PG_1223

2023 Category Captains dare to succeed at category management POWERED BY PROTEIN Why shoppers are clamoring for it TECH’S LATEST SOLUTIONS Innovation Outlook spotlights areas to watch WAY OUT IN FRONT This part of the store is due for reinvention

A FORCE FOR GOOD Inside Whole Foods Market CEO Jason Buechel’s mission to be a beacon for the grocery industry

December 2023

Volume 102, Number 12 www.progressivegrocer.com

Contents 12.23

Volume 102 Issue 12

Features

14

COVER STORY

A Force for Good Inside Whole Foods Market CEO Jason Buechel’s mission to be a beacon for the grocery industry.

Departments 6 EDITOR’S NOTE

11 MINTEL GLOBAL NEW PRODUCTS

12 ALL’S WELLNESS

Free-From/Ingredients to Avoid

Wellness Trends for the New Year

12 Trends A-Trending

65 EDITORS’ PICKS FOR INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS

8 IN-STORE EVENTS CALENDAR

February 2024 10 NIELSEN’S SHELF STOPPERS

Sauces, Gravies and Marinades

12

66 AHEAD OF WHAT’S NEXT

Getting Their Voices Heard

PROGRESSIVE GROCER December 2023

3

Contents 12.23

Volume 102 Issue 12

8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Ste. 200, Chicago, IL 60631 Phone: 773-992-4450 Fax: 773-992-4455

2023

20 PROGRESSIVE GROCER’S 2023 CATEGORY CAPTAINS

www.ensembleiq.com BRAND MANAGEMENT VICE PRESIDENT & GROUP BRAND DIRECTOR Paula Lashinsky 917-446-4117 plashinsky@ensembleiq.com

Captains Courageous This year’s companies recognized by PG show a lot of daring in their category management strategies.

CAPTAINS

EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Gina Acosta gacosta@ensembleiq.com

20

38 SOLUTIONS

Primed for Protein

Across grocery categories, protein-rich foods score with shoppers seeking value, convenience, flavor and sustainability.

SENIOR DIGITAL & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Marian Zboraj mzboraj@ensembleiq.com SENIOR EDITOR Lynn Petrak lpetrak@ensembleiq.com MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Emily Crowe ecrowe@ensembleiq.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Katie Kavanaugh

46 ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL & GOVERNANCE

ADVERTISING SALES & BUSINESS ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, REGIONAL SALES MANAGER (INTERNATIONAL, SOUTHWEST, MI) Tammy Rokowski 248-514-9500 trokowski@ensembleiq.com

A Bright Idea for Grocers Community solar is a way to reap renewable energy’s benefits with minimal investment and risk.

REGIONAL SALES MANGER Theresa Kossack (MIDWEST, GA, FL) 214-226-6468 tkossack@ensembleiq.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE/CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Terry Kanganis 201-855-7615 • Fax: 201-855-7373 tkanganis@ensembleiq.com CLASSIFIED PRODUCTION MANAGER Mary Beth Medley 856-809-0050 marybeth@marybethmedley.com

54 TECHNOLOGY

2024 Innovation Outlook

38

What’s on the cutting edge of grocery technology for the coming year?

PROJECT MANAGEMENT/PRODUCTION/ART ART DIRECTOR Bill Antkowiak bantkowiak@ensembleiq.com ADVERTISING/PRODUCTION MANAGER Jackie Batson 224-632-8183 jbatson@ensembleiq.com MARKETING MANAGER Rebecca Welsby rwelsby@ensembleiq.com

59 EQUIPMENT & DESIGN

Eyes Front

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES LIST RENTAL mbriganti@anteriad.com SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS contact@progressivegrocer.com

Check out what innovations are in store for a key part of the supermarket.

54

CORPORATE OFFICERS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Jennifer Litterick CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Jane Volland CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Derek Estey CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER Ann Jadown CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER Joe Territo

59 4 progressivegrocer.com

MANAGING EDITOR Bridget Goldschmidt bgoldschmidt@ensembleiq.com

PROGRESSIVE GROCER (ISSN 0033-0787, USPS 920-600) is published monthly by EnsembleIQ, 8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Ste. 200, Chicago, IL 60631. Single copy price $17, except selected special issues. Foreign single copy price $20.40, except selected special issues. Subscription: $150 a year; $276 for a two year supscription; Canada/Mexico $204 for a one year supscription; $390 for a two year supscription (Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40031729. Foreign $204 a one year supscrption; $390 for a two year supscription (call for air mail rates). Digital Subscription: $87 one year supscription; $161 two year supscription. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL 60631 and additional mailing offices. Printed in USA. POSTMASTER: Send all address changes to brand, 8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Ste. 200, Chicago, IL 60631. Copyright ©2023 EnsembleIQ All rights reserved, including the rights to reproduce in whole or in part. All letters to the editors of this magazine will be treated as having been submitted for publication. The magazine reserves the right to edit and abridge them. The publication is available in microform from University Microfilms International, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the consent of the publisher. The publisher is not responsible for product claims and representations.

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EDITOR’S NOTE

By Gina Acosta

12 Trends A-Trending AND A PARTRIDGE IN A PE AR TREE FOR THE GROCERY INDUSTRY IN 2024.

Profitability: Grocers will continue to face

downward margin pressure in 2024 and will be forced to make some very tough choices when it comes to spending.

Theft: Shoppers are unhappy about product being locked up in cases, and is the season to be jolly. As we wrap up retailers are unhappy about product 2023, it’s time to reflect on a year that being stolen. The answer might be to was a transformative time for the grocery invest in more employees in the aisles industry — and not just because generative as a deterrent to theft.

AI and retail media unlocked the potential for food retailers to squeeze more profit out of their businesses.

Social commerce: Tik Tok-viral recipes After several years of extreme volawill keep triggering out-of-stocks, so tility, uncertainty and growth, the past now’s the time to invest in some better 12 months have been a level set. The forecasting solutions to predict demand good news is that we have returned to based on social media and other trends. a more normal time. The bad news is that normal is never normal, and grocery retailers will be under more Storytelling: Grocers that want to retain pressure than ever before to make the right bets on where to invest as their shoppers and acquire new ones they embrace new ways to create value and sustained growth. need to do a better job of Even amid the pressure, retailers that aggressively focus on the telling their stories, whethNormal is never following 12 trends may be best positioned to thrive in 2024’s never er in-store or online. The normal, and normal, whatever the new year may bring: store is the heart and soul grocery retailers of the community. Shout it will be under more from the rooftops!

Loyalty: What have you done for me lately? That’s what your pressure than ever shoppers are thinking about outdated circulars, apps and promobefore to make the tions that don’t really solve their problems. As Giant Food’s loyalty right bets on where Self-checkout: The exguru, Ryan Draude, suggested during a recent Progressive Grocer pansion of self-checkout to invest as they webinar, perhaps it’s time to design loyalty programs like those of embrace new ways has solved some probairlines and hotels. Give shoppers a reason to come to the store to create value and lems for retailers but more often to rack up those points! introduced many new sustained growth. ones, including increased shrink, labor issues, and Retail media: The next year will bring more growth for this customer frustration over the technolchannel, but it will also bring a reckoning. Simplification, standardogy. AI may help solve some of these ization, in-store executions and ROI will be top of mind as suppliers problems in the new year. demand more from retailer media networks.

AI: The integration of artificial intelligence across the business will continue to accelerate, and the first grocery retailer to launch a “killer AI” app will likely be Walmart.

Inflation: Inflation may be subsiding, but we’re starting to see the effects of the end of SNAP dollars and the start of student loan repayments on retailer bottom lines. Consumers choosing value (and private brands) above all else isn’t going away anytime soon.

Small brands: Now that supply chains are mostly back to “normal,” smaller brands have an opportunity to win space on the shelf again — as long as they’re value-priced, of course.

M&A: The proposed merger between The Kroger Co. and Albertsons Cos.

is slated to close on Jan. 13, and all indications are that it’s going to happen.

Consolidation will continue in the new year.

Sustainability: Putting aside robust retailer environmental, social and

governance (ESG) initiatives and increasing consumer preferences for sustainable practices, the regulatory (and operating) environment for grocers is poised to become a lot more complex in the next year, due to new rules regarding food waste, refrigerants and more.

6 progressivegrocer.com

Gina Acosta Editor-In-Chief gacosta@ensembleiq.com

IN-STORE EVENTS

Calendar S

02.24

M

Celebration of Chocolate Month Great American Pie Month National Cherry Month National Hot Breakfast Month

American Heart Month Barley Month Black History Month Canned Food Month

T

W

T

1

National Dark Chocolate Day. Hey, it’s good for you, so eat up.

F

2

Groundhog Day

S

3

Bubblegum Day

National Carrot Cake Day. Find out customers’ go-to recipes and post them online.

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

Madly in Love With Me Day

National Wisconsin Day. Invite your shoppers to discover the unique food and beverages of the Badger State.

23

24

Facebook’s Birthday. For good or for ill, social media is a part of our lives.

Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk Day. Instead, encourage shoppers to buy some more on sale.

National Chocolate Fondue Day. Who needs the cheese version?

Oatmeal Monday.

This filling hot breakfast gets the work/school week off to a great start.

National Frozen Yogurt Day. Run a buy-one-pint, get-one-half-off promotion for this perennial fave.

Galentine’s Day. Food shopping and lunch in the dining area with your best female friend is a wonderful way to mark this occasion.

Rose Day. Direct shoppers to the floral department to get their Valentine’s Day orders in early.

Valentine’s Day

Molasses Bar Day. Provide a familyfriendly recipe for this baked treat in your monthly magazine.

18

19

20

21

22

25

26

27

28

29

National Drink Wine Day. Put together a guide for newbies so they know when and how to serve certain varietals.

Quiet Day. This could be the occasion to offer a special shopping environment for those with sensory processing disorders.

Presidents Day. In honor of Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays, provide recipes for some of their favorite foods (hoecakes and apple pie).

Carpe Diem Day. If there’s some project you’ve been meaning to get to, now is the time to start on it.

8 progressivegrocer.com

No Politics Day. Urge associates to bond over what they have in common, not what divides them.

The Big Breakfast Day. Offer a substantial morning meal to go for commuters too busy to make their own.

National Grain Free Day. Spotlight products that don’t contain this ingredient for those who wish to avoid it.

Global Scouse Day. Introduce your customers to this famed Liverpudlian stew, which has many variations.

National Chili Day. Beans or no beans?

Ask your customers vote to on it.

Digital Learning Day. On this extra day of the year, take advantage of online training modules.

National Bagel and Chinese New Year.

Lox Day. Remind This time, it’s the year customers that of the dragon. you have all of the components for this classic combination.

National Almond Day. This in-demand nut is ubiquitous these days as the hero ingredient in a range of products.

National Banana Bread Day. Crossmerchandise the ingredients for this beloved baked good.

National Café au Lait Day. Have your in-store coffeeshop highlight this popular beverage.

National Tortilla Chip Day. Flavored or plain, this crunchy snack is always on consumers’ shopping lists.

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Over the years, the most game-changing home + housewares products have made their mark in Chicago in March. It was an idea—maybe a prototype—maybe from a company or inventor no one had ever heard of. But the buyers who recognized its potential early brought competitive differentiation and consumer loyalty back to their stores with them.

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Somewhere on our Show floor is the next must-have product.

You can find it, or your competition will.

Register today at TheInspiredHomeShow.com. © 2023 International Housewares Association. All Rights Reserved.

FRONT END

Shelf Stoppers

Sauces, Gravies and Marinades Total Department Performance Sauces, Gravies and Marinades

Latest 52 Wks W/E 10/28/23

Latest 52 Wks YA W/E 10/29/22

Latest 52 Wks 2YA W/E 10/30/21

$8,316,597,517

$7,517,767,982

$7,027,415,339

Top Sauce, Gravy and Marinade Categories by Dollar Sales Pasta Sauce

Barbecue and Wing Sauce

Latino Sauce

Tomato Sauce

Asian Sauce

$3,500,000,000

Basket Facts How much is the average American household spending per trip on sauces, gravies and marinades versus the year-ago period?

3,000,000,000

2,500,000,000

$4.81

2,000,000,000

on all sauces, gravies and marinades, up 10% compared with a year ago

1,500,000,000

1,000,000,000

500,000,000

0

Latest 52 Wks YA W/E 10/29/22

Latest 52 Wks - W/E 10/28/23

Latest 52 Wks 2YA W/E 10/30/21

$4.91

on pasta sauce, up 9.7% compared with a year ago

Source: Nielsen, Total U.S. (All outlets combined) – includes grocery stores, drug stores, mass merchandisers, select dollar stores, select warehouse clubs and military commissaries (DeCA) for the 52 weeks ending Oct. 28, 2023

Cross-Merch Candidates Toaster Pastries

Diapering Needs

Fruit Snacks

Meal Combos

Fresh Meat

Fully Cooked Meat

Sauce and Seasoning Mixes

Sweet Snacks

Snack and Variety Packs

Bread

$4.22

on barbecue and wing sauce, up 10.6% compared with a year

Generational Snapshot Which cohort is spending, on average, the most per trip on complete meals?

$3.89

on Latino sauce, up 11.3% compared with a year ago Millennials

Gen Xers

Boomers

The Greatest Generation

$5.01

$5.20

$4.85

$4.76

Source: Nielsen Homescan, Total U.S., 52 weeks ending Sept. 30, 2023

10 progressivegrocer.com

Source: Nielsen Homescan, Total U.S., 52 weeks ending Sept. 30, 2023

MINTEL CATEGORY INSIGHTS

Global New Products Database

Free-From/ Ingredients to Avoid What You Need to Know

High low/no claim resonance among Baby Boomers isn’t just reflective of health concerns, but also of a wellness era. Likewise, with age, younger consumers’ health needs will change to reflect their own personal needs. Messaging received today will influence their choices going forward.

