Retail buyers used to sit on a new product for months, running regional tests before it ever got close to a national shelf. That old playbook is falling apart, and Black-owned food and drink brands, celebrated all through Black Business Month, keep landing early in what retailers add next.
This August, during Black Business Month, that shift is already showing up in the aisle. It’s not just in headlines. It’s in what’s actually stocked on shelves right now, from coffee to cookies to kettle chips.
New food and drink products are pulling in 22% more sales online than the category average. That early digital buzz proves out demand before a product ever reaches a physical shelf. The real risk for a brand today isn’t launching too soon. It’s failing to launch loud enough to get noticed at all.
BLK & Bold coffee lands in 11,000 stores
Childhood friends Pernell Cezar and Rod Johnson grew up together in Gary, Indiana. In 2018, they founded BLK & Bold Specialty Beverages out of Des Moines, building what the company calls the first Black-owned nationally distributed coffee brand.
The brand now ships to more than 11,000 retail locations across the country, including Target, Walmart, Whole Foods, Costco and Amazon. Five percent of its gross profits go toward nonprofits supporting under-resourced youth, a model that’s generated more than $450,000 in donations since launch. What started in Cezar’s garage now sits on some of the country’s biggest shelves.
Partake Foods turns one allergy scare into a national brand
Denise Woodard started Partake Foods in her New York kitchen after doctors diagnosed her daughter Vivienne with multiple food allergies. She couldn’t find a safe cookie on any shelf, so she sold her engagement ring to keep the company running.
In 2019, Woodard became the first Black woman to raise $1 million in public funding for a packaged food or beverage startup, a round led by Marcy Venture Partners. A decade later, Partake’s allergy-friendly cookies and baking mixes sit in thousands of stores nationwide.
Rap Snacks finally makes it to Costco
Rap Snacks has sold chip bags built around hip-hop culture out of Miami since 1994. This spring, founder James Lindsay took the brand somewhere it had never been.
He teamed up with Snoop Dogg to launch Do The Right Thing, a health-conscious kettle chip line that debuted at Costco locations across six states, the brand’s first entry into warehouse club retail. Rap Snacks now sits in more than 40,000 stores coast to coast, three decades after its first sale.
McBride Sisters becomes the country’s top Black-owned wine brand
Sisters Robin McBride and Andréa McBride John built McBride Sisters Wine Company into the largest Black-owned and largest women-founded wine company in the country. They produce wine across two hemispheres, from California’s Central Coast to New Zealand.
Their Black Girl Magic Wines label became one of the fastest-growing brands in the country within a year of its 2018 launch. The wines now sell through Fortune 500 grocery chains and mass retailers in nearly all 50 states, plus wine and spirits chains, hotels and airlines.
Grocery still gets most of the shopping trips, but it’s not the only door in anymore. Online sales now make up 74% of total dollar growth across the industry, and Costco and TikTok Shop are proving to be just as powerful a launchpad as the cereal aisle.
Keep an eye on both. The next brand to break out might already be building its following there.
Jennifer Allen is a retired professional chef and long-time writer. Her work appears in dozens of publications, including MSN, Yahoo, The Washington Post and The Seattle Times. These days, she’s busy in the kitchen developing recipes and traveling the world, and you can find all her best creations at Cook What You Love.