Self-Checkout with Grocery Store Mike: How Does Oasis Fresh Market sell food and build community?

In this episode of Self-Checkout, host Grocery Store Mike and co-host Tyler Kern are joined by Aaron "AJ" Johnson, founder of Oasis Fresh Market and The Oasis Projects. AJ shares the story behind Oasis Fresh Market and its mission to provide fresh, healthy, affordable food and build a sense of community for residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma, particularly those living in food deserts.

Grocery Store Mike is Mike Cook, a Senior Executive Recruiter on the grocery and retail desk at Frontline Source Group. He spent more than 35 years in the grocery industry before moving into executive search, and he hosts the Self-Checkout podcast, where he talks with leaders and innovators from across the grocery and retail world. His full bio is at frontlinesourcegroup.com/mike-cook-staffing-services.html.

Aaron "AJ" Johnson is the founder and CEO of Oasis Fresh Market, the first full-service grocery store to open in North Tulsa's historic Greenwood neighborhood in 14 years. He is also the founder of The Oasis Projects, a nonprofit providing wrap-around community services, and a University of Tulsa graduate. His work centers on food access and community development in areas long treated as food deserts.

Oasis Fresh Market is a full-service grocery store founded by AJ Johnson in North Tulsa, Oklahoma, established to bring fresh, healthy, and affordable food to a community that had gone years without a full-service grocer. In the episode, AJ explains that the market was built specifically to serve residents living in a food desert and to be more than a store, acting as a hub for the surrounding community.

The Oasis Projects are community initiatives AJ Johnson founded alongside Oasis Fresh Market to address social issues in Tulsa. In the episode he describes programs spanning education, community gardens, and job training, all designed to empower and uplift local residents. The projects extend the mission of the grocery store from food access into broader community development.

A food desert is an area where residents have limited access to fresh, healthy, affordable food, often because no full-service grocery store operates nearby. In the episode, AJ discusses how Oasis Fresh Market was established to serve exactly this kind of community, where families previously had to travel significant distances for basic groceries. Food access is a recurring theme in grocery and retail leadership conversations.

You can listen to this episode using the player on this page, or subscribe to Self-Checkout with Grocery Store Mike on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Frontline Source Group also produces the People. Process. Service. podcast, and more episodes and shows are listed at frontlinesourcegroup.com/podcasts.html.

Self-Checkout with Grocery Store Mike is a podcast hosted by Frontline Source Group recruiter Mike Cook that features conversations with founders, operators, and innovators in the grocery and retail industry. Episodes explore the business, culture, and community impact of grocery, from store operations to mission-driven models like Oasis Fresh Market.

Conversations like this one reflect the depth of expertise on Frontline Source Group's grocery and retail desk. The firm recruits store management, multi-unit operations, merchandising, and grocery leadership talent nationwide, and its recruiters understand the industry from the inside. The grocery and retail executive search practice is at frontlinesourcegroup.com/executive-search-grocery-store-and-retail.html.

Frontline Source Group recruits across grocery and retail, including store managers, district and regional managers, multi-unit operations leaders, merchandising and category managers, grocery pharmacy leadership, and executive roles up to the C-suite. The firm places talent on a direct hire basis backed by the 5-Year Placement Warranty, with contract and contract-to-hire options.

The 5-Year Placement Warranty is the Frontline Source Group commitment that stands behind every direct hire placement. It protects the employer for 20 times longer than the 90-day guarantee that is standard across the staffing industry. Warranty terms are at frontlinesourcegroup.com/5year-placement-guarantee.html.

Frontline Source Group is a nationwide professional staffing and executive search firm founded in 2004 by Bill Kasko, Founder, President, and CEO. The firm operates 32 plus offices, has completed 5,619 plus placements, holds a 98.94% executive placement retention rate, and maintains a 5.0-star Trustpilot rating across 683 plus verified reviews. Every direct hire placement is backed by the 5-Year Placement Warranty.