Circle K Frictionless Checkout Technology is Customer Focused

 

The price, value, service equilibrium within the grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food space seems to be constantly moving forward according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Johnson stated, constraints on consumer time continue to increase and waiting in line a grocery stores, convenience store, or restaurant is not on the top of the list of things that have to do or want to do.”

Circle K understand the power of choice each consumer has and in a effort to empower consumer to chose Circle K over another food retailer they are retrofit of existing systems with Grabango’s checkout-free shopping suited for existing locations, so that it supports Couche-Tard's efforts to make the store experience as seamless and frictionless as possible.

Now Circle K is offering Grabango’s “checkout-free” solution across six stores in the greater Tucson, Ariz., area. Couche-Tard Head of Global Digital Innovation Magnus Tägtström explained that his company is passionate about exploring technology that empowers store teams and helps make customers’ lives a little easier every day.

“We’re looking forward to seeing Grabango’s autonomous checkout solution support our ongoing efforts to make the store experience as seamless and frictionless as possible for our on-the-go customers,” he said.

Do you want to take a look at how it works? If yes you can visit the six Circle K locations where shoppers can checkout with Grabango and easily skip the line are located at 15935 N. Oracle Road in Tucson; and in Marana at 11403 W. Tangerine Road, 3880 W. Tangerine Road, 5725 W. Ina Road, 4540 W. Ina Road, and 5633 W. Cortaro Road. We ask do you think service is faster than a drive-thru?

So, Grabango is expanding rapidly and has already deployed more than 75,000 square feet of shopping floor. Last year, Grabango was the first company to retrofit its checkout-free technology into an already operating store and has raised $73 million in total capital to date. With the expansion of coverage to five Giant Eagle GetGo stores in the Greater Pittsburgh area along with these Circle K stores in the West, Grabango’s checkout-free technology now reaches shoppers coast to coast.

Don’t over reach. Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit us on our social media sites by clicking the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Meals in a Minute Milk on the Run QuickEats is a Hit

 

At the intersection of What’s for Dinner, there is nothing in the refrigerator, and I don’t want to go back outside, you can find Aramark’s “Frictionless Micromarket QuickEats’. Time starved, hungry, with no desire to leave home residents at one apartment community have help make Aramark’s QuickEats a hit according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

QuickEats is Aramark’s “first autonomous Close Convenience store”, (a new platform for Aramark). Focused in customers needs set for grocerant niche mix and match bundling, Aramark has elevated it’s delivery platform perfectly within the grocerant niche according to Johnson.

So, the apartment owner, Greenwood & McKenzie, a privately held real estate investment and asset management firm, had initially opened the store the previous March to residents of the apartment complex.

Greenwood & McKenzie General Partner Jim McKenzie, stated, “Our tenants were able to social distance while buying necessities without having to leave the property,” …. “By partnering with Aramark, a global leader in food and facilities management and the creator of QuickEats Close Convenience, and utilizing AWM Frictionless technology, we are able to offer consumers a fast, easy and safe shopping experience.”

AWM — Adroit Worldwide Media — is an artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision company with a comprehensive suite of retail solutions.

This new platform for Aramark, QuickEats features a variety of fresh and specialty items, such as Pressed Juicery juices, coconut water, grab-and-go sandwiches, cheese plates and fruit, as well as assorted beverages. In addition, it offers household items like cleaning products, toilet paper, dog food, and other goods.

AWM CEO Kevin Howard, stated, “We made the decision to open our doors because QuickEats can provide vital food, drink, and personal care items to Nineteen01’s residents in a completely frictionless environment that adheres to the current protocols being requested by (Orange County’s) Health Officer,”.

QuickEats Close Convenience uses computer vision cameras and sensors to create a fully automated, frictionless, self-guided shopping experience much like Amazon Go stores.

So, consumers simply download the QuickEats Close Convenience app, scan the app at the store entrance and conduct their shopping. As customers grab items off the shelves, they are added to the app’s shopping cart. When customers finish shopping, they simply exit the store. Shoppers are charged the total amount to their digital wallet and receive an emailed receipt – no checkout lines, no payment terminals, no hassle.

We can see now that as the U.S. economy slowly emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer attitudes toward options like frictionless checkout have evolved. Those expectations formed during the pandemic are here to stay.

You have to love the fact that Aramark is meeting, or beating those expectations with its partnership with AWM for its AWM Frictionless system, which uses deep learning algorithms and high-definition cameras throughout the store to track traffic and detect when customers interact with products.

The consumer is truly free to shop without constraints while the technology learns from the shopper to ensure the store is adding more of what they want and less of what they don’t quickly. Follow this link for a demo of the QuickEats Close Convenience store is available online at www.quickeats.ai.

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

C-Stores Tap-N-Pay Cashierless Check-out Hits a Cord with Consumers

 

Consumers are dynamic not static and every sector of foodservice retail must adapt with consumer or risk capitulating incremental market share according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® who stated “retailers must keep up with consumer unmet need-sets and frictionless checkout / tap-N-pay is safer, faster, and fresher in the minds-eye of the consumer today.”

The large C-store chains are following the lead of national restaurant chains adopting cashierless options of payment companies the ilk of Alimentation Couche-Tard, Tesco, Wawa, 7-Eleven, with the help of companies the ilk of and MasterCard, Visa, and American Express are all working to enable fast, safe, integrated tap-N-pay (POS) system solutions.

Here is the question: are POS systems even needed any longer?  Amazon Go has proven that they are not. So, since the average age of most POS platforms across the c-store industry is 10 years or more, perhaps the oldest installed POS base of any retail segment.  We ask, are they needed? Could an app based/cloud system cashierless, POS-less system work in urban locations?

First, moving sales from inside the store to the outside of the store speeds things up.  You can do this via a branded app.  Customer relevance rest in branded apps more than ever during this COVID-19 environment, customers don’t want to touch anything or enter an enclosed space. App-check-in enables c-stores to deploy new brand messaging and new points of distribution including order-ahead, curbside/pump-side pickup, drive-thru’s and delivery.  

Battle for Share of Stomach

 

Quick-service restaurants (QSRs) with advanced check-in and order-ahead in their apps see average order value grow by 50%. Fueling apps from the major petroleum brands not integrated with c-stores miss this upsell opportunity if not tightly integrated into the total c-store experience, not just fueling. 

Check-in can provide a new level of interactivity, customization, and personalization for all consumer touchpoints.  Check-in is the branded invitation that Gen Z and Millennials expect according to Johnson. Branded apps provide a menu board, take orders with embedded payment, even act as a walkie-talkie to summon items — all activated through the autonomous check-in by the fueling app empowering consumer choice.

Consider this before COVID-19, the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) reported that c-stores drove 80% of all gas sales in the U.S., with 48% of fueling customers going into c-stores and 53% buying a beverage. 

Back in the day the C-store sector was a “game of inches’, typically 180 to 540 inches from the pump to c-store door swing.  COVID-19 has pushed forward the need for technology that is handheld, digital, and branded with messaging that has additive customer relevance and edifies a consumer value touchpoint.

Don’t worry about, who owns this data, worry about getting the right message to the right person at first.  There is enough data to be shared.  Getting the right branded messaging to the consumer should be your very first concern.  

Branded relevant marketing messaging must drive you to offer cashierless transactions both inside and outside of your stores. An innovative branded cashierless strategy expands the customer touchpoints and makes your location advantage more valuable. Are you being as dynamic as you can be?

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Foodservice Workers Worry as Cashierless Checkouts Mushroom

Technology continues to become a foodservice workers job killer but a foodservice operators savior according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Now Mastercard has entered the cashierless checkout fray in a big way with several industry leading food retailers with pilots it’s launching at convenience stores and drive-through QSRs including Circle K, Dunkin’ and White Castle.

So, working with Accel Robotics, Mastercard has developed technology enabling consumers to check out without clerk assistance at any type of retail store from a restaurant to a pharmacy. Once again evolving retail foodservice pain-points with solutions that save the operator money but cost employees jobs.

The new Mastercard, Shop Anywhere platform will launch in October at select Circle K locations in the U.S. and Canada, where consumers can pay for gas and make in-store purchases via an app, eliminating the need to wait in line, according to Mastercard.

Even Dunkin’ will test Mastercard’s cashierless checkout solution at an undisclosed store where customers can walk in and pick up beverages and food without any face-to-face interaction. This solution will work for Delaware North, which operates sports venues and casinos, will enable Shop Anywhere for on-site food and beverage sales, and they will be testing it as well.

Once again at some White Castle stores, Mastercard in October is launching a frictionless order-and-pay service for motorists called AI-Powered Drive Through. SoundHound Inc. and Rekor Systems are providing technology for the drive-through service, which leverages vehicle recognition, voice ordering and artificial intelligence, Mastercard said in the release. Is there no end to this No.  If success does leave clues and it does technology will elevate operational efficiencies and chain foodservice operators will adopt, adapt, and re-assess operating metrics.  

Mastercard’s cashierless solution centers on grocerant niche grab-and-go shopping, expanding merchants’ ability to serve customers quickly, including outside of normal opening hours, and clearly reducing labor cost.

