by TM Petaccia

Mary Jayne Wilson shows off her new RFID vending machine at Birdsong Brewing. The high-tech machines will also be at two other Charlotte locations. TM Petaccia/UP

Launched during the pandemic lockdown, Thoughtful Baking Co. earned a large and loyal following at Charlotte-area farmers markets and pop-up events with a wide selection of crafted savory and sweet baked goods plus other craft foods. Now, owner Mary Jayne Wilson is expanding her business with the addition of three high-tech vending machines to carry her full line.

Thoughtful Baking vending machines will sell the company’s full line of baked goods and craft foods. TM Petaccia/UP

Located at Birdsong Brewing Co. in NoDa, Traditions Interiors at Park Road Shopping Center, and a soon-to-be-named apartment community in Uptown, the refrigerated units incorporate RFID technology, which consists of sensors within the unit that scan the RFID-implanted labels on each item. A buyer uses a credit/debit card to gain access to the unit and retrieve the desired items. Once the door is closed, the buyer is charged for the items removed.

Buyers can select many items currently sold at farmers markets, including chicken pot pies, vegetable pot pies, a variety of quiches (available in traditional pastry or gluten-free hash brown crusts), soups, and seasonal dessert pies. The units will also carry new items, such as pimento cheese and hummus (each with housemade crackers) as well as fresh salads.

“It’s a cool system,” Wilson says. “You can pick up items to examine, put them back on the shelf, and you’ll only get charged once the door closes. The RFID packaging also lets me do an accurate inventory at home. I can see what’s left and when a unit needs to be restocked.”

All the packaging for the items is made from plant-based and recyclable materials. “We don’t have any plastic,” she says. “Even some of the items that look like they might be plastic, like the cracker pouches and salad containers, are made from plant-based materials.”

Funding for the units resulted from a Beyond Open grant from Foundation For The Carolinas. “I’ve been researching this concept for a year,” she says. “I thought, ‘Okay, this is unique. No one’s doing that here.’ It’s not all that new. Many places in Europe have them. Some with things like grass-fed beef.”

Wilson plans to expand to other locations once she sees how the existing units affect overall workflow.

“This is a cool way to scale the business in a nontraditional way,” she says.