Free-from claims and ingredients avoided stem from reassurance of safety and integrity, which can be achieved through other tactics. Keep this in mind as trends change, to ride out unpredictability.

The complexities of food science and formulation are overwhelming for shoppers, making product choice tricky and trust powerful. Still, the resulting skepticism is a theme behind attitudes toward ingredient safety.

When due diligence only goes so far, successfully nurturing relationships takes care of the rest.

Consumer Trends: Key Takeaways

Ingredients and claims related to sweeteners and “realness” get the most attention, and can be expected to remain at the forefront as long as existing public-health crises strain health care resources. Other claims and ingredients related to safety may come into awareness but ultimately relate back to these ideals.

Labels serve as tools to fill in knowledge gaps. Rather than be skeptical of brands’ efforts, consumers welcome them.

As the landscape continues to evolve through updates to research, regulations and innovation, brand communications can be a guiding hand.

They might shoot high with their standards, but consumers ultimately acknowledge that there are some things they just don’t know, and they admit that perfection isn’t realistic. Coaching through moderation and balance, with dietary context education, can fit into this theme.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.MINTEL.COM OR CALL 800-932-0400

Opportunities Formulations, brand language and more can achieve the same goals sought through free-from claims and ingredient designations. Highlighting safety via these tools is still important, but just one piece of the puzzle.

Rather than lean on what isn’t in a formulation, focus on what’s in it, whether added benefits or inherent compounds.

Highlighting ingredient sourcing and/or quality can improve integrity perceptions and trust.

As specific claims and ingredient targets fluctuate, consumers still want food that stays relatively fresh, tastes good and isn’t fake. Finding “clean” solutions to color, shelf life and palatability can create barriers between consumers and artificial ingredients.

PROGRESSIVE GROCER December 2023

11

ALL’S WELLNESS

By Molly Hembree, MS, RD, LD

Wellness Trends for the New Year NUTRITIONISTS CAN ENCOUR AGE SHOPPERS TO USE THE OCCASION TO RESOLVE TO GE T HE ALTHIER. n the final installment of holiday celebrations, Dec. 31 marks the closure of a year’s highs and lows and the transition into the new and shiny next 12 months, commemorated on Jan. 1. Often accompanying this excitement is a focus on self-improvement, whether that be re-evaluation of personal priorities, making better use of time or taking care of our health.

Many Americans turn to an emphasis on weight loss to improve their health going into the new year. Now is the time that many consumers want to expand or begin a physical activity regimen via working with a personal trainer, biking to work, attending a dance class each weekend or maybe just walking the dog some mornings. Whatever “being active” means to your customer, they’re interested in how the grocery store can play a part in their healthy-lifestyle goals.

Physical activity has short- and long-term advantages, from improved mood and better sleep to chronic disease prevention and increases in bone density. Established adult physical activity guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are 150-300 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise and two days per week of muscle-strengthening exercises. Fueling and recovering from these activities with the right mix of hydration, protein and carbohydrates is central to customers’ success with a new or revamped exercise routine.

Hydration

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine establish fluid intake recommendations, which are approximately 11.5 cups daily for women and 15.5 cups daily for men, for all fluids combined. This amount is even higher for those who regularly exercise, particularly if they perspire heavily. This recommendation exceeds what typical Americans consume; therefore, arranging an array of smart drink options in your beverage aisle is crucial. Bottled waters, electrolyte beverages, seltzer waters, 100% juices, water enhancer packets and energy drinks can all give novice exercisers or elite athletes a potential edge before, during or after workouts. Enlist your marketing teams to create infographics for in-store hydration inspiration, and offer digital coupons for download to a shopper’s card to increase sales of better-for-you beverages.

Protein

Protein doesn’t need much of an introduction. Often associated with muscle synthesis, protein plays a critical role in many bodily functions, including the creation and support of tissues, enzymes and hormones. Protein is also found on grocery shelves as dietary protein, most predominantly in dairy, eggs, poultry, meat, fish, legumes, nuts and seeds. Find ways to point consumers toward healthy on-the-go protein in the journey from gym to home via yogurt cups, trail mix, hard-boiled egg packs, peanut butter pouches or even prepackaged protein shakes. Consider positioning these items in a BOGO or bundle sale,

12 progressivegrocer.com

Whatever “being active” means to your customer, they’re interested in how the grocery store can play a part in their healthy-lifestyle goals. or get creative with signage that displays grams of protein per serving next to images of protein-rich private label or national-brand products.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are found in many forms, from starches like bread and beans to sugars like candy and fruit. Carbohydrates are our body’s preferred source of fuel and the first macronutrient relied upon for pushing through a workout and replenishing energy stores following exercise. Nudge your customers toward carbohydrate-rich products that also promise health benefits, like canned beans, frozen berries, whole wheat breads, fresh greens or brown rice pouches. Offer recipe cards for customizable power bowls that layer various on-sale grains and vegetables available at your retailer, or cross-merchandise high-protein and nutritious carbohydrate products together for health-conscious shoppers, to increase basket size.

The final weeks of the current year and first weeks of the new year mark a unique time when consumers often embark on new wellness endeavors, including a boost to their exercise habits.

Heightened attention to products in your store that can support hydration, protein and carbohydrate needs and goals can win over your shoppers.

Molly Hembree, MS, RD, LD, is a registered dietitian for Kroger Health.

E XQ U I S I T E M O M E N T S , W H E R E V E R YO U A R E

Contact your BlueTriton account representative for more information or contact us directly.

BTBSaratogasales@bluetriton.com ©

COVER STORY

Whole Foods Market

A FORCE FOR GOOD

By Gina Acosta

Inside Whole Foods Market CEO Jason Buechel’s mission to be a beacon for the grocery industry.

L

ast month, Jason Buechel, CEO of Whole Foods Market, spoke at Progressive Grocer’s Grocery Impact conference, in Orlando, Fla. While that was newsworthy in and of itself for all of the important things he said during his speaking engagement, it was what he did off-stage that was all the more impressive.

While he was in Florida, Buechel seized the opportunity to visit as many stores in the state as he could, including many locations in Central and Southwest Florida.

Progressive Grocer asked an employee at one of those stores what his visit was like.

“He just came right in, from the airport, I think, so casual,” the employee replied. “Just a down-to-earth, really good guy. No big team with him. He watched and listened. I was so impressed with him.”

Buechel’s leadership style — humble, open, leaning in — is part of what makes him the ideal person to take Whole Foods into its next evolution. He showcases the other facets of his authentic style — including his focus on purpose, team culture, customer experience and technology — in an exclusive interview with PG at the retailer’s headquarters in Austin, Texas.

“I’ve got the best job in the world, hands down,” asserts Buechel, who took over as CEO in 2022 from legendary founder John Mackey.

“I feel so fortunate. I don’t know how all the things aligned, but I knew this was the right place to come to 10 and a half years ago. Being in a

14 progressivegrocer.com

At top, a wall of T-shirts at Whole Foods Market headquarters in Austin, Texas.

Above, Whole Foods Market CEO Jason Buechel took some of his team members on a trip to Pacific Seafood in Portland, Ore. Buechel says that the company plans to do three of these trips a year. At right, Buechel speaks to team members as part of the Whole Conversations Tour.

space to help ensure that we can lead Whole Foods Market, serving our higher purpose, maintaining our quality standards and culture, and helping support that for decades to come, that for me is the responsibility I feel. I’m so privileged to be able to help lead that.”

"Growing the Purpose"

Six years after Amazon purchased Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in 2017, Buechel has been tasked with injecting new energy into a beloved brand that pioneered the natural and organic

grocery space more than 40 years ago.

Organic today represents 6% of total food sales, and this year marks a significant milestone for the company: It’s been two decades since it first achieved organic retail certification. To date, the retailer offers more than 37,000 organic products in 535-plus stores. Whole Foods remains the only national grocer holding this certification. This year, the company entered its 44th state — Montana — and plans to open as many as 30 stores a year going forward.

Since the Amazon deal, the company has been hyper-curating and -localizing its assortments, adding 3,000 local brands in the past five years, a 30% increase between 2017 and 2022. Last year, the retailer added to its local cred by debuting an accelerator program for small producers to earn a spot on its shelves.

Today, Whole Foods — which has more than 105,000 employees (the retailer calls them team members) and generates an estimated $17 billion in annual sales — is more than just a side hustle for Amazon. The retailer is an innovation lab, as well as a large part of Amazon’s broader goal of creating a best-inclass grocery strategy. And the innovation happening at Whole Foods isn’t about just e-commerce or cashierless checkout tech, it’s about doing things authentically differently when it comes to company culture, team-building and creating a place where

people can’t wait to come to work.

Buechel, a lifelong foodie with an aptitude for technology who comes from a long line of Wisconsin farmers, joined the company more than a decade ago as CIO after a stint with Accenture’s retail operations practice; he became COO in 2019. He says that what attracted him to Whole Foods was the retailer’s strong, purpose-driven culture.

“One of the things that was true 10 years ago and is still true today is that what drove me to Whole Foods was our higher purpose, our core values,” he notes. “One of the things that I learned in working with lots of other companies over the

“A lot of folks have a higher purpose and core values, but they’re words on the wall. At Whole Foods, we are living and breathing them every single day.”

—Jason Buechel, CEO, Whole Foods Market PROGRESSIVE GROCER December 2023

15

COVER STORY

Whole Foods Market

Whole Foods Market SVP of Culinary Jeff Turnas (second from left) leads a team of talented culinarians experimenting with the latest innovations in retail foodservice at a test kitchen in Austin, Texas. On a recent visit, the team was working on new sandwiches, vegan sushi and breads.

course of my career is that a lot of folks have a higher purpose and core values, but they’re words on the wall. At Whole Foods, we are living and breathing them every single day.”

Living and breathing those words — things like having the highest product standards in the industry — is something that Buechel is extremely passionate about prioritizing. Since the Amazon sale, Whole Foods has more than doubled its list of banned food ingredients (to 260-plus).

According to Buechel, a lot of his work over the past year has been focused on creating a connected and unified vision for the future of a company relentlessly committed to nourishing people and the planet. A big part of that was connecting with stakeholders across the company in a series of meetings called the Whole Conversations Tour.

“The intention there was a dedicated visit with each region,” explains Buechel. “Unlike where I typically would just go to a few stores here, a few stores there, the idea here was doing some individual store visits. Meeting with local suppliers, customers, community partners. It was basically a workshop to look at all the opportunities that we have for Whole Foods Market both in the short term and the long term.”

The Whole Conversations Tour allowed the retailer’s Culture Champions and Ambassadors (an internal education program designed to empower team members) to have a big role in developing new ideas.

“One of the things I love in our culture is that our team members control our monetary donations,” says Buechel.

“Quarterly, each store has a budget that goes to community giving that our team members vote on. The Culture Champion Ambassador helps with that. We can get feedback from customers in some cases, but team members control the dollars.

16 progressivegrocer.com

Instead of it being a decision made by me and the executive team, we want our stores connected to our communities and serving locally that way.”

The company has several internal team member engagement offerings, including apprenticeship programs (cheese, butchery, cake decorating, bakery) and community enrichment efforts such as Whole Kids and Whole Cities.

“One of the things that was great about the Whole Conversations Tour was that each of the groups would come up with their best ideas, both for the short term and long term,” recounts Buechel. “And then we voted as a larger group. We actually had live polling.

In some cases, we said: ‘Great, we got some feedback. Let’s go pilot this or let’s roll this out to all stores and let’s see how well it’s working.’”

Buechel says that some of the longer-term ideas from the tour have been a major inspiration for what he calls “growing the purpose.”

The tour also led to a new iteration of what the company calls its Green Mission program, first introduced in the early 2000s. The program focuses on the work the company does in-store to support its commitments to the environment and other sustainability efforts. During the tour, many of the retailer’s Culture Champions had ideas about how to revitalize the program.

“There’s a lot of passion in this particular space, especially among the Culture Champions,” notes Buechel. “This was an example of one where we greenlit some tests to say, ‘Let’s start putting that focus back in some of these stores.’ So we actually relaunched the program on Earth Day earlier this year. We call it Green Mission 2.0.”

Another idea born from the Whole Conversations Tour was that of regular field trips including Buechel and the company’s Culture Champions from across the company. He says that the company plans to do three of these trips a year, and he speaks emotionally about a recent journey to Portland, Ore., where they visited one of Pacific Seafood’s oyster farms.

“It was the most magical experience,” notes Buechel. “We got to hear firsthand from the supplier side of, what does this work look like in sourcing the highest-quality oysters? And one of the ways that we got to do that is to actually go out into a boat. I learned how to shuck oysters, pack them, sort them.

All the team members broke up into groups to really understand how hard the job is.”

On the same trip, the Whole Foods team visited other suppliers, including a small producer called Ground Up, which makes nut butters.

s l e e p it d o o g so

we are bananas Chiquita’s ‘It Peels So Good’ campaign tells the story of a banana company with a rich history and a bright future. Committed to providing high-quality products and making a positive impact on the world, Chiquita’s best-in-class brand remains a distinctive personality that stands out amongst the banana bunch.

The campaign reinforces Chiquita’s leadership role in the banana category while celebrating the brand’s premium quality, delicious taste, distinctive personality, and iconic heritage.

To know more, visit www.chiquita.com

COVER STORY

Whole Foods Market “We got to hear about the work they’re able to do in serving their purpose as a result of us buying their nut butters,” says Buechel. “They’re actually helping underserved women integrate back into society. A significant portion of their workforce are actually women who typically are unhoused, living in a shelter, and they go through a program to develop skills to return to the workforce.”

As a result of this job, one of the women Buechel met during his visit has her confidence back and is now working as a teacher’s aide, he notes.

“It’s the most beautiful story,” adds Buechel. “One of the things that is great about Whole Foods is the ripple effect that we’re having upstream, in the supply chain, around the communities that we’re able to serve.”

