Customer Facing Technology too Speed Throughput at Wawa

Wawa excels at understanding customer relevance according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  So last week when all of us learned that an 11-Year-Old Hacked Into a U.S. Voting System Replica in 10 Minutes we all instantly understood what Gen Z and Millennials have been telling us; without technology our companies will not be moving forward they expect it and are better with it than we are.

Wawa Inc. recently rolled out a pilot of checkout kiosks at its Broad and Walnut streets c-store in Philadelphia. The separate checkout counter on wheels accepts card payment only.  Set on rolling swivel casters, the moveable setup consists of a small counter to place drinks, food or other purchases while customers are being rung up. It is outfitted with a barcode scanner, a credit card reader and a plastic bagging station all within a total footprint no bigger than a mailbox.

The Broad and Walnut streets c-store is the only one in the City of Brotherly Love currently testing the mobile registers, in addition to a few of the busier stores at the Jersey Shore.

Lori Bruce, corporate spokesperson for Wawa, confirmed to Billy Penn that the company is officially giving the checkout alternative a try. "We are always testing new ways to improve convenience and the customer experience," she wrote in an email. "[A]t this time, we don't have a lot of details available."

How are you garnering respect from tomorrow’s customers today?  Are your meeting today’s customer’s expectations or does your company look more like yesterday than tomorrow?  When an 11 year old can ‘hack’ into our election system in 10 minutes what expectations do you think they have for your service system, technology or food delivery platform?

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant