Before starting HISBE, Amy spent most of her working life in public and third sector roles within organisations such as the Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade, Princes Trust and Groundwork. She was predominantly tasked with creating, delivering, and managing programs and interventions that were intended to create specific behaviour change in identified target groups of "at risk" individuals. Amy then briefly ran a coffee business selling directly traded coffee from a social enterprise. This eventually led to collaborative thinking with her sister, Ruth, on creating a business for good centred around food. After months of discussions learning about social enterprise, democratic and purpose-led business, ethical consumerism, and shameful behaviours in the UK food industry by its dominant retailers, they decided they knew enough about the "How It Is" with British Supermarkets. Thus, Amy and her sister felt compelled to create their own version of "How It Should Be" – a chain of supermarkets with values and social impact at its heart that would transform the food industry through people power.