Broken Food System

At Grocery Impact in Orlando, Buechel spoke eloquently about that ripple effect, stressing that the grocery industry can be a force for good in changing the way the world thinks about food.

“Whole Foods Market invites you to help us start a ripple effect of change that will fix our broken food system,” he told the audience of grocery executives. “The decisions we make as a business — even the smallest ones — in how food is raised and grown today can have a profound and lasting impact on nourishing people and the planet for future generations to come.”

According to Buechel, the grocery industry stands on the cusp of a new era and must collectively commit to climate-smart agriculture.

“One of the biggest challenges our food system is facing now and will continue [to face] in the future is the climate crisis,” he said during his Grocery Impact presentation. “If we continue farming in the large-scale, mechanized way that much of the industry currently does, our topsoil is not going to have the nutrient density it needs to grow the foods we know and love today.”

This summer, hundreds of products from Whole Foods Market’s private brand, 365, became available on Amazon for nationwide shipping.

“Folks who don't live anywhere near a Whole Foods Market can still enjoy these great products,” says CEO Jason Buechel.

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To tackle this challenge, Whole Foods is working with farmers, ranchers, suppliers, scientists and other experts, as well as leading organizations, to leverage regenerative agriculture to evolve the practices used to grow, raise and produce the items that it sells. Buechel says that indoor-farming options will become more key to achieve greater redundancy in the supply chain.

“We’re going to need more alternatives,” he asserts. “We’re going to continue to grow most of our things in soil, but we are going to have to look at things like different indoor vertical-farming options.

Some of that’s going to give us redundancy that we need when there are challenges that come into play.”

In 2021, Whole Foods launched the Sourced for Good seal, a program emphasizing responsible sourcing through third-party certification that has resulted in improved conditions for farmworkers and support for worker communities, and has helped ensure environmental stewardship where crops are grown.

Whole Foods has leveraged Sourced for Good to improve storytelling to the customer by placing easily identifiable Sourced for Good stickers on the produce and coffee they purchase so they know when their dollars are being reinvested in the communities where their food comes from.

A focus on regenerative agriculture and responsible sourcing is all part of the retailer’s customer value proposition, which remains strong despite the mainstreaming of natural foods and the effects of inflation on consumer spending.

“The first value proposition for any customer is the homework that we do,” observes Buechel.

“You come to Whole Foods Market, you know that everything that you’re buying meets our quality standards. That … is an important differentiation for us, because there’s no one else that comes close to what we’re doing in that particular space.”

He adds that Whole Foods is working to do more for its value-conscious shoppers.

“Some of them might be more occasional shoppers, but the idea is, how do we make sure that we can have offerings that can support any budget?” he notes. “This is where I’m so proud of the work of what we’ve done with 365.”

This summer, hundreds of products from Whole Foods’ private brand, 365, became available on Amazon for nationwide shipping.

“The idea here is that we’re able to have a greater impact, so folks who don’t live anywhere near a Whole Foods Market can still enjoy these great products,” says Buechel. “It’s a great price point, but it also meets our quality standards. That’s something I’m proud of because there’s so many different ways that you can feed a family on any budget throughout the store, and 365 really helps make that something that we can support.”

Since the Amazon deal, Whole Foods Market has been hyper-curating and -localizing its assortments, adding 3,000 local brands in the past five years, a 30% increase between 2017 and 2022. Last year, the retailer added to its local cred by debuting an accelerator program for small producers to earn a spot on its shelves.

What’s Next

On the operational front, Whole Foods had been centralizing its leadership structure before Buechel took the reins, but he has taken the restructuring one step further, a strategy he calls “store-centricity.”

“I want all of our support team members in the organization focused on our stores, around the customer and our team member experience,” he explains. “So we have rebranded. Historically, everyone in Austin was called global support. We had regional support, which is a regional team. But now we are trying to get rid of the words ‘global’ and ‘regional,’ and instead we are ‘store support.’ We want to make sure that all of our store support team members have a connection to our stores, have an understanding of how their work impacts the front lines.”

The company is also laser-focused on improving the customer experience, building back up its post-pandemic foodservice offering, and getting a little help on the tech side from Amazon with things like phasing out legacy technology.

“How do we give our customers the best possible experience, help our customers save time? We’ve got a number of things that we are experimenting [with] in that space,” says Buechel, referencing two Whole Foods stores featuring Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology.

As CIO, he stood up the retailer’s delivery and pickup businesses before the pandemic. Fast-forward to today: Whole Foods not only offers delivery and pickup for Prime and non-Prime shoppers, but it’s also a refuge for Amazon customers who need to return items.

“That’s another area [where] our customers just thank us,” says Buechel. “To be honest, we need more capacity, because it’s such an important step for our customers being able to have us as a place that they can return those packages. And it’s great for us, because in many cases, they come in

to make a purchase as well.”

The retailer has introduced a pay-by-palm system — Amazon One — at most of its stores. According to Buechel, the feedback from shoppers has been more positive than negative “by far.” Whole Foods team members are also leveraging Amazon One to take advantage of their employee discount.

Additionally, the company has been introducing electronic shelf labels to stores, and Buechel says that he’s excited about the possibilities.

“I think it has a lot of potential,” he notes. “I see challenges through many different iterations of having a technology experience that is great for the customer, great for our team members in helping support it, and it’s a right financial decision to make.”

Buechel adds that Whole Foods is also looking at deploying digital receipts technology to streamline that process, since “our customers are asking for that.”

The company’s culinary innovation center in Austin has a brilliant team working to expand its offering now that retail foodservice demand has largely returned since the pandemic. PG visited the foodservice operations center and sampled such new offerings as plant-based sushi, fresh sandwiches with elevated ingredients, and scrumptious (and all-natural) cakes and breads.

Probably the biggest operational priority for Buechel in the coming year, however, will be the phaseout of decades-old legacy technology.

“This has been one of the things we’ve been really excited about with Amazon,” he says. “It’s going to have a meaningful impact on our team members, where today, they’re doing a lot of non-value-added work. As we help make things super-easy, it’s going to make our team member engagement a lot better, but it’s also going to allow us to reinvest team member time back into our customer experience.”

He notes that the retailer has been testing some of the new tech at a store, and that it has helped improve efficiencies with regard to ordering and in-stocks.

“If we can get it right, our in-stocks increase and that’s great for customers, our shrink reduces because we’re ordering the right product, but our customer satisfaction goes up because our team members are spending more time on the floor and interacting with them as well,” explains Buechel.

Whether it’s testing new systems or products, Buechel says that he’s excited to leverage the best of Amazon to support customers, team members, suppliers and stakeholders as the retailer looks to the future.

“That’s my focus,” he asserts. “We get so many great ideas, and we have lots of ways that we can test really quickly. So our goal is to figure out which are the ones that actually can stick and scale.”

PROGRESSIVE GROCER December 2023

19

FEATURE

2023 Category Captains

2023

CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS

CAPTAINS

This year’s companies recognized by PG show a lot of daring in their category management strategies.

By PG Staff

A

t a time when shoppers are still grappling with the effects of inflation, how can grocery retailers get them to increase their purchases? Partnerships with CPG companies are crucial in this regard, as the right consumer insights, assortment, merchandising, marketing and more can lift the sales not only of a particular company’s brand, but also of the entire category and ultimately the whole store. In such endeavors, as in so many others, fortune favors the bold, and the companies profiled in the following pages have certainly not lacked daring in devising their category management strategies and deploying them at retail.

This year’s Category Captains span a wide variety of categories, from adult nutrition to vitamins, minerals and supplements, and each honoree earned this distinction by working closely with its retail partners to significantly grow sales in a particular category. Some efforts, as in the case of Chiquita with its world-famous bananas, are wide-ranging, encompassing product innovation, recipe development and a celebratory reminder of the brand’s iconic history, while others are laser-targeted, as is Constellation Brands’ cutting-edge work to integrate e-commerce into its category-centric Shopper First Shelf strategy. All have proved wildly successful, rewarding the companies and the retailers that trusted in these enterprising plans for category success.

Read on to find out how the 2023 Category Captains are ensuring a profitable future for themselves, their retail partners and the grocery industry.

20 progressivegrocer.com

LIST OF 2023 CATEGORY CAPTAINS Abbott Nutrition-Adult Nutrition Abbott Nutrition-Oral Electrolytes Chiquita-Bananas The Coca-Cola Co.-Mixers Constellation Brands-Beverage Alcohol E. & J. Gallo Winery-Wine The Hershey Co.-Confections/Gum Hormel Foods Corp.-Salty Snacks/Snack Nuts Hormel Foods Corp.-Refrigerated Dinners IPC-Fresh Potatoes MCBC (Molson Coors)-Beer Mission Produce-Avocados Pharmavite-Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements

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FEATURE

2023 Category Captains

Abbott Nutrition: Adult Nutrition

A national retailer wanted to maintain share leadership in the adult nutrition category.

To help achieve this goal, Abbott shifted its strategy to capitalize on the latest shopper trends by elevating higher-protein offerings and educating shoppers at the shelf. After conducting consumer research to better understand merchandising flow and wayfinding/educational signage, the company improved the retailer’s online shopping experience through attribution improvement and consistency.

With Baby Boomers rapidly aging and strong category growth of 20% in 2022, Abbott saw the opportunity to trade shoppers up to more premium offerings and improve online shopability. The higher-protein Ensure Plus segment was added to the merchandising flow to drive trade up, along with four incremental new Ensure flavors, while the reimagined section now featured branded category signage, targeted offers, improved item-level attribution and aid in online searches.

Following these changes, category sales grew 8.1%, with Ensure sales growth at 15.8%, outpacing the rest of

the market by four percentage points, while the retailer’s market share for the category reached an all-time high of 40.6%, 1.2 percentage points higher than last year.

Abbott Nutrition: Oral Electrolytes

To reverse declining sales of oral electrolytes at a national retailer, Abbott leveraged current hydration trends to evaluate and analyze shopper behavior and purchase patterns to define a category strategy. The company conducted category and consumer research that yielded recommendations to drive category growth and market share. The research uncovered that 22% of shoppers were new to this retailer over the past year, creating a conversion opportunity; that shoppers expected to find oral electrolytes in three to four locations in the store, based on need state; and that there was an unmet grab-and-go oral electrolyte shopper need state.

Since there was no national-brand representation in the retailer’s cooler box to drive trial, it needed a strategy to signal to the shopper that it carried a broad assortment of oral electrolytes across the store. Abbott added Pedialyte 500-milliliter options to the cooler box for on-the-go convenience, with the aim of helping to drive awareness and increase conversion.

As a result, the retailer gained 600 basis points in oral electrolyte market share and 5,700 basis points in channel market share; total buyers purchasing oral electrolytes has increased 6% since launch; and total Pedialyte penetration has increased 0.8 points since 2021, among other wins.

22 progressivegrocer.com

FEATURE

2023 Category Captains Chiquita is collaborating in the Yelloway initiative, which aims to produce bananas that are resistant to both pathogenic diseases and environmental threats, while also reducing carbon emissions.

Chiquita: Bananas

This past year, Chiquita led in category innovation by launching a joint venture to research and develop a disease-resistant banana, driving new banana consumption moments through an educational time-of-day-focused recipe campaign, celebrating its history, and introducing a new green banana product that has a longer shelf life and can be used as a plantain alternative.

In collaboration with KeyGene, MusaRadix, and Wageningen University and Research, Chiquita launched the groundbreaking Yelloway initiative, with the goal of producing bananas that are resistant to both pathogenic diseases and environmental threats, while also reducing carbon emissions. The initiative follows four pathways: genome mapping, plant breeding, laboratory testing and field testing. Thus far, Yelloway has allowed Chiquita and its research partners to create a family tree of banana diversity based on more than 160 banana types, leading to 150 successful crosses, totaling 32,000 seeds. New varieties of bananas are being developed, some with resistance to certain diseases. The ultimate goal is to produce three new resistant varieties that look, feel, taste and store like the Cavendish banana with which consumers are long familiar.

To position Chiquita as more than just a breakfast food or an on-the-go snack, the brand created the It’s Chiquita O’ Clock campaign to highlight the use cases of bananas throughout the day. The campaign gave consumers more reasons to buy Chiquita Bananas by providing new and trending recipe ideas to be used for breakfast, midday snacks and dessert. From April 1 through June 30, consumers could scan a QR code on the Chiquita Banana sticker or in-store signage at select U.S. retailers to unlock six new and unexpected recipes. The campaign garnered impressive results through a robust set of tactics that included Meta, TikTok, Display and PR. Chiquita also offered consumers the chance to enter to win one of three Cuisinart kitchen appliances and activated food influencers to help promote the various consumption moments through 24 progressivegrocer.com

Chiquita-inspired recipe content. The campaign generated more than 135 million impressions, with influencer activation generating an additional 22 million impressions.

In an effort to reinforce Chiquita’s leadership role in the banana category while emphasizing its premium quality, delicious taste, distinctive personality and iconic heritage, the brand introduced It Peels So Good. The campaign debuted in a variety of media formats, including social media content and immersive out-of-home billboards in key tourist sites across the globe. Additionally, the campaign launched special video formats for digital media that displayed a selection of vintage advertising campaigns exploring the brand’s rich heritage through its famous branded assets.

As a way to drive innovation for both Chiquita and the banana category, the brand launched Hard Green Bananas as a more affordable alternative to plantains, which are typically cooked and added to recipes. Chiquita aimed to educate consumers on the benefits of Hard Green Bananas, which are more versatile, have a longer shelf life, and are a healthy source of complex carbohydrates and fiber. The campaign consisted of digital and social creative in various languages targeting specific U.S. audiences to highlight the new product and its use cases. The eight-week campaign ran on Meta and generated 42 million-plus impressions.

