2020 will not only be remembered for the pandemic, but also for grocery store shortages.
Shoppers bought everything on the shelves — from toilet paper and canned goods to bread and coffee — to weather the pandemic with a full pantry. Those temporary shortages proved to Gimme founders Evan Jarecki and Cory Hewett the usefulness of their product.
Atlanta startup Gimme helps companies that deliver perishable groceries and vending machine snacks manage their inventory and delivery routes. When a delivery person brings in a shipment, the Gimme software automatically sends the grocery store an invoice for the exact number of products.
“Some of our customers couldn’t produce food fast enough to keep it on the grocery store shelves,” said Hewett, who works with companies that deliver items that can't be put in a warehouse, such as coffee, bread, fruits and vegetables. “They were more eager and interested than ever to deploy technology to help them better manage their supply chain.”
Hewett said about 70% of grocery stores across the country work with delivery companies that use Gimme’s hardware and software product on their routes, and he hopes to continue expanding that reach in 2021 with an improved product — the Gimme Key Pro.
Released in November, the Gimme Key Pro has a better battery life and more software capabilities than the first version of the product, according to a company announcement.
Hewett and Jarecki, both Georgia Tech graduates, founded Gimme in 2014 for vending machine inventory management and later expanded to grocery store delivery. The first Gimme product plugs into a vending machine and analyzes which snacks need to be refilled to make delivery more efficient.
Atlanta 2020 Year in Review
Frances Tiafoe playing at Lifetime Fitness at Peachtree Corners. It was the first pro tennis event in the nation after sports were stopped by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Metro Atlanta's population increased by 730,000 this year, making it the fourth-fastest growing metro.
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The Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame was one of several businesses downtown that were damaged when peaceful protests turned violent on May 29. A security officer at the Hall of Fame kept watch as windows in the gift shop were replaced.
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Blackhall Studios, a 150-acre complex about 10 minutes south of downtown, has plans to add 538,000 square feet of sound stages, 200,000 square feet of offices, 420,000 square feet for warehousing and 22,000 square feet of catering space.
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Georgia entered 2020 in the "purple" political category, as a high-stakes battleground for both the Democratic and Republican parties.
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While Atlanta has long been a city mired in income inequality, the city's leaders say they see an appetite for real change following this year's national reckoning on racial inequities.
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Demonstrations in Atlanta and other major U.S. cities were in response to the death of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and other African Americans. The Atlanta Police Foundation, which advocates programs based on recommendations from the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, exceeded its three-year fundraising goal ahead of schedule.
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Demonstrations following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and shootings of Ahmaud Arbery and Rayshard Brooks locally, led to the Atlanta police chief's exit and brought debate about how to combat institutional racism in policing.
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Atlanta police officers will get a pay raise as part of the City of Atlanta’s proposed fiscal year 2021 budget. The spending plan shows the Department of Police Services accounts for 12% of the $2.2 billion total operating budget.
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BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation Inc. is a global organization with the stated mission to "eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes."
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Through the end of April, the state’s 130 dairy farms dumped a total of 100 loads of product, losing $1 million in value, according to the Georgia Milk Producers Association.
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Business and community leaders in Atlanta and across Georgia mourned the death of civil rights hero and U.S. Rep. John Lewis who died July 17, at the age of 80.
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Hank Aaron celebrated his 86th birthday on Feb. 5 at Atlanta Technical College with the naming of the school's academic complex in honor of the legendary baseball champion. At the event, Aaron received a happy birthday kiss from his wife Billye Aaron.
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The Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, probably best known as a leader of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, died March 27 at his home in Atlanta. He was 98 years old.
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Joseph Lowery with Rev. C.T. Vivian, a preeminent civil rights leader and pioneer of diversity training, who died July 17 at his home in Atlanta at the age of 95.
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The MotoAmerica Superbikes event at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta was one of the first pro sporting events in Georgia since reopening from the pandemic.
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Roderick Ponder, who owns one of the oldest Black-owned businesses in Atlanta: “The protests for George Floyd have added to the cause. Obviously people see what’s happening and say ‘Oh, we knew this has been going on for a while, but I wasn’t paying attention.' Everything culminated with the virus. People are sitting at home, isolated, and have time to see. You want to make a change. Like Michael Jackson used to say, you start with the 'man in the mirror.'"
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Steve Burton, chief operating officer of BCS Inc., demonstrates the use of the company's electrostatic sprayer, one of the tools in the cleaning industry used to disinfect surfaces with electrically charged particles.
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In addition to fallout from the pandemic, Georgia’s fruit and vegetable growers have faced weather-related challenges and stiff competition from imported products in recent years.
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The University of Georgia limited capacity at Sanford Stadium to less than 24,000 for the 2020 football season amid the pandemic. UGA typically hosts more than 80,000 for its home games. The lack of attendees played a part in an estimated budget shortfall of $50 million.
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Atlanta investors David Cummings, who founded Atlanta Tech Village, and John Lally helped Gimme through a seed round in 2016, and the Georgia Research Alliance participated in its Series A round in 2018. Gimme has about $2.5 million in investments to date, Hewett said.
Its initial vending machine market took a hit in 2020 because of the decrease in foot traffic at public buildings, where most vending machines are located. Hewett said the company focused on refining its warehouse management platform to help those companies with other aspects of the supply chain, which about 25,000-40,000 vending machine use, Hewett said.
“We’re now able to help them with their schedules, order bulk food at the warehouse level and reduce food waste by ordering only exactly what they need,” Hewett said.
Gimme VMS uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to analyze inventory and store that information into a cloud server. Gimme VMS won the 2020 Readers’ Choice New Product of the Year award in the technology category from “Automatic Merchandiser” magazine.
“2021 is going to be a year of new products and growth,” Hewett said. “Our new products already saw traction at the end of 2020, so that sets us up well for expanding both those product lines simultaneously.”
