DATATRAC: Retail and Foodservice Technology – October 2017

Discount/GM

• Costco Wholesale is enhancing its ecommerce abilities through a partnership with Instacart and a new online shopping service known as CostcoGrocery, a two-day delivery of shelf-stable groceries and other items.

• Meijer is partnering with IBM to reorganize its information technology department with hopes to streamline its tech strategy and enhance omnichannel offerings.

• Walmart announced a number of technology and ecommerce initiatives: the company’s curbside grocery pickup program for online shoppers will be rolled out to 1,000 stores; recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be able to make online purchases; Walmart will open less than 25 new stores in its next fiscal year and focus on expanding e-commerce.

• Williams-Sonoma will begin accepting Venmo for bridal registry purchases.

Foodservice

• Shake Shack Inc. is testing kiosk-only ordering at its Astor Place location.

• Sonic Corp. announced that a malware attack may have compromised some credit/debit card numbers.

Grocery/Convenience

• Ahold/Delhaize is testing a robot named Marty at a Giant Food Store in Lower Paxton Township, PA that moves through the aisles and notifies store associates of hazardous floor conditions, shelve stock conditions and price checks.

• Aldi Inc. is now accepting all forms of contactless payment, including Apple Pay and Android Pay at its 1,700+ stores nationwide.

• Kroger will also institute its “Scan, Bag, Go” mobile app-driven self-checkout service to 400 stores in 2018 after a successful test at 20 locations.

• Harris Teeter, a Kroger banner, has partnered with omnichannel platform provider Myxx to develop a website that allows customers to look for recipes and populate shopping lists; it also lets shoppers send the recipe-based grocery lists to Harris Teeter’s ExpressLane e-commerce service and place orders for in-store pickup or delivery.

• Speedway has placed its network of 2,550 ATMs on the Allpoint Network.