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FEATURE

2023 Category Captains

The Coca-Cola Co.: Drink Mixers

Since 2017, mocktail menu penetration has grown 150% and social conversations about nonalcoholic alternatives and mocktails have also increased by 58%. Recognizing an opportunity to tap into the sober-curious and mixer space, The Coca-Cola Co. introduced Simply Mixology, a line of fruit-forward alcohol-free juice beverages inspired by consumers’ favorite cocktails. The three varieties — Strawberry Guava Mojito (a first-to-market flavor profile), Lime Margarita and Peach Sour — are made with simple ingredients and can be enjoyed with or without alcohol.

Compared with older generations, Millennials and Gen Z place a higher value on complex flavors in mocktails and “would still like to taste the alcohol” even in a nonalcoholic beverage, according to Mintel, so to meet these demands, Simply partnered with bartenders and mixologists to concoct blends featuring spices and herbal flavors to offer a full sensorial experience, with or without spirits. Simply Mixology has captured consumers’ attention with high-quality ingredients as well as disruptive social campaigns.

These efforts have resulted in $7 million-plus in sales since the product line’s launch in January 2023. Internal data shows that Simply Mixology has been highly incremental, attracting new shoppers to the category and expanding the way that consumers think about juice products.

Constellation Brands: Beverage Alcohol

Beverage alcohol is one of the largest categories in U.S. edible consumer packaged goods. Beverage alcohol three-tier e-commerce (3TE), encompassing omnichannel, pure play and the third-party marketplace, has evolved into a multibillion-dollar industry, with its size remaining more than three times higher than pre-pandemic levels despite the reopening of traditional commerce. Constellation Brands has taken a leadership role in 3TE, integrating e-commerce into its category-centric Shopper-First Shelf strategy. This ensures consistent, up-to-date 3TE visibility; insights into the 3TE beverage alcohol shopper; and actionable merchandising tactics to boost category sales 26 progressivegrocer.com

and accelerate growth.

In 2023, Constellation Brands launched a streaming e-commerce site within the Shopper First Shelf platform. This living site offers distributors and retailers actionable insights into beverage alcohol e-commerce trends, consumer demographics, preferences, behaviors and website best practices, ensuring optimization for digitally native consumers.

Additionally, since e-commerce’s influence extends beyond online shopping, affecting traditional offline sales, Constellation Brands’ approach provides a constant stream of timely guidance for the evolving retail and shopper landscape.

Collaborative partnerships leveraging Shopper First Shelf for e-commerce have already resulted in sales outpacing total beverage alcohol 3TE trends, in some cases by double digits.

Driving Growth

&

Committed to Quality

Recognized for Excellence in Shopper-Centric Category Management for 21 Consecutive Years!

USP has tested and verified ingredients, potency and manufacturing process. USP sets official standards for dietary supplements. www.uspverified.org Not all Nature Made products are USP verified.

HBased on a survey of pharmacists who recommend branded vitamins and supplements.

FEATURE

2023 Category Captains

E. & J. Gallo Winery: Wine

Currently, only 28% of the of the U.S. population consumes wine. Part of the challenge is that many consumers view wine as appropriate for more formal beverage occasions. In response, E. & J. Gallo Winery is driving an initiative to democratize wine by leveraging its Barefoot Cellars brand in the popular-price segment.

In Gallo’s quest to democratize wine, it entered a five-year partnership with the NFL, becoming the association’s Official Wine Sponsor as of 2022. This partnership gave Gallo the opportunity to launch a national omnichannel program, including in-store NFL-inspired point-of-sale kits, game day-themed social/mobile digital campaigns, and robust near-nationwide coupon campaigns, including coupon accessibility

28 progressivegrocer.com

on retailer apps. These tactics drove seamless shopper experiences and growth to both Barefoot and the total wine category for retailers.

In-store displays that featured the NFL partnership resulted in a Bare-

foot sales increase of 27% nationally. One of the retailers to execute the program experienced significant growth with the omnichannel programming.

In a specific division, sales grew 35% in-store on Barefoot, and units increased 4% on the total popular-price segment in its e-commerce business. The omnichannel program helped drive a 4% revenue increase in the total wine category in-store and online.

During the program, when wine was in the basket, shoppers also spent an additional 41% on other products versus baskets without wine, resulting in a 79% total basket lift. Following the launch of the digital ads, repeat households for Barefoot increased 7%. For the last week of the promotion, the total wine category grew 8% in dollar sales.

The Hershey Co.: Confections/Gum

Hershey recently updated its Gold Standard merchandising principles for the CGM (candy, gum, mint) category to deliver best-in-class aisle layouts and drive growth. This year, the company updated foundational shopper research and triangulated that research with in-market analysis and virtual-reality testing to understand what it takes to build the most productive candy aisle.

Hershey analyzed where shoppers spend time in the candy aisle, how they make purchase decisions, where they expect to find key items or segments, the best in-aisle adjacencies, key merchandising principles, how best to allocate space in the aisle, the best location for innovation, how best to use the strike zone (eye-level shelf space), and optimal item assortment.

The company integrated these learnings and other test results and partnered with retailers to drive the greatest lifts and results for their candy aisles this year, delivering more than $287 million in incremental growth to the category at 18-plus retailers in the United States and Canada.

In 2023, Gold Standard expanded to include independent operators, which currently represent more than a third of U.S. grocery sales, with a projected 25% growth in store count in

five years. Collaborating with wholesale grocers, Hershey optimized planograms and identified key distribution voids with quantified lost sales at the store level.

Hershey is deploying new capabilities to its sales teams, enabling it to educate business partners, place automated orders on the spot and secure placement of products that shoppers seek.

Live data feeds and machine learning will fuel continued partnerships.

PROGRESSIVE GROCER December 2023

29

FEATURE

2023 Category Captains

Hormel Foods Corp.: Nuts and Salty Snacks

People may nosh on snacks in a mindless way, but there can be a lot of intent and information behind how those products are produced and positioned. Case in point: Hormel Foods’ approach to the nut and salty snack category.

The food conglomerate taps into its rich cache of data to guide its strategic business-planning approach. In salty snacks and nuts, the company regularly conducts custom research to better understand shoppers’ buying habits and uses the findings to maintain existing consumers and attract new snackers.

The insights are shared with retailers to help them spur sales, including both planned and spontaneous purchases.

One large retailer, for its part, recently used Hormel’s insights as part of a review of snack nuts that led to the launch of 25 new slotted items across its banners, including bold and savory flavors that were confirmed to resonate among today’s shoppers. The endeavor resulted in $2.1 million in net sales and a volume increase of 400,000 pounds.

Consumers’ expressed interest in different flavor experiences similarly propelled the overall success of flavored cashews under Hormel’s legacy Planters brand in Rosemary and Sea Salt, Cinnamon Brown Sugar, and Dill Pickle varieties. Dill pickle-flavored cashews in particular quickly

Hormel Foods Corp: Refrigerated Dinners

Consumers’ schedules are getting ahead of their planning, as most people have resumed busy lifestyles and plan dinners only within an hour or so of eating. Hormel Foods has sought to narrow that gap by bringing more choices to the refrigerated meal category, including its line of Hormel Square Table entrées.

30 progressivegrocer.com

emerged as a top performer. Underscoring the future market for such items, Hormel’s latest flavored cashews are especially popular among younger consumers ages 35-54.

In addition to new product development within the competitive nut and salty snack category, Hormel Foods leans into data to help retailers improve shoppers’ experiences in the snack aisle. For example, the CPG company shared its insights on planogram success with one major discount chain, identifying an opportunity of $4.5 million of incremental items and 3%-5% growth potential related to enhanced shelving adjacencies.

After analyzing Hormel’s tiered options that also took into account labor optimization, the retailer went with an assortment based on stronger trail mix and peanut trends and flavor varieties.

Ultimately, the retailer introduced seven new items across in-aisle and front end sets.

The discount chain also used Hormel’s data showing that the retailer’s shoppers often buy pistachios, and accordingly made those nuts a focal point of the planogram. Fastest-velocity items were placed on the bottom shelf, bringing shoppers to the set and increasing the opportunity for incremental units like sunflower seeds to be added to the basket.

The retailer also followed through on the data-based suggestion to put profitable private label snacks at eye level and above to drive conversion. In addition, smaller snack packages were added to help meet the needs of lower-income shoppers.

These collective efforts were effective, since dollar sales at the retailer grew by double digits for the top five brands in the category, including private label, and unit sales likewise increased.

While the retailer has upped its store count over the past year, the comp-store analysis showed a 3%-plus gain in dollar and unit growth across all five of the top category brands.

FEATURE

2023 Category Captains The offerings, which are made with top-quality cuts of meat with no preservatives, allow consumers to continue to eat at home, a habit they picked up during the pandemic and kept as away-fromhome dining costs soared. Cost-conscious consumers have flocked to such meal solutions at stores like a certain discount retailer, which recently added Hormel’s refrigerated dinner meals as a way to win

more of those daypart occasions.

When it first approached the retailer with the idea of expanding dinner meals beyond its market-style stores, Hormel shared data showing that the retailer was under-indexed on meat trips and had several untapped avenues for growth at peak dinner time, when shoppers come into the stores to pick up essentials like milk on their way

home from work or running errands.

Since it started providing meat-based heat-and-eat entrées such as traditional beef roast, chicken breasts, turkey, beef tips, pork roast and other items, the retailer has hit upon a need: In a recent 26-week period, the category grew dollar sales at twice the rate of total food, and increased baskets when the rest of the store experienced a dip in basket sizes.

an Idaho potato product in its fresh category. In fact, IPC’s information indicated that the retailer was underperforming the competition by 21.3% in total category sales and was especially lacking in yellow and russet potato varieties, which have proved popular among today’s shoppers.

IPC worked with the retailer on a

plan to introduce Idaho potatoes into the category to drive total category growth. That plan worked, as the operator boosted its market share 19.4% over its competition after adding those products. Total dollar sales in the category rose 5% on a year-overyear basis and spurred the retailer to add even more Idaho potato products across the category.

Beyond widening its assortment of potato varieties, the retailer offered more packaging options, and subsequently bolstered sales of 5-pound, 3-pound and bulk formats.

Following that success, the retailer and IPC aim to build on the campaign with another round of data-based reviews likely to lead to more options for consumers.

MCBC’s category team used the tool to optimize pack-outs during the period and helped more than 50 retailers quickly identify how to maximize cooler space. The OAT tool provided a faster way to identify opportuni-

ties so the coolers could be reset outside the normal reset window, resulting in both a reduction in out-of-stock levels and dollar sales growth for participating retailers. According to the company, grocery outlets that used the tool improved their category sales by five points compared with retailers that haven’t used the tool.

Additionally, MCBC category managers developed a Display Optimization Tool to help retailers maximize display space during that time. The company worked with Circana to build the customized solution, which modeled the impact of display size and locations by brand, and these fact-based solutions were shared with retailers.

Idaho Potato Commission: Potatoes

The Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) is rooted in providing partners and customers with top-quality products and insights. While the organization has long supported the state’s potato growers through marketing and advertising programs highlighting the famous “Grown in Idaho” seal, IPC has become data savvy in recent years, with its directors acting as category consultants who use research to identify new opportunities across the marketplace.

Over the past year, many of those consultants worked with a major retail player in the northeastern United States, synthesizing data showing that the chain was missing out on sales by not carrying

Molson Coors (MCBC): Beer

Molson Coors provides retailers with not only alcoholic beverages, but also thought leadership in category management through its Purpose Drives Purchase Plus (PDP+) strategy. The strategy is designed to help retailers offer optimal category assortment, display and shelving solutions. In 2023, the supplier’s category management team introduced the PDP+ Optimal Assortment Tool (OAT), which helped retailers solve distribution challenges during a time when the category saw an unexpected but significant shift in demand across premium beer brands.

32 progressivegrocer.com

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FEATURE

2023 Category Captains

Mission Produce: Avocados

In 2022, Mission Produce designed a customer-specific merchandising program to help a regional food retailer in the Northeast increase sales in the avocado category. By analyzing the grocer’s retail results, market share and shopper demographics, Mission Produce was able to identify an opportunity to better align the retailer’s offerings to the needs of its shoppers.

Mission Produce uses an in-house data-driven intelligence platform and category management program, AvoIntel, to identify customer and consumer insights to inform profitable programming opportunities, generate sales, attract more shoppers and reduce shrink. By employing the platform, Mission Produce deduced that the retailer overindexed on larger households, families with children, and shoppers with a high household income of $125,000 or more. The company saw that those groups were shifting their grocery spend to club stores, not only for avocados, but also for their entire baskets.

The company found an opportunity to prevent this spend from leaking to other retailers, especially

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club stores offering similar fresh avocado product packs, by complementing its existing avocado offerings with Mission Jumbos, a club-sized bag designed for heavy avocado consumers. The new assortment strategy resulted in an average weekly sales increase of 33% of bag units sold. In addition to the significant increase in bagged avocado sales, the retailer realized only a 4% decrease in unit sales of other bagged offerings.

Pharmavite: Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements

Pharmavite’s category management team continually brings retail buyer partners compelling insights and analyses to aid in the development of the vitamin, mineral and supplement (VMS) category. According to the company, vitamin sales shifted from immune to non-immune segments following the pandemic, and magnesium specifically went viral on social media. Sales for that segment are 48% stronger than they were in 2022, and Pharmavite’s magnesium items have contributed to more than 50% of the segment’s growth dollars recently.

As a result of this increase in demand, Pharmavite has ensured that its retail partners have a curated assortment for the segment, including such new products as a Nature Made Magnesium Complex. Additionally, the company’s visible partnership with United States Pharmacopeia (USP) helps shoppers choose its vitamins, since they meet stringent quality criteria for purity and potency. With 61% of its products USP-verified, Nature Made leads VMS brands in this regard.

