Mese: Settembre 2019

Debt-laden French retailer Casino is in talks to sell its French discount store chain Leader Price to German low-cost rival Aldi.

The move, which confirms a report by French daily Les Echos, comes as Casino CEO and controlling shareholder Jean-Charles Naouri is hunting for ways to ease the company’s debts – and those of parent company Rallye – in part via asset sales.

Casino said in a statement that following an expression of interest from Aldi France, the two groups had “entered into discussions with a view to have Aldi France submit a binding offer,”

Les Echos said earlier that Casino was poised to sell Leader Price, which had 2018 sales of 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion), to Aldi in a deal estimated to be worth 400 million euros.

A sale of Leader Price was expected by analysts after Casino said last month it was targeting the sale of 2 billion euros worth of assets in addition to the 2.5 billion initially sought to reduce its debt burden.

The retailer has mandated BNP Paribas to handle a possible deal, Les Echos added.

Source: uk.reuters.com

Midwestern retailer Meijer has completed a transformative 15-month initiative to streamline the checkout process at all of its stores.

The company has now introduced Shop & Scan technology at all of its stores across the Midwest.

“As we’ve rolled the program out in six states, the response has been incredibly enthusiastic,” said Stephanie Brackenridge, director of customer experience for Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Meijer. “Customers have appreciated the ability to have a choice in shopping how they want, depending on how their day is going. Many are finding the opportunity to personalize their store visit with a cell phone is a great way to save time and help avoid lines.”

Shop & Scan works through an innovative mobile app that allows customers to shop and bag as they go, giving them the opportunity to avoid lines and personalize their shopping depending on their day.

Once they download the free Meijer Mobile App, customers use Shop & Scan  to scan bar codes on items and bag their own groceries. A running total of items purchased is viewable as they shop throughout the store. Once a customer has finished shopping, they simply scan their phone at a self-checkout lane and pay, making the checkout experience quick and easy.

Brackenridge said that the most popular features among Meijer customers included the integrated shopping list, running total, and the ability to clip any available mPerks loyalty program coupons for items scanned.

In addition to Shop & Scan, the retailer offers Meijer Home Delivery and a pickup option at all 246 stores in six states, providing customers multiple ways to shop the retailer’s stores depending on their needs for that day.

Since the original pilot launch last year in Grand Rapids, the Meijer Mobile app has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times, while the initiative has steadily expanded to stores throughout Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Kentucky. Once the app was downloaded, more than 80 percent of Meijer customers have repeatedly used Shop & Scan as part of their shopping experience.

Source: progressivegrocer.com

With Europe as its proving ground, there is potential for Ahold Delhaize to bring this technology stateside to its banners where several retailers, from Albertsons to Kroger, are already adopting a variety of digital checkout solutions.

In the U.S., Kroger is leading the charge with digital shelf technology. It installed Kroger Edge, a digital shelf system in partnership with Microsoft, in 200 stores that displays pricing, advertisements and nutritional information. As users walk down the aisles, it also communicates with their smartphones and highlights products that they’ve added to their digital shopping lists in an attempt to provide a customized shopping experience.

Electronic shelf tags offer a number of benefits to retailers, primarily when it comes to flexibility. The shelves can resolve issues with missing tags or prices that haven’t been updated and when it comes to the task of changing price tags, it can save substantial labor power. In lieu of swapping out paper tags or printing new tags, the digital shelf displays can be updated much quicker.

The technology also opens the door to dynamic pricing, which allows for price changes multiple times a day potentially. For example, the price tag could switch depending on demand or availability. Produce and other food items nearing their expiration date could quickly pivot to sell faster. This has been cited by some as a way to help cut down on the amount of food waste produced at supermarkets.

Electronic shelf tags have potential applications for self-checkout as well, allowing customers to avoid waiting in line. Users can scan the shelf tag with their mobile phone, which is also integrated with their preferred payment method. Reducing friction in a self-checkout process is key for consumer adoption, with many customers finding self-checkout services frustrating because they largely are required to take over the entire cashier role. The shelf tags alleviate some of this friction by streamlining the scanning process and preventing the shopper from having to still go through the checkout lane.

Several retailers have already adopted a variety of digital checkout solutions including Albertson’s self-checkout stations and Amazon’s cashierless Amazon Go stores. Giant is also piloting self-checkout technology with its partnership with Silicon Valley’s startup Grabango. The technology uses AI and computer vision to see what customers are picking up as they shop.

Source: grocerydive.com

Walmart is upping its supercenter experience.

The retail giant officially opened its remodeled supercenter in Dallas, Georgia. The store offers an enhanced shopping experience in many departments, expanded assortment and displays.

