micro-markets
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365 Retail Markets sells the shortest trip to lunch.
A sandwich is only convenient if you can reach it on your break. 365 Retail Markets built a business around that small problem - then made an $848 million bet on the machinery behind it.
Karla Borland and the business that stayed open after hours
After 17 years in banking, Karla Borland founded Morsl to bring self-service food markets into workplaces. The office was her starting point; the warehouse changed the direction of her business.
New Stand sold the small things. Then it sold a better workday.
A subway shop learned that convenience could carry a bigger idea. New Stand took that lesson into the office - and its latest chapter, Daycast, makes workplace happiness an agency brief.
Cantaloupe and the secret life of a snack
A vending purchase lasts seconds. Cantaloupe built a business around everything that happens next: the payment, the missing packet of crisps, and the truck that ought to stay parked.
SandStar AI Retail
SandStar AI Retail is a retail-technology company that uses computer vision, deep learning and big-data analytics to power cashierless, autonomous shopping. Founded in 2017 as YI Tunnel and rebranded to SandStar after a 2020 Series B+ round, it builds AI vending machines, pure-vision unmanned stores and smart-store analytics that recognize what shoppers pick up - no RFID tags, barcodes or sensors required - and automatically generate the bill when they walk out. Its systems are deployed across roughly 30 countries and serve dozens of global brands and Fortune 500 operators, including a Coca-Cola Smart Lounge in Beijing.