Finally, Pharmavite employs machine learning and third-party partners to identify opportunities to optimize its products’ pricing. The company uses artificial-intelligence modeling to evaluate thousands of items in the category and gain insight into expected shopper responses to price changes, as well as evaluating product assortment to make sure that the company has the right product on shelf at the right time.

SOLUTIONS

Protein Forecast

Consumers are balancing savoring and saving, allowing products like pork loin to perform well, in addition to other items like ground beef and poultry value cuts.

Primed for Protein ACROSS GROCERY CATEGORIES, PROTEIN-RICH FOODS SCORE WITH SHOPPERS SEEKING VALUE, CONVENIENCE, FL AVOR AND SUSTAINABILIT Y.

By Lynn Petrak rotein, it seems, is everywhere. As we move deeper into the ’20s, grocers are flexing their merchandising muscle by carrying a greater variety of both animal- and plant-based proteins across more categories, from powders to meats to desserts.

Market research supports the push for protein. According to a recent report from Arnhem, Netherlands-based Innova Market Insights, 42% of consumers believe that proteins are the most important ingredients to them.

While they have more to choose from, protein-propelled shoppers are being driven by certain trends as 2024 gets underway. In a decade defined by the constant of change, some of those trends are emerging now, while others linger from macro events that have shaped the marketplace over the past few years.

38 progressivegrocer.com

Value Remains Vital

One continuing protein purchase driver is consumers’ quest for value. Although inflation has come down from its peak, food prices remain elevated over traditional levels. More recently, there has been speculation about the possibility of disinflation or deflation over the coming year, causing a different kind of uncertainty.

In this tenuous climate, consumers remain in caution mode, even as they keep

Key Takeaways One continuing protein purchase driver is consumers’ quest for value.

Sourcing and sustainability remain key factors within the greater protein marketplace, as does health.

Convenience has also returned to the forefront.

Imagine the

Prairie Fresh USA Prime® is the best of our best.

Our industry-leading proprietary technology helps to select premium cuts based on superior marbling, color and tenderness. So you can deliver a higher level of consistency and quality to your shoppers.

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SOLUTIONS

Protein Forecast

Experts predict that consumers will continue to cook at home more in the new year, seeking out interesting flavor experiences like this limited-time apple cider bacon from Hormel Foods.

protein in their diets. Anne-Marie Roerink, principal at San Antonio-based research firm 210 Analytics, agrees that affordability is still a key issue. “Sustained financial pressure has resulted in some moments being focused on money well saved, whereas others are focused on money well spent,” notes Roerink. “With virtually everything in life costing more, from food to energy to gasoline and insurance, consumers simply have less disposable income, and that is felt across all income [levels].”

As a result, shoppers are weighing choices carefully in an effort to scrimp when needed and savor when possible. “Rather than a singular focus on price, consumers sometimes focus on ultra value, whereas other times it’s about finding a good deal and saving some time, doing something nice for themselves or others, something that’s a bit healthier, more sustainable, et cetera,” she explains.

“But one thing is for certain: Sales patterns continue to reflect a consumer who is balancing how much, what and where they purchase, with a big emphasis on sales specials.”

Roerink cites examples in the meat and poultry sector. “Chicken, with its very cost-effective price per pound, is doing well, as are grinds,” she observes. “While ground beef is not quite keeping pace with year-ago levels, it, too, is doing better than most whole-muscle cuts in beef.”

Ozlem Worpel, VP, marketing and innovation at Merriam, Kan.-based Seaboard Foods, sees similar circumstances among price-wary consumers who continue to cook more at home. “Looking at the numbers, almost 60% of food sales for the year to date are home meals, and I don’t think 2024 will be much different,” says Worpel.

Pork has an opportunity to shine in this market, she adds “Pork overall is a value protein, and is the only meat that has gone down in price per pound for the last 52 weeks,” notes Worpel. “When consumers are looking for a protein to include in their

40 progressivegrocer.com

meals, I’m hoping we do a good job reminding them that pork is a value. It carries flavor very well, and it’s versatile.”

Worpel agrees that eating occasions often toggle between premium and value experiences. That’s one reason, she continues, that Seaboard’s Prairie Fresh USA Prime pork line has fared well since it launched in early 2023. “People are eating at home more, and when they do, they are making sure they have the best product possible,” explains Worpel.

Chicken, which has long worn a value halo, is another category where retailers promote value and shoppers seek it. According to research cited by the Washington, D.C.-based National Chicken Council, 95% of consumers who buy chicken say that price per pound and overall price are more important or as important, compared with a year ago. As for the coming months, the Utrecht, Netherlands-based global research firm Rabobank reports that a combination of easing demand and fewer imports has caused the global market for poultry to slow, although it’s poised to improve gradually in early 2024.

A gradual improvement in the seafood arena is likewise seen by Sarah Wallace, marketing specialist at Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI), which is based in Juneau. “Salmon and shrimp are historically the most widely consumed types of seafood throughout the U.S.,” says Wallace. “While that likely won’t change in 2024, overall seafood consumption will see an upward trajectory as inflationary pressures ease, with many seafood consumers likely to add more species back into regular meal rotations.”

She goes on to note that consumers also show preferences toward species like wild Alaska cod and pollack. “As inflationary pressures ease, we expect to see shoppers branching back out into these other species, as well as embracing trending products like smoked salmon and tinned fish,” predicts Wallace.

Salmon portions such as Alaska sockeye remain shopper favorites, even as consumers experiment with other species like sablefish and flounder.

If you came to Acme Smoked Fish, we’d put a hairnet on you and show you around.

We’d see David, one of the fourth-generation family owners, answering questions about the fish going in the smoker. We’d watch our expert cutters hand filleting gigantic salmon.

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Contact us at AcmeSmokedFish.com and see why everyone wants what we’re smoking.

SOLUTIONS

Protein Forecast

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute foresees a rise in seafood consumption as inflation eases in 2024.

Meanwhile, people aren’t talking about skyrocketing egg prices the way they were just a year ago. According to a late November report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), wholesale prices for cartoned eggs are steady, with light to moderate supplies, and demand remains moderate to good. Here, too, shoppers bounce between more affordable store-brand eggs and branded eggs with some kind of value proposition, like a new line of “restorative” eggs from Vital Farms, of Austin, Texas.

Plant-based proteins aren’t subject to the same inherent supply-and-demand constraints that animal proteins are, but in today’s price-centric environment, some manufacturers are touting value items in a segment that has typically been more premium. Beyond Meat, based in El Segundo, Calif., introduced a plant-based sausage in mid-2023, while many retailers continue to develop store-brand plant-based proteins. The New York-based Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA) identified “plant-based power” as one of five major trends during the group’s recent trade show in Chicago.

As protein suppliers provide a mix of products and messaging for mindful shoppers, grocers are finding their own ways to meet

“People are eating at home more, and when they do, they are making sure they have the best product possible.”

—Ozlem Worpel, Seaboard Foods

42 progressivegrocer.com

shoppers wherever they are on their value journey.

“Retailers are actively addressing consumers’ quest for value with more frequent promotions,” notes Roerink. “One area of improvement is still the depth of the discount where possible. Other retailers compare the cost of a home-cooked meal to a restaurant meal, boost their private-brand assortment, have adjusted their assortment to provide more value cuts, and try to be creative with shorter discounts such as one-day or bundling items into meal discounts.”

Raising the “Better” Bar

Although the word “value” typically connotes price, consumers are also continuing to make choices about what they eat or drink based on their own values.

Because proteins are so tied to agriculture, including proteins that come from animals and those that are derived from plants, sourcing and sustainability remain key factors within the greater protein marketplace.

In its recent report on food trends for 2024, FMCG Gurus highlights the “green horizon,” with an increasing use of upcycled ingredients and a focus on production practices. According to the U.K.-based market research firm, eight out of 10 global consumers say that they would trust a company more if it were using regenerative-farming practices.

For her part, Roerink expects consumers’ interest in where food comes from to continue to shape their protein selections in the short- and long-term future.

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SOLUTIONS

Protein Forecast “Consumers connect the dots between planet, people and animal welfare,” she observes. “While it’s easy to imagine that this is an area under pressure when money is tight, we still see consumers emphasizing sustainability in all its aspects. Following trends seen in European retail, the U.S. market is seeing everything from rating systems to third-party audits to sourcing standards being shared online.”

Worpel also believes that sourcing will stay top of mind.

“Sustainability is here to stay,” she asserts, emphasizing the importance of measuring processes and being transparent to consumers, especially younger buyers.

Concerns about sustainable food systems have led to the development of cell-based proteins as an alternative, a trend that experts expect to continue. In its outlook for 2024, the New York-based Specialty Food Association (SFA) includes cell-based meat and seafood as a trend. “Historically, this has been a challenge for producers, as the textures are particularly hard to mimic,” says Chala June, a member of SFA’s Trendspotter panel. “But with advancing technology, more brands are going to take a swing at it.”

Health is another personal value that spurs consumers to make certain choices when it comes to protein, as protein sources are generally rich in essential nutrients. “While very restrictive diets seem to be on the decline, protein continues to be an important nutrient that many consumers look for,” affirms Roerink.

Meanwhile, in the Kitchen

Consumers shop for protein with other values in mind, too. Convenience has come back to the forefront, for example.

“Life is hectic at the same time that many consumers try to find a better work/life balance,” says Roerink, emphasizing that grocers can hang their promotional hat on that attribute. “The convenience win is a continuum from straight-up raw meat that requires cooking and seasoning from scratch, to fully cooked, and everything in between. The deli and meat departments are rapidly breaking down silos, with deli sides moving into the meat department and many ready-to-cook dishes [in] ovenable/microwaveable packages moving into the deli department.”

In its 2024 trends outlook, Chicago-based insights firm Midan Marketing likewise called out convenience as a priority. “In a world Seaboard Foods introduced Prairie Fresh USA Prime pork last year as consumers expressed interest in recreating restaurant experiences at home.

44 progressivegrocer.com

“The deli and meat departments are rapidly breaking down silos, with deli sides moving into the meat department and many ready-to-cook dishes [in] ovenable/microwaveable packages moving into the deli department.”

—Anne-Marie Roerink, 210 Analytics

where we can stream any content we want on any device at any time and have whatever we want to eat delivered right to our front door, convenience has become ingrained in our culture,” the company’s report points out. “So it’s not surprising that the number of consumers who say they frequently purchase value-added meat has more than tripled since 2016.” According to Midan’s latest meat consumer segmentation research, 29% of consumers say that it’s worth paying extra for meat products that save them time.

Education is important in making protein preparation easier for consumers. “The 60% of consumers who eat seafood at home once a week are continuously on the lookout for new usage inspiration,” notes Wallace, citing a recent ASMI study showing that 74% of consumers wish they were eating seafood more often than they already do, and 66% say that easy cooking tips and recipes would help them eat it more.

Even as consumers seek out shortcuts, they’re not cutting down on flavor. According to Wallace, “Flavor trends for seafood recipes are following many of the major flavor trends across the food industry, including increased global influence, flavor fusions — most notably sweet and spicy — and refreshing flavors like botanicals and citrus.”

Seaboard Foods, for its part, has focused on shoppers’ interest in more variety with its Prairie Fresh Signature line of seasoned pork. “If you do that at home, you have to buy different ingredients, and you will only use so much of them,” says Worpel.

“This way, you are spending less. She adds that the company is launching a new seasoned product in early 2024.

Certainly, there are examples of interesting flavor additions across the store, whether it’s a new apple cider bacon from Hormel Black Label, Sesame Crusted Smoked Yellowfin Tuna from Brooklyn’s Acme Smoked Fish or cereal-inspired plant-based protein shakes from the Koia brand, among dozens of other examples of recent product rollouts.

PATAGONIA PURE & PROUD OUR SALMON IS RAISED IN THE PURE ANTARCTIC WATERS OF COASTAL PATAGONIA. As stewards of this remarkable environment, we proudly produce high-quality salmon using humane and environmentally responsible aquaculture. We are committed to protecting and preserving the environment where we live so future generations can prosper.

Salmon farming is FAR MORE EFFICIENT than other forms of farmed terrestrial protein. It only takes 1.2-1.5 pounds of feed to produce one pound of farmed salmon versus 6-10 pounds of feed to produce one pound of beef. The lower the feed conversion ratio, the better. Expansion of salmon farming and salmon consumption can help address food security as global populations rise, while having a far lower impact on the environment.

1.2-1.5 lbs.

6-10 lbs.

Ocean-raised salmon

REQUIRES LESS FRESH WATER than other proteins.

The salmon industry HELPS PEOPLE by generating employment and economic growth.3 From 10%-12% of the world’s population depend on aquatic foods for their livelihoods. In the Patagonia region of Chile, salmon farming drives the economy, directly employing approximately 20,000 people,

This helps protect fresh water resources and supplies.1

Farmed salmon has a

LOW CARBON FOOTPRINT.2 Studies show that aquaculture is climate-friendly, requiring fewer crops and less land area than non-marine protein production.

and indirectly employing an estimated 40,000.

Salmon aquaculture is the number one economic and social driver in the Patagonia region of southern Chile. Continuous improvement of our practice has accelerated in recent years. We are proud to be the second-largest producer of salmon in the world.

For information about origin, aquaculture, and recipe ideas visit ChileanSalmon.org Follow us @ChileanSalmonMC 1 https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/freshwater-systems 2 https://globalsalmoninitiative.org/en/about-salmon-farming/climate-change/ 3 https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/documents/Infographic_World%20Oceans%20Day_1.pdf

ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL & GOVERNANCE

ROI of Sustainability

The Basics of Community Solar

Community solar can enable grocers to further their sustainability goals while providing clean-energy accessibility for the areas in which they operate.

A Bright Idea for Grocers COMMUNIT Y SOL AR IS A WAY TO RE AP RENE WABLE ENERGY’S BENEFITS WITH MINIMAL INVESTMENT AND RISK.

