While a typical food court features a sea of off-white cafeteria seating, fast-food stalls with lit-up signs and pre-made pizza and soft pretzels behind glass panels—plus lines wrapped along the counter to the cash register—micro food hall Local Kitchens is a little less chaotic.

There are no stalls or golden arches, simply a glass door with restaurant partner decals and, in some locations, a smattering of tables and chairs.

Inside, arrows point consumers to pick up their online order at a cubby, check its status on a mounted screen, or place a new one on an iPad nearby. Walls are adorned with founder stories, sharing the origins of Israeli street food restaurant Sababa or Filipino party food truck Señor Sisig.

Local Kitchens co-founder and COO Andrew Munday, an early DoorDash employee leading operations, said he’s “more personally a fan of improvements than inventions.” The California-based startup doesn’t want to upend the food court—it wants to make it easier for local restaurants to expand beyond their hometowns.

Order up

When the pandemic hit in 2020, Munday and his co-founders—former DoorDash software engineer Jon Goldsmith (CEO), as well as Jordan Bramble (CTO), whose data and software career has spanned Cava and the White House—quickly noticed that local restaurants didn’t have any allocated space for the huge uptick in takeout and delivery orders that were coming in, let alone resources for expansion.

“We were asking, ‘Why are you guys not in the Bay, or San Jose, or the North Bay, or all these different parts like Sacramento?’” Munday told Retail Brew. “We kept running into the same answer, which was, ‘Every time I open a brick and mortar, I don’t see my family for nine to 12 months.’ We tried to dig a little deeper and think about, why is that?”

Ghosting: Local Kitchens evaluated ghost kitchens as a possible solution, but while a typical ghost kitchen provides a building and space, businesses still need staff, management, food procurement...the list goes on. So Munday and his co-founders sought to create a biz that offered an all-in-one deal.

• Local Kitchens has since grown to six locations (its latest opened in Roseville on Tuesday), each featuring up to 10 local restaurants, and raised $25 million last June from VCs, including Stephen Curry’s Penny Jar Capital.

“We want to help people expand across the US,” Munday said. “We want to bring someone from being in two locations to 100.”

Click here to read the full story.—EC

Out with the old, in with the reusable. Yesterday, ahead of today’s shareholder meeting, Starbucks revealed its latest plan to curb disposable-cup use.

Something borrowed: Customers will be able to BYO cup to every Starbucks across the US and Canada by the end of this year. By 2025, Starbucks wants all customers to either bring their own mug or borrow a reusable to-go cup from their local chain.

The company is considering a borrow-a-cup program that involves customers paying a deposit for a reusable cup that they take with them and drop back off later, or disposable cup fees.

• There will be 20+ different tests in eight markets to determine which system Starbucks will use across the board to ditch single-use cups.

Starbucks consumers are dedicated to the brand, which could help move along its sustainability goals, noted Kearney Consumer Institute lead Katie Thomas. “With a loyalty program as strong as Starbucks’s, they have potential power to incentivize consumers to engage,” she told Retail Brew in an email.

But, but, but: The challenge, as with many sustainability initiatives, will be getting people to buy in. If the rise and fall of the metal straw taught us anything, it’s that making consumers stray from their natural purchasing path is an uphill battle.

“The program relies on consumers to participate for it to be successful,” Thomas continued. “Bringing reusable cups requires a behavior change on behalf of the consumer, not just remembering the cup, but knowing a lot of people need coffee when they are on the go.”—JG

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Sumeet Shah has been in the private equity and venture capital space for more than a decade—his latest gig is in venture partnerships at Clearco, an e-commerce investment firm. (Shah noted the Softbank-backed company has provided $2.6+ billion to more than 6,000 brands in all.) Outside of the office, Shah’s often in the ring, having boxed for the last nine years. He knocked out a little more info on his day to day here.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? We provide non-dilutive (aka no equity taken) financing to e-commerce startups to help them with marketing inventory management.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? I’m charged with launching, growing, and scaling our NYC—and ultimately East Coast—arm of Clearco, which just started this year. NYC is obviously a major consumer hub, so this is going to be fun.

One emerging retail trend that you’re most excited about: The second wave of AR. The first wave focused on great one-on-one products, where the second one will function around community and user interactivity. The most successful consumer startups and companies learn from—and evolve with—their customers, so AR here has to be non-invasive and a natural, almost human, touch.

Hands down, the best fast food restaurant chain is…Bojangles. Still waiting for them to come to NYC.

You’re hearing a lot about the necessity to be relevant across all channels to engage your customers, and you’ve been doing a lot of experimentation in this space. But you’re not sure you’re hitting the mark. We hear you and we’re here for you. We’re sitting down with Ace Hardware’s Bill Kiss for a conversation on cross-channel coordination on Wednesday, March 23 at 12pm ET. Register here.*

*Note: This event is brought to you by Square.

Today’s top retail reads.

Open for business: Despite suspending corporate operations in Russia, 190 Papa John’s restaurants in the country are still running. “The best thing I can do as an individual is show compassion for the people, my employees, franchisees, and customers without judging them because of the politicians in power,” said Christopher Wynne, the Colorado native in charge of franchise agreements with the shops in Russia. (The New York Times)

Go faster: From Skims to Untuckit, why DTC brands are moving toward same-day delivery. (Glossy)

Got oat milk? Oatly, the trailblazer in oat milk, is now struggling to keep up in the space. (The Wall Street Journal)

When the cart does its part: You can help curb cart abandonment and drive conversion rates + customer loyalty with a frictionless e-commerce experience. PayPal’s got your trusty road map for just that. Read 10 ways to reimagine the customer experience.*

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

• How in-store music can help shops hit the right notes
• Inside a 150-year-old jewelry market in Mumbai
• Why an Italian supermarket chain moved bakers and cooks front and center in its superstore