as she built the DTC platform, Rasool received requests from curious retailers interested in partnering with these brands, too—but they simply “didn’t know how to get in touch” with them, she told Retail Brew.

The result is The Folklore Connect, its new online B2B wholesale platform that links global retailers with African and diasporic brands.

• “This was a…way to really build fanfare around these brands and get them familiarized in this market,” Rasool said.
• Part of the company’s recent $1.7 million pre-seed funding round was used to create Connect.

Link up: A pilot is underway with 15 retailers and 25+ brands, including Rich Mnisi, Orange Culture, and The Underargument, with the platform set to open to the public this August.

Rasool said she’s on the lookout for more companies—criteria include either being based in Africa or having at least one Black founder. Folklore will also consider factors like whether the biz has been operational for at least two years.

• Brands should also have the “ambition to scale globally,” she noted, and, in part, “make an impact in their community.”

Ultimately, the goal is to create one central location where brands can manage all of their wholesale. “Whereas the DTC platform…was strictly to get these goods in the hands of the end consumer…we are now going to be connecting brands with retailers to better facilitate wholesale transactions that will provide the end consumer with even more options of where to buy these products,” Rasool said.—JS

Today’s top retail reads.

Fresh start: How the rise of e-commerce during the pandemic fueled growth in the natural-deodorant category. (Adweek)

Price out: Telfar, known for its more affordable luxury bags, has seen backlash over the cost of its new $567 Circle Bag, highlighting the heightened criticism that Black-owned luxury brands often face. (The Cut)

Retail therapy: Many shoppers are welcoming the return of in-person shopping, eager for the social interaction that online shopping lacks. (The Atlantic)

Money moves: Money With Katie is our weekly newsletter that takes a fresh approach to spending habits, investing best practices, and tax strategies. Finance bros are out, accessible personal finance is in. Check it out.

The big number you need to know.

People in the US and UK may not agree on what football is, but shoppers in both places do agree on the importance of shopping sustainably. As for their reasons why (and how), well…we’re back to some differences. According to a report by consumer data firm First Insight, 30% of UK consumers polled preferred to shop sustainably to cut down their carbon footprint, versus 22% of US consumers who said the same.

• More than half (57%) of UK consumers sell products to secondhand retailers, while 61% of US consumers said they don’t do so at all.

There were also slight disparities in how to even define “sustainability.” Half of UK consumers think of it as “products made from recycled, sustainable, and naturally harvested fibers and materials,” and 45% of US consumers agreed with that meaning.

Common ground: Both were willing to spend $$ to be green, with 83% of US and UK customers agreeing they’d shell out at least 10% more on sustainable products.—JS

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• Startup Clyde is betting the extended warranty is poised for a glow-up
• A primer on how the pandemic has changed the beauty biz
• Why Reformation decided to outsource its recycling program