By Katie Kavanaugh

argely due to growing incentives from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, solar power is rapidly gaining popularity and accessibility across America, with more and more commercial entities leveraging the benefits of clean energy.

It’s projected by the Solar Energy Industries Association that by year’s end, a record 32 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity will come from solar — a 52% increase from 2022. Community solar in particular is expected to grow around 11% annually over the next five years, contributing more than 6 GW to the energy grid.

By leveraging community solar, grocers, like other retail and residential customers, can benefit from solar energy without navigating the complexities of on-site installations and expand their community impact.

It’s a turnkey solution, and it can be the right option for grocers looking to make progress toward corporate sustainability goals while simultaneously providing clean-energy accessibility for the communities in which they operate.

46 progressivegrocer.com

As the name suggests, community solar is when you subscribe to a shared project and receive credits for the energy produced that can lower your electricity bill. Typically, retail establishments act as an “anchor tenant” in a community solar project and can sign up to offtake as much as 40% of what it generates — in some cases, even more. Although your store won’t directly receive this power, you’ll realize savings of 5% to 15% on your electricity costs, according to Kiplinger, because of the project’s contributions to the grid.

An added benefit of a community solar project is that you don’t need to own and maintain it — or even have it installed nearby. It’s an easy way for your grocery store to reap renewable energy’s benefits with minimal investment and risk.

In addition to benefiting from clean, renewable energy, you’ll also be paving the way for community-wide access. Committing as an anchor tenant pre-development ensures a level of financial stability, enabling projects to be developed in communities that might otherwise miss out on solar benefits. Schools, nonprofits, small businesses, and low- and moderate-income residents can access the project’s remaining solar capacity at affordable rates. You’ll also help create jobs and lower other businesses’ energy costs, spurring positive growth within the local economy.

By going the community solar route, a grocer can take steps toward its financial and sustainability goals while reinforcing its standing as a pillar of the community.

Making the Right Choice for You

One of the biggest questions you may face when considering solar power is whether to pursue an on-site or a community solar project.

While an on-site project may provide substantial savings, it demands considerable time and resources — if you can even install one.

You may not have adequate space on the roof or in the parking lot, or you may not receive

Corrugated boxes make the world go ‘round in a truly circular motion. The industry’s long-standing commitment to sustainability adds up to an incredible 50% per unit reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions for an average corrugated box from 2006 – 2020, and we’re still improving. Boxes transport everything with the right combination of new, fresh fibers and recycled fibers to maximize reuse and enable circularity. New fibers come from renewable, sustainably managed trees that take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere – tackling a major threat to our climate. And, more than 90% of corrugated boxes are successfully recycled.

If you’re thinking circular, you’re thinking corrugated.

Learn more about the renewability, recyclability and responsibility of boxes at: https://www.fibrebox.org/life-cycle-assessments.

ADVERTORIAL

Corrugated Packaging Industry Makes Strides Toward Sustainability Goals SPEAKING WITH...RACHEL KENYON, Senior Vice President, Fibre Box Association (FBA) What impact are corrugated boxes having on the environment? A new Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) 1 reveals the environmental performance of a U.S. industry-average corrugated box — from raw material extraction through end of life. Here, Rachel Kenyon, Senior Vice President of Fibre Box Association, shares results from the recently released LCA with Progressive Grocer readers.

Progressive Grocer: The corrugated packaging industry has substantially reduced its environmental impact since its first Life Cycle Assessment in 2006. Can you share data that quantifies the industry’s progress ?

Rachel Kenyon: According to the newest Life Cycle Assessment, the U.S. corrugated packaging industry reduced the per unit greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 50% between 2006 and 2020. Other indicators also have been substantially reduced: ozone depletion by 13%, smog by 44%, acid rain by 41%, eutrophication by 30%, respiratory effects by 54%, energy usage by 13%, and water usage by 18%.

Those numbers show how significant — and consequential — the industry’s efforts have been.

PG: What are some key steps the industry took to make such tremendous strides in that 14-year period?

RK: Several continuous improvements have reduced the industry’s GHG emissions. They include a shift to cleanerburning fuels, increased participation in a greener U.S. electricity grid, the greening of the U.S. electricity grid for purchased power, and improved energy efficiencies at mills and converting facilities.

Steady growth in recycling of old corrugated containers (OCC) also has helped reduce GHG and methane emissions.

The recovery rate has increased from 72% in 2006, to a three-year average of 90+% in 2019-2021. Keeping these used boxes out of landfills reduces both carbon dioxide and methane emissions.

PG: Trees also play a key role in removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. Can you explain how trees contribute to the corrugated industry’s environmental performance and help fulfill its commitment to sustainability and a circular supply chain?

RK: Trees grown in sustainably managed forests in the United States are used to supply wood fiber to the containerboard mills that make paper for corrugated boxes. As those trees grow, they do what trees do best: capture carbon out of the atmosphere, cleaning the air and helping mitigate climate change.2 Trees removed an equivalent 83.5% of the industry’s CO2 and other GHG emissions in 2020, according to the most recent assessment which underlines the importance of managed forests and renewable resources in a circular packaging solution. The industry plants more trees than it harvests to maintain healthy forests and a perpetual source of fiber.

So, how does all that relate to corrugated packaging in general, and to the grocery industry specifically? The U.S. corrugated packaging industry relies on a balanced system that combines both new and recycled fibers to produce a consistent and sustainable supply of corrugated containers used to carry products through supply chains to grocers and other destinations. When you and your customers recycle, you become part of that circular supply chain.

Corrugated packaging comes full circle every day.

From efficient use of managed forest lands to sustainable manufacturing practices and high recycling rates that return fiber into the system, corrugated packaging is truly circular by nature.

1

2020 Life Cycle Assessment of U.S. Average Corrugated Product, July 2023; prepared for the Corrugated Packaging Alliance (CPA) by the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, Inc. and Anthesis 2

American Forest & Paper Association

➤ TO LEARN MORE, VISIT boxesareextraordinary.com.

ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL & GOVERNANCE

ROI of Sustainability

permission to build in either place if you’re not the property owner.

This is where community solar comes in. Subscription to a community solar project provides access to solar energy without on-site installations, meaning you don’t need to worry about your roof’s structural capacity and who owns your building. Given that these projects feed into the local grid, participating stores are eligible as long as they’re within the utility service area of the community solar project. If you operate grocery stores in several locations, some may have access to these projects, while others don’t. Regardless, participating stores can still effectively reduce company-wide energy costs and let you recoup the financial, sustainability and community benefits you desire.

In the event that grocers have the space to build on-site, they also have the option to host a community solar project. Hosting one can be beneficial because it opens up an additional revenue stream for the store by enabling it to lease its space to the developer to build and operate on, while still providing solar to the community.

Before you take the plunge, it’s crucial to understand local solar regulations and determine the best solution for your needs. When looking to take part as an anchor tenant, picking the right partner is essential. The right developer will provide clear explanations of program mechanics and guide you through questions about startup, subscriptions, how billing credits work, ensuring contract terms align with your company’s energy goals, and other pertinent topics. It will simplify the

process, enabling you to determine whether community solar is indeed the correct path forward.

A Cleaner, Greener Future

Grocers have a prime opportunity to simultaneously cut emissions and provide a forward-thinking example for their neighbors by opting into community solar projects. Although projects may not power the entire store, the meaningful progress toward sustainability targets, as well as the good-will that comes from enabling broader access to renewable energy, makes this a winning strategy and a great initial step on a grocer’s clean-energy journey.

Katie Kavanaugh has specialized in community solar since entering the renewables industry.

As community solar manager, she serves as Schenectady, N.Y.-based DSD Renewables’ in-house expert in this area, keeping the team informed of new advancements in community solar policy and ensuring that all community solar projects have strong partners for finding and servicing their subscribers.

E-Commerce, Your Way Whichever way your customers want to shop, we’ve got you covered.

Contact us: PSSales@UNFI.com 50 progressivegrocer.com

ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS & CONNECTIONS POWERING BUSINESS GROWTH EnsembleIQ is the premier resource of actionable insights and connections powering business growth throughout the path to purchase. We help retail, technology, consumer goods, healthcare and hospitality professionals make informed decisions and gain a competitive advantage.

EnsembleIQ delivers the most trusted business intelligence from leading industry experts, creative marketing solutions and impactful event experiences that connect best-in-class suppliers and service providers with our vibrant business-building communities.

ENSEMBLEIQ.COM

Engaging Your Customers Through Innovation: A How-To Guide In today’s fast-paced business world, customer engagement is a top priority. The ever-changing landscape of consumer preferences and the pervasive influence of digital technologies make adapting and staying connected with your customer base crucial. Here’s a more detailed look at key strategies:

4.

1.

Meet Them at Self-Checkout Remember, the self-checkout is not just a transaction point; it’s a place to connect with your customers and create a lasting impression. Incorporate interactive displays or screens at the self-checkout stations. These displays can provide helpful information, promotions, and entertainment to enhance the shopping experience.

Shoppers don’t want a long and frustrating checkout process. Fast and reliable technology can be a key factor in customer satisfaction.

Enhance Physical with Digital Features Integrating digital features into your physical store is an effective way to engage customers. Consider implementing A.I.-powered item recognition, interactive kiosks, or QR codebased promotions. These digital elements add an extra layer of excitement to the shopping experience, making it more interactive and memorable. Plus, they enable you to collect valuable data on customer behavior and preferences.

2.

Offer Payment Flexibility Customer engagement extends to the payment process.

Provide your customers with a range of payment options.

Beyond cash and card payments, consider accepting digital wallets, mobile payments, biometric payments, and even “buy now, pay later” services. The more flexibility you offer, the more likely your customers are to complete a purchase. This not only enhances their experience but also caters to their diverse preferences.

3.

Incentivize Loyal Shoppers Your most valuable customers are the ones who return again and again. Reward their loyalty by creating a customer loyalty program. Offer discounts, exclusive access, or other incentives to keep them coming back.

It’s not just about the discounts; it’s about making your customers feel appreciated and valued. By doing so, you build lasting relationships that extend beyond individual transactions.

5.

Improve Store Operations Efficient store operations are fundamental to enhancing customer engagement. Ensure your supply chain is optimized to keep your shelves stocked with popular items.

Streamline checkout processes to minimize wait times.

Regularly train your staff to provide excellent customer service. Invest in technology that can help with inventory management and customer data analysis. When your store runs smoothly, your customers will notice the difference and appreciate the effort you put into creating a seamless shopping experience.

By focusing on these strategies, you can actively engage your customers and create a memorable shopping experience that keeps them coming back. In today’s competitive market, engaged customers are more likely to become your brand champions.

At Toshiba, we focus on Younifying retail experiences by offering retailers of all segments innovative total solutions such as: • POS and Self-Service Solutions • A.I. and Computer Vision • Loyalty and Promotions

• Biometric Checkout • Wall-to-Wall Services and Augmented Training • And, Much More!

Start Younifying Your Retal Experience with Toshiba: www.younifyingexperiences.com

TECHNOLOGY

Innovation Outlook

2024 Innovation Outlook

Schweitzer's next-generation refrigerated display cases keep products cool and energy costs low, and can also be moved easily to a new configuration.

WHAT’S ON THE CUT TING EDGE OF GROCERY TECHNOLOGY FOR THE COMING YE AR?

By Emily Crowe ood retail technology has been moving at the speed of light over the past several years. Innovation in the space spans a wide breadth and depth of solutions and applications, but several areas have stood out as increasingly important for grocers to harness.

When it comes to innovation in the new year, food retailers should keep a keen focus on breakthroughs in retail media, cutting-edge cooling technology and shelflife optimization, among other exciting advancements.

54 progressivegrocer.com

Key Takeaways: Retail media has exploded in recent years and is poised to continue growing.

Shelf-life optimization, an ageold issue in food retail, is finally getting the attention it deserves.

Many companies are rolling out next-generation cooling technology solutions.

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TECHNOLOGY

Innovation Outlook “Online grocery sales in the U.S. are expected to grow at an annual rate of nearly 12% over the next five years.

As such, it’s paramount that grocers have solutions that can adapt quickly to the increase in demand and ensure a seamless customer experience for curbside and delivery orders.”

—Larry Yang, Phononic

Making Moves in Retail Media

Retail media has exploded in recent years and is poised to continue growing. This alternative revenue stream is helping food retailers boost their razor-thin margins, and many are sweetening the pot for CPG advertisers by rolling out innovative capabilities and functionality. Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart, for example, has given its advertisers a direct way to reach out to customers.

Walmart Connect’s sponsored video ad solution aims to help brands engage with shoppers via search result pages. According to Susanna Lee, senior director of product marketing for the retail media arm, the storytelling capability can drive consideration and accelerate conversions at this key moment on the shopping journey. “‘Show, don’t tell’ is an old marketing adage that couldn’t be more true in today’s retail media landscape,” Lee says. “Video ads in search results give you the ability to tell your brand or product’s story to break the barrier between upper-funnel campaign tactics and performance ad formats like Sponsored Search. Brands can create intrigue and interest right where they’re convincing and converting customers.”

Meanwhile, Giant Eagle’s self-built retail media network, Leap Media Group, recently linked up with Chicory to expand its advertising capabilities via off-platform recipe content. The New York-based company’s contextual advertising solutions are now included in Leap’s portfolio and allow users to use commerce-enabled advertising tactics in engaging new ways.

According to Chicory, its Contextual Recipe Targeting transforms recipe content into advertising opportunities through contextual recipe placements that reach both existing and new shoppers. When paired with its shoppable technology, the advertisements enable Leap to drive incremental sales opportunities for its CPG clients.

Grocery Shopii is also innovating in the retail media recipe space with a new solution that gives brands a unique way to sponsor recipe content across a retailer’s earned and owned marketing channels.

The company’s proprietary meal-planning platform is the launchpad for Recipe Media, which enables sponsored recipes to be deployed online or in-store via websites, social media, circulars and in-store signage, with the aim of boosting sales and selling more product.