This is nothing new as Mastercard has dabbled in cashierless checkout before. In 2017 the Mastercard collaborated with AVA retail on frictionless checkout for WeWork’s Honesty Market, and it’s not the only card network exploring the concept. The foodservice industry is dynamic not static are you evolving fast enough?

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 us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Profits Help Win In 

A Battle for Share of Stomach

Circle K

Lookout Amazon 7-Eleven Testing Cashierless Store

While Amazon’s Amazon Go concept has been getting lots of hype as a seamless cashierless retail concept and our Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson thinks it great, even if they have yet perfected selling hot coffee. Which they are going to test soon in San Francisco soon.

7-Eleven with over 70,000 stores around the world has a cashierless store at its corporate headquarters in Irving. The simple fact is 7-Eleven is not going to roll over and watch someone else reduce operating cost, increase margins, while edifying customer relevance with technology that is in the field working now at both Amazon Go and Bingo Box.

According to reports, the 700-square-foot non-traditional store is available to 7-Eleven employees, the exactly how Amazon tested their Amazon Go store.  Here is how it works: “Employees download an app, sign up, check in at the store, enter the store, shop and exit. A detailed receipt appears in the app automatically after he or she exits”.

Don't be left out in the 

Battle for Share of Stomach

Mani Suri, 7-Eleven senior vice president and chief information officer  stated "Ultimately, our goal is to exceed consumers' expectations for faster, easier transactions and a seamless shopping experience,"  "Introducing new store technology to 7-Eleven employees first has proven to be a very productive way to test and learn before launching to a wider audience. They are honest and candid with their feedback, which enables us to learn and quickly make adjustments to improve the experience.”

Suri continued "This in-house, custom built technology by 7-Eleven engineers is designed for our current and future customers. We continue to innovate, and coupling fresh, innovative, healthy food options with a frictionless shopping experience could be a game-changer,".

President and CEO Joe DePinto stated "Retail technology is evolving at a rapid pace and customer expectations are driving the evolution," said 7-Eleven. "Our team is dedicated to continuing 7-Eleven's legacy of innovation with industry-leading digital solutions. Most recently that has included our award winning 7Rewards loyalty platform, 7NOW on-demand delivery, mobile checkout, and now our new cashierless store."  If your company is not evolving every day you are falling behind.  7-Eleven is in this space and plans to win today and tomorrow.

Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Amazon Could build 3,000 Cashierless C-stores by 2021 What does that mean for you?

Legacy book stores scoffed at the idea that Amazon could ever change the face of book retail; well they did. Yes, legacy grocery stores why are you saying what book stores did then?  The grocery industry holds conference after conference some with new titles like ‘Grocerant Summit’ yet each conference has the same speakers or speakers from the same companies that they have had for forty years. How has that advice worked?  Well let’s just see.

Regular readers of this blog know that today there are 50% fewer legacy grocery stores than there were just 12 years ago.  However, if you were to pick up a grocery trade magazine you would think it was twelve years ago.  Even worse if you walk into most legacy grocery banners today they look more like yesterday than today or tomorrows food retail platform.  How can that be?  Simple, no Outside-Eyes.

Get this Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that Amazon is considering a plan to open as many as 3,000 of the cashierless Go convenience stores by 2021. Just think about that; 3,000 stores selling grocerant niche fresh food for less than a restaurant can, less than a grocery store, and better food faster than a C-store can according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Consumers are dynamic not static and many grocery retailers are not even static as they look more like yesterday.  Many legacy grocery stores have sat back and continued doing what they always have done, promoted new leaders from within, and reinforced running the business in the same way that they were trained 20, 30, and 40 years ago in some cases.  

  

Guess what?  Amazon did not do that.  They have had outside eyes focused on fresh food sales and a qualitative noticeable increase is speed of service for inside results.  The Bloomberg report stated that Amazon is considering different models as it looks to expand Amazon Go, including weighing whether to include a limited selection of groceries, or simply focus on prepared food pickup. Amazon’s smaller footprint makes shopping faster and consumers continue to be time starved according to Johnson.

Very few consumers want to spend 40 minutes walking around a Hy-Vee or Fred Meyer store looking for eight items once a week.  Today there are 29 restaurants for each legacy grocery store in the United States. The consumer has moved and its time that the grocery industry addresses just how they are going to evolve and if they in fact want to be in food retail 12 years from now.

Today Amazon Go’s largest store is 2,100 square feet -- carry a mix of prepared and packaged food, soft drinks and make-at-home meal kits. If we know anything it’s that format will continue to evolve as they try to sell more fresh food fast.  So, how long are you going to sit back and watch food retail evolve and the consumers migrated to other formants?

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.