But keep your clothes on....’food in the nude’ is the beginning of the end for plastic in supermarkets. Sales of vegetables have soared by up to 300 percent following moves by a number of New Zealand supermarkets to ditch plastic packaging. A group of New World supermarkets has abandoned the use of plastic wrapping for virtually all of their fruit and vegetables in a project labeled ‘food in the nude’.
E. Leclerc launched a new concept store with pedestrian drive services - called E. Leclerc Relais, in Paris. The inauguration of this first “Leclerc Relais” marks the start of a major offensive of the brand in city centers. E.Leclerc plans to open 150 to 170 of these stores in the urban centers of major cities of France, with half of them in Paris. The model, now well known, is the pedestrian drive. The customer places his orders online and comes to withdraw their purchases on foot, a few hours later or the next day at the counter of a small local in town, while enjoying the prices of the periphery hyper.
Walmart is backing up its massive expansion of online grocery fulfillment with what it calls its biggest national marketing campaign for grocery pickup. In a series of eye-catching, action-packed television commercials the speed and convenience of the Walmart Grocery Pickup service are emphasized. The campaign uses famous cars from TV and movies to highlight the “magic moment” of the grocery pickup experience — when a Walmart associate loads grocery ordered online into a customer’s car.
Dare to Care Food Bank is partnering with Kroger to launch a new mobile grocery market. This new programme is designed to bring healthy grocery items to neighbourhoods that are considered ‘food deserts.’ The mobile market will be a converted 50-foot trailer stocked with fresh produce, meat, dairy, eggs, butter, and juice. For the new mobile grocery market, Kroger will provide the inventory and staffing. Dare to Care is currently working with community leaders to create schedules and routes for the Mobile Market. The new programme is expected to launch later this year.
Nearly 500 robots will be coming to the stores of Ahold Delhaize USA brands Stop & Shop and Giant/Martin’s, marking one of the largest deployments of robotics innovation in the U.S. grocery industry. The rollout follows a successful pilot that improved in-store efficiencies and safety. The in-store robots, named Marty, were easily recognised by customers in stores by their friendly appearance where they were tested and used to identify hazards, such as liquid, powder and bulk food item spills and provide reporting that enables corrective action. They help stores mitigate risk caused by such spills, as well as enabled associates to spend more time serving and interfacing with customers.
The digital revolution in Indonesia continues to attract big money from investors. Bukalapak is helping street stall traders to tap the internet and Warung Pintar, is helping digitise the country’s vendors. Bukalapak helps them to gain scale through online orders but Warung Pintar digitise kiosk vendors to the very core. At the most basic level, that means aesthetics; all Warung Pintar vendors get a bright and colorfully-designed kiosk. They also get access to technology that includes a digital POS, free Wi-Fi for customers, an LCD screen for displays, power bank chargers and more. It’s a ‘smart kiosk’ concept, essentially. The only fee is $5,000 from the vendor, which covers the cost of a new prefab kiosk, while all the tech appliances are provided without fee to help kiosk owners engage with the local community.
The discount giant Aldi is testing a new concept: customers can now shop at the smallest Aldi in the world. And not only the store size differs compared to normal Aldi stores. A miniature Aldi in the middle of a train station in Lausanne, Switzerland, Aldi Suisse is trying to establish this new concept. The smallest Aldi branch in the world opened in December in the city on Lake Geneva. At just 240 square meters, customers will find no more than 1000 items. The Mini-Aldi is open daily from 5:30 to midnight, customers can shop daily in the smallest Aldi in the world – and even on Saturday and Sunday, although in Switzerland strict shop opening hours apply. The product range of the new Mini-Aldi focuses primarily on private labels and foods that customers need most in everyday life. For example, tea, coffee, mineral water, and fresh fruit and vegetables can be found in the store.
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