“For years, brands have clamored for the opportunity to present their products at the moment when shoppers are making purchase decisions,” says Katie Hotze, founder and CEO of Charlotte, N.C.-based Grocery Shopii. “Recipe Media brings it all together by empowering brands with the digital capability to feature products in recipes within a retailer’s shopping experience.

56 progressivegrocer.com

Now their product gets added directly into the cart, and the shopper will have the most optimal experience with their product as part of a recipe.”

Optimizing Shelf Life

Shelf-life optimization, an age-old issue in food retail, is finally getting the attention it deserves, and companies are innovating at blazing speeds to keep pace with the ever-changing needs of both grocers and consumers.

Toronto-based fresh grocery platform Invafresh, for example, is boosting its optimization efforts thanks to the acquisition of Gothenburg, Sweden-based Whywaste.

The acquisition will enable Invafresh to extend the functionality of its Fresh Retail Platform, enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, with Whywaste’s end-of-life solutions, including advanced date checking, markdown price optimization and donation platform capabilities. Merging the two innovative platforms will provide grocers with a more efficient way to drive revenue, reduce shrink, deliver a better shopping experience for their customers and help the companies better meet their sustainability targets.

Meanwhile, Upshop’s expiration date management solution offers an innovative look at more effective product replenishment and how food retailers can ensure slower-moving center store products don’t expire. The Tampa, Fla.-based company offers a single AI-powered ordering tool for the entire store, which helps limit shrink and waste across operations in direct store delivery, center aisle, perishables and ingredients.

Additionally, pioneering tech company Apeel recently launched AI-enabled RipeTrack, a system

Apeel’s AI-powered RipeTrack system allows grocers to glean riepness data from produce without damaging the item.

PROGRESSIVE GROCER RESEARCH SHOWS

1 in 5 products that shoppers want… aren’t on the shelf .

1

1 https://progressivegrocer.com/1-5-items-consumers-want-out-stock-local-stores

We all know what it’s like to find that the one thing we need isn’t at the store.

We mutter four letter words—and pop online (or drive somewhere else).

What we don’t know?

More than half the time we think products are out-of-stock (OOS), they’re actually in the back.

Benefits of Simbe’s computer vision & AI platform

60% 90% 30

OOS reduction

Fewer price errors Hours re-dedicated to customers

Get 4X ROI in 60 days at www.SimbeRobotics.com

TECHNOLOGY

Innovation Outlook of tools and monitoring software that provides ripeness data in a way that preserves the integrity of produce while helping suppliers, distributors and retailers maintain optimal freshness, appearance and quality for consumers.

“Before launching this system, testing ripeness at different stages of the supply chain was a time-consuming process that yielded inconsistent results, and a disconnect with what a retail buyer expected on shelves to drive sales,” notes Ryan Fink, SVP of the Americas at Goleta, Calif. based Apeel. “We developed RipeTrack to optimize the decades-old process and give the produce industry more insight into the sales-driving quality attributes of their programming, resulting in more product delivered to required specifications and less product wasted.”

Elsewhere, Mount Vernon, N.Y.-based Applied UV Inc. has developed the Airocide Pro+ air purification system to help preserve fresh fruits and vegetables before they’re even placed on store shelves. The company developed a pathogen-killing technology designed to integrate into transportation or cold-storage environments without taking up unnecessary space. The system works to control ethylene, a gas released by fruits and vegetables during the ripening and storage processes.

Keeping It Cool

While cooling technology might not seem to stand out as an innovative space to watch, many companies are rolling out next-generation solutions that do everything from making order fulfillment easier for grocers and creating new display opportunities, to offering truly sustainable solutions for an area greatly in need of energy savings.

Naturns, Italy-based Schweitzer, which has been creating refrigeration solutions for nearly 100 years, just rolled out its next generation of refrigerated display cases. Promising spatial flexibility along with sustainability benefits, the easily movable plug-in cases use an onboard waterloop system that works via a small unit that cools the water before it runs through flexible pipes, and then through each piece, to cool the integrated unit within the case.

Stefan Bender, head of Schweitzer cooling systems, tells Progressive Grocer that the company’s fully redesigned refrigeration fixtures provide customer satisfaction through their sleek design, lighting and full transparency, while also lowering energy consumption for food retailers. “The focus is that you’re really flexible to change the complete store, even with the fixtures, within minutes or hours, to whatever you want,” Bender says.

Bridgeton, Mo.-based Hussmann, which is known for its innovative products, services and refrigeration systems for grocers and c-stores, recently unveiled the Krack MicroDS and MicroSC Monoblock, an all-in-one condensing-unit-and-evaporator solution using R290 refrigerant. The unit is pre-charged with propane, requiring no refrigerant piping, and features variable-speed compressors, EC fan motors and hot-gas defrost.

According to Hussman, the energy-efficient Monoblock reduces full-store refrigerant charge by up to 95% versus using hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants and reduces total annual carbon dioxide emissions by 6% when compared with a condensing unit and evaporator.

Finally, Phononic and Vidir Solutions are making major cooling

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The Vidir Powered Carousel is an automated grocery pickup fulfillment and staging solution that features cooled refrigerator and freezer totes on a vertical-lift system.

moves with their Vidir Powered Carousel, which promises to make online grocery delivery and curbside fulfillment easier and more efficient for grocers. The first-of-its-kind automated grocery pickup fulfillment and staging solution combines Phononic’s actively cooled refrigerator and freezer totes with Vidir’s verticallift system, enabling grocers to stage frozen, chilled and ambient orders in one central location.

“Online grocery sales in the U.S. are expected to grow at an annual rate of nearly 12% over the next five years,” observes Larry Yang, chief product officer at Durham, N.C.-based Phononic. “As such, it’s paramount that grocers have solutions that can adapt quickly to the increase in demand and ensure a seamless customer experience for curbside and delivery orders. The integration between Phononic and Vidir’s technology makes this possible by reducing the friction associated with limited warehouse space, manual labor costs and timely curbside delivery of fresh temperature-controlled products.”

EQUIPMENT & DESIGN

Future of Front End

Eyes Front

Mars Wrigley's Transaction Zone Team is working on the front end of the future, as shown in the above rendering.

CHECK OUT WHAT INNOVATIONS ARE IN STORE FOR A KE Y PART OF THE SUPERMARKE T.

By Bridget Goldschmidt

hat immediately comes to mind when thinking about the front end are checkout lines, displays of candy and magazines, and grab-and-go refrigerated soft drinks, but are there any ways to enhance this experience in a new version of the front end? After all, it’s certainly ripe for change. “If you take a step back, the front end itself has looked the same for the last 75 years,” notes Mike Pedi, leader of Chicago-based Mars Wrigley’s U.S.-based Transaction Zone Team, which partners with retailers on a holistic approach to front end optimization. “You have traditional checkouts, you have customers that wait in line, you have product on the left, you have product on the right — it’s the perfect mousetrap.”

Key Takeaways In creating a new front end, a frictionless checkout experience and greater efficiency are crucial, along with interactivity for those shoppers who want it.

Eye-catching fixtures and greater personalization help encourage impulse purchases beyond the usual suspects of candy, snacks and magazines.

Technology will continue to shape the front end experience.

PROGRESSIVE GROCER December 2023

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ADVERTORIAL

Leveraging New Tech to Increase Refrigeration Uptime, Reduce Expenses, and Advance Your ESG Initiatives Meet Jay Welu, one of the driving forces behind StoreConnect’s innovative approach to revolutionize the world of commercial refrigeration service through their real-time data and predictive analytics platform.

In our conversation, Jay, SVP of Hussmann’s Retail Services business and a leading figure in the refrigeration industry for over two decades, sheds light on how technology is impacting the way supermarkets and convenience stores can manage their refrigeration equipment. He also shares how retailers can use it to help achieve ESG milestones, navigate upcoming industry regulations, and significantly cut down on costly emergency ‘break-fix’ scenarios.

Progressive Grocer: Why is refrigeration crucial for grocers in achieving their ESG goals, and how significant is the impact of refrigerants on the environment?

Jay Welu: Refrigeration stands as a pivotal area for grocers to make significant strides in their ESG initiatives by proactively addressing a legacy issue in the industry for decades.

Globally, refrigeration and air conditioning contribute to 10% of CO2 emissions, that’s 3x those of the Aviation and Shipping industries combined!

The good news is that there are new solutions available to reduce the impact. About 50% of Scope 1 Emissions (direct emissions caused by sources within a company’s control) are due to refrigerant leaks. With the right technology, grocers can reduce their leak rates and make a big impact on the environment (and reduce costs).

PG: How can technology aid retailers in complying with impending regulations and effectively manage their refrigerant emissions?

JW: Traditional approaches, such as scheduled maintenance or reactive responses to temperature issues in stores, have proved inadequate as they tend not to get to the problem quick enough.

Identifying leaks earlier will assist in tackling the emission challenge. The challenge is finding the leak that is the main contributor, and that can only be done through continuous monitoring.

Solutions like StoreConnect proactively monitor your refrigeration equipment in real-time and through our predictive analytics, provide advanced repair recommendations prior to it becoming an emergency.

Collectively our customers see greater than a 30% leak rate reduction in just their first year. We have prevented over

67,000 lbs. of refrigerant from leaking into the atmosphere and more than 139 million total GWP (Global Warming Potential) Savings in CO2e in just the past few years.

Because of this technology, our solution complies with the California Air Research Board’s (CARB) definition of an Automatic Refrigerant Leak Detection system under the regulation for the management of high GWP refrigerants for stationary sources.

PG: How is StoreConnect unique compared to similar providers?

JW: Ultimately, what distinguishes us is our practical experience.

We draw upon the expertise of our 1000+ Hussmann technicians in the field to ensure the technology continues to meet the industry’s evolving needs.

The practice of calling when a temperature issue arises in a store, or “break-fix mentality”, has been around since the beginning. Hussmann has been in the refrigeration industry for over a century, and the way work gets done in the field has not materially changed since we used ice blocks to cool cabinets.

Ice block melts. Temperature rises; call for more ice.

Today, that workflow is, “Ice cream freezer is warm.”

Create a work order; send a technician. It’s time to change.

StoreConnect is a total refrigeration management solution that includes: 1.

Definitive site performance through overall equipment health.

2.

Fix confirmation to ensure the root cause of your refrigeration issue is found.

3.

Advanced analytics on efficiency and performance with qualified sensors and systems.

PG: What led to Hussmann investing in building StoreConnect?

JW: Hussmann’s investment in StoreConnect was focused on using data in reducing the environmental impact of refrigeration emissions, reducing the cost of service for retailers, and assisting in addressing the technician labor shortage and technicians worklife balance. Unfortunately, technicians in our industry are working excessive overtime during the summer months when they ought to be home with their families. There is a need for change.

Proactive maintenance and fix confirmation allows our technicians to be more efficient and helps address labor shortages in the industry.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL 8005922060 OR VISIT www.hussmann.com/storeconnect

EQUIPMENT & DESIGN

Future of Front End “The ideal supermarket front end is hassle-free, ensurin checkout footprint required, and a “As part of an ing a frictionless checkout experience for shoppers and 25%-30% decrease in labor checkout overall checkout maximizing efficiency for retailers, while also balancing spend,” he notes. “Reinvesting those redesign, retailers security and safety,” says Amit Acharya, director of prodsavings enables retailers to offer enare actively uct, self-checkout at Atlanta-based NCR Voyix, a providhanced services such as online picking, leveraging er of digital commerce solutions. “It’s crucial for stores order fulfillment, personal shoppers, etc., to implement designs that evolve with the ever-changing that improve the customer experience.” opportunities for retail landscape and facilitate change with minimal disimpulse purchase.” ruption to shoppers and the shopping environment.”

Impulse Power —Amit Acharya, NCR Voyix While acknowledging the importance of a seamless While improving the flow of the checkout process, Steven Duffy, SVP of design at Maitdepartment, how can retailers boost land, Fla.-based design firm Cuhaci Peterson, cautions that “not all impulse purchases at the front end? Not surprisingshoppers are looking to breeze in and out frictionlessly. While conly, confection powerhouse Mars Wrigley has been sumer appetites have grown to become less tolerant of waiting in concentrating on this issue for some time. line, some (more senior) shoppers seek the social interaction of the “As the front end evolves and technology becomes checkout process. Grocers must also account for loss prevention more prevalent, wait time is eliminated,” says Pedi. and shrink technologies when enabling frictionless front ends.”

“Wait time is a huge component of driving impulse Another challenge is making sure that everyone’s requirements conversion. If you’re waiting, you’re more likely to are met. “If you think about the front end, first and foremost, you have pick up impulse. Now wait time is gone. One of the to think about solving the needs of all key stakeholders — shopper, first things that we needed to understand was how merchant and operator — and those needs could be fundamentally do you drive conversion in a no-wait environment different for every retailer,” observes Pedi. and do it in a way that does not create friction for Duffy agrees with this view, noting: “Optimized examples depend the shopper? … We did a lot of work around it, and on format and are also commensurate with the retailers’ DNA. Are they ultimately, we found that conversion is a function of a value operator, middle of the road or more of a premium brand?” footfall and noticeability — just because shoppers That said, asked to provide a particular example of an optimized walk by a product doesn’t necessarily mean that they front end, Pedi points to a retailer whose self-checkout configuration see it. So it’s the right product, the right place, but “was creating a lot of friction and a lot of bottlenecks. We ended up also some form of engagement that actually drives removing some self-checkouts, but we located them all together to that noticeability — easier said than done.” really lessen those bottlenecks. The key metrics were a decrease in To get consumers to pay attention, Mars Wrigley wait time, an increase in impulse sales and then also a decrease in came up with its own proprietary experience system. the average number of shoppers waiting in line. … . We [additionally] “Fixtures need to do more than just sell product, they wanted to make sure that we didn’t have a ton of inventory, … so we need to help guide shoppers,” explains Pedi. “Our actually reduced the overall assortment but were able to sell more.” notion is, if there’s no wait time, then we have to create Acharya similarly believes that a grocery operator’s approach to dwell time, and they are two fundamentally different checkout is crucial to a reimagined front end. “With a ‘right-sized’ things. Wait time is a function of an inefficient process. checkout strategy, NCR Voyix’s retailers are seeing a 20% reduction Dwell is something to create that is extending your shopping trip, and where you do that and how you do that is going to be whether you do or do not drive conversion.”