Along with opening the doors to the supercenter, Walmart debuted its new standalone health clinic format, Walmart Health, which is adjacent to the remodeled store. It offers a full array of health and wellness services, with primary care, lab tests, X-rays, counseling, dental, optical, hearing and community health education.

The remodeled supercenter boasts an enhanced omnichannel shopping experience. Customers who use the chain’s free Pickup service to have online orders delivered to the store can leverage an in-store pickup tower (a tall, vending machine-styled kiosk holding customer orders) using their mobile device. Walmart has also renovated an outdoor pickup area for online grocery orders with a newly-installed canopy.

In-store enhancements include a new pharmacy concept that, based on customer feedback, is designed to simplify and enhance customer service while reducing friction and wait times. In addition, the redesigned vision center features multiple service areas so customers can decide how and where they want to receive service.

The remodeled store also boasts an in-store retail veterinary clinic, Essential PetCare. The clinic provides affordable wellness services for dogs and cats, including routine care, vaccinations, lab work and the treatment of minor illnesses such as ear infections and common skin conditions. (Walmart opened its first in-store Essentials PetCare in Port Richey, Florida, in 2016.).

Other redesigned departments include an upgraded electronics department with interactive displays, a refreshed baby department with strollers at floor level allowing shoppers to compare products more closely, and an expanded hardware department with a greater assortment of industrial and power tools. The remodeled auto center has been made over to include a dedicated lounge area where customers can wait for their cars to be fixed.

Source: chainstoreage.com

Amazon and Morrisons have agreed to extend a partnership which already allows customers to order their shopping from the smallest of Britain’s big four supermarket groups and have it delivered by the U.S. online giant.

Periodically mooted as a possible bidder for Morrisons, Amazon has been slowly extending its food service in Britain, but market research firm Kantar Worldpanel estimates its market share is so far less than 1%.

The new Amazon agreement was for “a number of years rather than on a rolling basis, and will be exploring new opportunities to innovate and improve the shopping experience,” Bradford, northern England, based Morrisons said.

Morrisons, which has a 10.1% market share, trails market leader Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Walmart’s Asda in annual sales.

It first tied up with Amazon in 2016 with a wholesale supply deal, whose scope has grown. In June the companies agreed to expand the “Morrisons store on Prime Now” service to more cities across Britain, including Glasgow and Newcastle.

Doug Gurr, Amazon’s UK country manager, said its relationship with Morrisons was an important part of its UK grocery growth plan.

Customers can already order a full Morrisons shop online, which is then picked at a local Morrisons store, and delivered by Amazon. There is also an option for one hour delivery.

Although Morrisons Chief Executive David Potts was vague on what the exploration would entail and declined to provide the agreement’s duration, he said as a wholesaler to Amazon the British company could be “part of their ambitions”.

“When you’re exploring, life can be a bit unclear … We achieve capital light growth by leveraging partners’ knowhow and assets,” he told reporters.

Analysts have also suggested Morrisons could be a candidate for a takeover by an overseas private equity firm, given the 24% fall in its share price over the last year and the weakness of the pound making deals cheaper.

Source: uk.reuters.com

According to New York Post, Amazon is testing inside Whole Foods a payment system codenamed “Orville” that scans human hands to ring up purchases. The e-commerce giant is reportedly using its New York employees as guinea pigs by installing the system on a handful of vending machines selling chips, sodas and phone chargers in its offices.

Unlike most biometric systems that require you to touch the surface of a scanner, Amazon’s take on the technology apparently doesn’t need you to physically touch any device. The company’s technology uses computer vision and depth geometry to identify the size and shape of your hand before charging the credit card you have on file.

Further, you don’t even need to have your phone with you when you shop. That could make shopping at Whole Foods even more seamless than at Amazon Go stores, where you can pick up goods and then leave as long as you check in through a turnstile using a QR code in your app. You need to be a Prime member, however, for hand-based payments to work.

Stephanie Hare, a technology ethics researcher, told the Post that the company probably decided to give customers the option to pay with their hands instead of their face, because it would feel less like a mugshot. She warns, however, that it might not be wise to give a company your biometric data and risk being a data theft victim, especially now that there are “a couple of nation states that are really good at stealing data…”

The Post says Amazon is hoping to roll the technology out to a handful of Whole Foods stores by the beginning of next year. It has no specific locations in mind for the launch, but it’s planning to make the system available at all the supermarket’s US locations. For now, Amazon is apparently refining the technology so it can bump its accuracy up from within one ten-thousandth of 1 percent to a millionth of 1 percent before launch.

Source: engadget.com