Microsoft and Kroger are taking a leaf out of Amazon’s book by building futuristic “connected” grocery stores.
As part of a pilot project, Kroger, the largest supermarket in the U.S. by revenue, and Microsoft have transformed two retail stores, one near each of their respective headquarters — in Monroe, Ohio and Redmond, Washington — using technology powered by connected sensors and Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.
The first fruit of the partnership is a digital shelving system, which was actually announced last year and is in the process of rolling out to dozens of Kroger stores across the U.S. Called EDGE (Enhanced Display for Grocery Environment), it bypasses paper price tags for digital shelf displays that can be changed in real time from anywhere, and it also can display promotions, dietary information, and more.
But the test stores are where Kroger and Microsoft are taking things to the next level. In addition to EDGE shelving, the system will include a new guided shopping experience, personalized ads, and something the partners are calling “pick-to-light.”
Continue reading… “Microsoft and Kroger to create data-driven connected grocery stores”
Road-legal delivery vehicles don’t even have space for a human driver.
Nuro, a startup founded by two veterans of Google’s self-driving car project, has reached an important milestone: it has started making fully autonomous grocery deliveries on public streets.
Fry’s Food, a brand owned by grocery giant Kroger, launched a self-driving grocery delivery program back in August in partnership with Nuro. Fry’s has been using Nuro cars to deliver groceries to customers near one of its stores on East McDowell Road in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Continue reading… “Kroger-owned grocery store begins fully driverless deliveries”
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — At a time when big-box retailers are trying to offer the same conveniences as their online competitors, the biggest U.S. grocery chain is testing the use of driverless cars to deliver groceries in a Phoenix suburb.
Kroger’s pilot program launched Thursday morning with a robotic vehicle parked outside one of its own Fry’s supermarkets in Scottsdale. A store clerk loaded the back seat with full grocery bags. A man was in the driver’s seat and another was in the front passenger seat with a laptop. Both were there to monitor the car’s performance.
Continue reading… “Kroger rolls out driverless cars for grocery deliveries”
Kroger is partnering with autonomous car company Nuro to introduce driverless cars to its grocery delivery.
Kroger has made a number of investments toward expanding its digital and online delivery business.
“Last mile delivery” is one of the hardest feats in the delivery of fresh food.
Kroger announced plans Thursday to partner with driverless car company Nuro to deliver groceries using its autonomous vehicles.
Continue reading… “Kroger to bring driverless cars to grocery delivery”
After a 25-store test run over the last couple years, Kroger is expanding the Scan, Bag, Go service to roughly 400 stores during 2018. Somewhat similar to Amazon’s Go convenience store, shoppers at Kroger will be able to fill their shopping basket with scanned items and exit the store after a quick stop at a self-checkout station.
Continue reading… “You may soon be able to skip the grocery checkout line at Kroger”
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