Subsequently, the company has developed “a base build system and a gondola system [that are] extremely flexible, versatile and nimble in the sense of [they] can morph into many different things to meet the unique challenges of that retailer,” he says. “If you start with just the base build system as an example, it’s all component based, it can go up, it can go down, [change] color, size, height.”

Both types of units are set to roll out to retail starting in the first quarter of 2024.

While at Market 32/Price Chopper, Cuhaci Peterson's Steven Duffy led design and development efforts for the retailer's Market Bistro concept, which included an optimized front end.

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Looking to the Future: Accelerating Innovation 80% of shoppers were interested in

80% of retailers agree it’s important to

trying non-traditional checkouts. ¹

offer unified eCommerce experiences across

35% of shoppers were very interested in

digital and physical stores, but

65% have

not yet implemented technology to do so. ³

switching retailers if more digital capabilities were available. ²

As we look to the future, we know that in a digital age, things are constantly changing, and new technology is always emerging. In a recent survey conducted by Toshiba and PYMNTS, data found that 80%¹ of in-store shoppers stated that they would like to use nontraditional checkout options, and 66% ¹ reported that these checkout experiences are the options that they most want to try. The growing interest in self-checkout is clear, so retailers must adapt by delivering self-service experiences that give shoppers more control, resulting in less time spent in the checkout line.

Whether your shoppers are looking for contactless payment, mobile shopping, curbside delivery, in-store ordering, traditional checkout, self-checkout, or any other shopping or payment method, you need the flexibility to scale and evolve.

When your technology is adaptable and scalable, you don’t have to incur the cost of ripping and replacing your entire technology infrastructure when it’s time to implement new systems, peripherals, or advanced technology. A broad range of retail technology designed with the future in

• Artificial Intelligence • Computer Vision

• Smart Carts • In-Store Navigation

• Live Item Inventories • Produce Recognition

Your Success Depends on Unifying Physical and Digital Experiences

New Technology Experiences Will Differentiate Your Store

As visits to brick & mortar stores become increasingly pre-planned, retailers must convert fleeting physical transactions into long-lasting relationships. This means making adjustments that would allow them to reach people at home. A disappointed shopper is one click away from abandoning engagement with a retailer, so retailers can no longer afford to have channel-locked experiences and capabilities.

They must embrace a “unified commerce” approach to succeed in this new world order.

Adding new technologies and experiences will not only ensure a positive experience for your shoppers but they will also help you stay ahead of the competition and differentiate your store. With a drastically changing retail landscape full of innovations and shopping experiences, now is the time for grocers to create their direction for the future to not only deliver shopping experiences customers expect but create new shopping experiences they’ve never seen before.

Self Checkout System 7 Create a more innovative and customer-focused self-service experience today - and be ready for your tomorrow as store and operational needs evolve.

Sources: 1. “Today’s Self-Service Shopping Journey: The New Retail Expectation,” PYMTNS.com, July 2021.

2. “Decoding Consumer Affinity,” PYMNTS.com, January 2022.

3. “State of the Industry: Unified Commerce in Food & Grocery,” Toshiba and Incisiv, September 2022.

EQUIPMENT & DESIGN

Future of Front End A "right-sized" checkout strategy can lead to a reduction in the checkout footprint required and a decrease in the labor checkout spend.

“As part of an overall checkout redesign, retailers are actively leveraging opportunities for impulse purchases,” asserts Acharya. “These can take the form of impulse merchandise placed as part of queue management within the checkout area. With increasing forms of checkout options, such as a scan-and-go via mobile app, retailers have more opportunities to personalize the experience within the app, and to activate impulse purchases within the aisle or when the shopper approaches the checkout front end.”

He adds: “With the evolution of digital media, retailers have more opportunities to contextualize and nurture impulse merchandise in the aisle and near checkout based on real-time foot traffic insights.”

According to Duffy: “Savvy retailers seek to secure that last sale in line with well-curated impulse items, typically composed by a visual merchandiser. Grocers should consider using displays that illuminate and highlight specialty or must-have items, and products should also be a mix of seasonal or local offers.”

Getting shoppers to really notice the products featured in the front end can also give rise to opportunities for nontraditional items beyond the usual candy, snacks, magazines and soft drinks.

“It’s creating a merchandising solution ahead of the checkout, but then it’s also creating this notion of dwell, that shoppers are willing to trade off their time to extend their shopping trip, and that is where other categories outside of your typical impulse play a role, because just a standard impulse item is not going to create that dwell,” says Pedi. “What you need to do is bring something over, whether it be promotional related, or whatever fits that retailer strategy, but something that’s unique, special and different that brings people in once they’re there.”

Picking up on a recent trend among some wellness-oriented grocers, Acharya notes: “In terms of nontraditional products, retail strategies can vary based on a retailer’s corporate strategy, shopper journey or partnership with CPG companies, with retailers providing ‘healthier’ options for impulse purchases, in addition to or instead of traditional products.”

He also believes that “[d]igital media, in the form of large screens within the aisle or near checkout, can … help with marketing for seasonal items, and awareness triggering for impulse offers that may not immediately convert into an upsell, but play a key role in driving future sales.”

Starting With the Shopper

These changes in the front end are happening now, but there’s still more to come “The future front end is founded on well-established consumer behaviors and convergence of advancing technologies, deliver-

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ing on the need for convenience through speed (no friction), yet interactive based upon customer desire for service and engagement,” says Duffy. “Buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) and other online services will be enhanced via front end integration of smart technologies, e.g., carts, AR, etc.”

“Within the near future, stores will have a blend of ‘hybrid frictionless’ experiences that will include all shopper journeys, personalized to individual shoppers,” predicts Acharya. “Stores will digitize further, offering various technologies to enhance the purchase experience and increase non-inventory revenues. Automation, item recognition, biometrics for loyalty and payments, and tech including robotics in online fulfillment will reshape store layouts, adapting to drive more efficiency, productivity and shopper delight. Retailers will continue to experiment with various advancements in technology to solve every friction point in the shopper and attendant journey, while de-risking their investments with experimentation.”

For his part, Pedi says that any front end evolution “will start with the shopper, so what the shoppers themselves are specifically looking for — they don’t want friction, they want choice, and they want to be able to get in and out as quickly as possible. That will hold true now and into the future. They also want a reason to go to retail from an experiential standpoint.”

Despite that influx of new technology, he doesn’t think the advancements will “be necessarily visible to shoppers, because where [companies are] focusing on is how [to] create the technology platform that connects the entire store that allows us to do things faster, more efficiently.”

He believes that in 10 years’ time, however, “some form of seamless or just-walk-out technology will have figured out a way to get scalable and cost-effective for a retailer that doesn’t require them to go back and actually redo everything in their store to be able to achieve it.”

EDITORS’ PICKS

Food, Beverage & Nonfood Products

Drink Better

Agricultural cooperative Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. has launched Ocean Spray Zero Sugar Juice Drink, the first beverage from the brand to contain 0 grams of sugar and no artificial sweetener. The shelf-stable line comes in two flavors, Ocean Spray’s familiar Cranberry and, in a first for the brand’s beverage portfolio, Mixed Berry. Made with real fruit juice and sweetened with stevia, the beverage is described by Ocean Spray as an excellent source of vitamin C. The suggested retail price for Ocean Spray Zero Sugar is $3.71 per 64-fluid-ounce bottle of either flavor, with the on-shelf price determined by the retailer. Ocean Spray launched another better-for-you juice line earlier this year, consisting of Immunity Cranberry Blueberry Acai, Immunity Orange Mango and Revitalize Cranberry Pineapple Juice Drink.

Those function-forward beverages are made with real fruit juice, no artificial sweeteners and zero added sugar. https://allthatpower.oceanspray.com/power-your-party/p/1

Breakfast Twist

Thomas’, the top seller of grocery store English muffins and bagels in the United States, has expanded its popular breakfast portfolio with the rollout of Croissant Bread. This inventive take on the beloved French breakfast pastry features the flaky delicate layers of a croissant baked right into a loaf and sliced for convenience, making it easier for consumers to toast and add butter or other favorite toppings. The product contains no high-fructose corn syrup and has a suggested retail price of $5.99 per 13.5-ounce loaf. Thomas’ is a brand of Bimbo Bakeries USA. https://thomasbreads.com/; https://www.bimbobakeriesusa.com/

Cooking Shortcut

The iconic Herb-Ox bouillon brand from Hormel Foods has now introduced Cold Water Dissolve Bouillon in Chicken and Beef flavors, the only cold-water dissolvable options on the market.

Made with real meat and dried herbs, the easily storable shelf-stable line offers unprecedented convenience — there’s no need to boil water — and flavor when cooking soups, stews, gravies and other dishes. The suggested retail price per 3.5-ounce jar of either bouillon flavor is $3.75. https://www.hormel.com/ Brands/HORMEL-Herb-Ox

Spread the Canola

Already renowned for its iconic plant-based cooking oil, Wesson is now venturing into the refrigerated aisle with Wesson Plant Butters in Original and with Olive Oil varieties. Offering 100% plant-based; dairy-, preservative- and cholesterol-free; vegan options, Wesson Plant Butters spread easily and deliver buttery, taste-tester-approved flavor. The primary oil used in the product line is canola oil, which has the lowest saturated fat of all vegetable oils and contains no trans fat. The suggested retail price for a 15-ounce container of either variety is around $5. This product launch builds on the momentum of the Wesson brand refresh recently completed by Richardson International Ltd., which acquired the brand in 2019. https://www.purewesson.com/; https://www.richardson.ca/

PROGRESSIVE GROCER December 2023

65

AHEAD OF WHAT’S NEXT

By Bridget Goldschmidt

Getting Their Voices Heard A GROCERY IMPACT PANEL PINPOINTS A KE Y BARRIER TO ADVANCEMENT OF MANY WOMEN IN THE GROCERY INDUSTRY. here’s much I could write about regarding Progressive Grocer’s recent Grocery Impact event — the high-profile speakers, the triumphant procession of Top Women in Grocery and Generation Next honorees as they claimed their awards, or even the joyous Hershey-sponsored afterparty that closed out the three days of scheduled activities in a flurry of dancing, drinking and feasting on chocolate confections. What I’d like to focus on is just one of the educational sessions that we offered, featuring three fantastic 2023 Top Women in Grocery: Rebecca Torpie, director of marketing at BriarPatch Food Co-op; Kathy Scott, a store director at Balls Food Stores/Hen House Markets; and Jennifer Enoch, director of talent acquisition at Lowes Foods.

Moderated by Elizabeth Lafontaine, formerly chief retail analyst at PG parent company EnsembleIQ, the session, “Getting Your Voice Heard,” zeroed in on one of the main barriers to career advancement for women in the grocery industry and elsewhere — advocating for themselves. “I think we worry about how we’re perceived,” noted Enoch. “There’s a misperception that women can seem aggressive [and] emotional” when they stand up for themselves. For her part, Torpie identified “a resignation … that we are in this system that is just sort of insurmountable sometimes.” Thinking about what held her back early on in her career, Scott observed: “So many times that I’ve asked [a] question, I was afraid to ask it. But once I got out there … I had so many yeses that it gave me the confidence to be able to ask the question more often.”

Speak Your Piece

All three spoke about overcoming their reluctance to speak up in difficult circumstances. “Courage is the hardest thing to find,” admitted Enoch, discussing how she ultimately confronted a manager about a role that wasn’t working for her and was promoted as a result. Scott found her courage in self-help books and professional organizations, from which she “learned to speak from the heart and not be afraid to show who I am.”

For Torpie, mature self-acceptance enabled her to assert herself.

“I think that it’s a lot easier for many of us to advocate for others rather than for ourselves because … we’re much more objective when it comes to seeing other people’s strengths,” she said. “[I]t was much easier for me to advocate … for myself once I was able to … think of myself as a multifaceted person rather than as [someone] who still needed to find pieces of the puzzle to put together.”

A self-described “natural introvert,” Torpie recounted that “for a really long time, I … attempted to be assertive and loud at the table, and it really made me anxious and … I didn’t enjoy being at work, either. [That changed] once I realized that I could lean into that superpower of introversion and those skills that come along with it, like being really good at actively listening and being a person who’s able to look at the big

66 progressivegrocer.com

Moderated by Elizabeth Lafontaine (far left), Grocery Impact’s “Getting Your Voice Heard” panel session featured 2023 Top Women in Grocery (left to right) Rebecca Torpie, Kathy Scott and Jennifer Enoch.

picture … and just being really observant and being able to identify tone and voice, and being really intuitive.”

Leadership Lessons

Another way to gain a better sense of direction on one’s career path is through mentorship, which of course goes both ways. “I think it’s really important to be a mentor for other women, but also to find one for yourself,” advised Enoch. “That was [of] huge importance to me.”

Getting ahead in one’s field comes with certain responsibilities, however.

“As leaders … we need to hold space for those who don’t have a place at the table,” cautioned Torpie. “We’re in the position of being able to do that on their behalf.”

As Enoch summed up at the close of the session: “[P]erseverance … is key. And things don’t happen overnight. Sometimes we have to really work hard to get what we want, where we want. And sometimes the timing might not be exactly what we think it should be, but I’d encourage everyone to just find ways that you can grow personally as well as professionally.”

Bridget Goldschmidt Managing Editor bgoldschmidt@ensembleiq.com

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