Press Releases
Walgreens Tests Digital Cooler Doors With Cameras to Target You With Ads
Walgreens Tests Digital Cooler Doors With Cameras to Target You With AdsA startup called Cooler Screens puts a high-tech twist on in-store marketing Cooler Screens Chief Executive Arsen Avakian.PHOTO: COOLER SCREENS Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. is testing a technology that embeds cameras, sensors and digital screens in the cooler doors in its stores, a new network of “smart” displays that marketers can use to target ads for specific types of shoppers.The refrigerator and freezer doors act as a digital merchandising platform that depicts the food and drinks inside in their best light, but also as an in-store billboard that can serve ads to consumers who approach, based on variables such as the approximate age the technology believes they are, their gender and the weather.This new technology could provide brick-and-mortar stores with a marketplace similar to online advertising. Ice cream brands could duke it out to get the most prominent placement…
Read MoreThe Future Is Frictionless
NACS writer Frank Beard shares three insights on the future of on-the-go, checkout-free retail. Checkout-free retail seems to be on everyone’s minds—and for good reason. Not only is it exciting (skip the checkout counter and just walk out), but this technology brings many benefits to consumers and retailers. I’ve written previously about Amazon Go, Zippin, and Standard Cognition, and I recently spoke to representatives of CloudMinds. As a provider of cloud-based artificial intelligence systems, CloudMinds has extensive experience in this space—including in the Chinese retail market, which Bloomberg recently described as “the world’s retail laboratory.” Here are three takeaways from our conversation: Retail Disruption and the Go-Box Founded in 2015 with headquarters in San Francisco and Beijing, CloudMinds develops cloud-based artificial intelligence solutions for many applications including retail. While it’s extraordinarily difficult to replicate human-like intelligence in a robot or small device, similar capacity can be developed and distributed through…
Read MoreKwik Trip Gets Fresh With New Smoothie Program
The self-serve Fresh Blender machine lets customers order through a touchscreen menu. LA CROSSE, Wis. — Whether it’s building a test kitchen to increase its ability to innovate or teaming up with the Partnership for a Healthier America to expand the number of healthy options available to its customers, convenience store chain Kwik Trip Inc. has been working to improve its food and beverage offerings for years now. One of its latest initiatives, the Fresh Blends smoothie program, was prompted not by focus group testing or executive brainstorming, but rather by a weeknight trip to a Target store in the middle of winter“I’m watching people go to Starbucks and get smoothies and frappes when it’s that cold outside in Wisconsin,” recalled Paul Servais, retail foodservice director at Kwik Trip. “I’m thinking this is for real — we’ve got to do something with this.” However, being inspired by what he saw…
Read MoreWHAT DOES ‘CONVENIENCE’ REALLY MEAN TO TODAY’S C-STORE SHOPPERS?
Traditionally, convenience stores have filled the definition of “convenience” by location mostly. The channel is known for its prime locations, around-the-clock service and small store size. While location is still important among convenience store shoppers, the word “convenience” has evolved to now evoke multiple store- and experience-related attributes, according to the findings of the 2019 Convenience Store News Realities of the Aisle consumer study. For a majority of shoppers, it boils down to a convenient experience. When asked what defines convenience, 44 percent of shoppers polled cited quick/quick visit and 13 percent said a store is convenient if it is close, close to home or close to work. Convenience also means “easy.” Specifically, 22 percent of those surveyed defined convenience as easy, 13 percent defined it as easy to get in and out, and 7 percent defined it as easy access. What a store has to offer is important, too,…
Read MoreAlphabet’s Wing drone delivery service begins in Canberra this week
Guzman y Gomez is one of the companies that have signed up to Wing’s drone delivery service. Alphabet spin-off Wing is finally beginning drone delivery services in north Canberra, after addressing public concerns about noise made during earlier trials. Drone delivery starts at the end of the week and will be available initially to only 100 eligible homes in the suburbs of Crace, Palmerston and Franklin as part of Wing’s Early Flyer program. “We expect to gradually expand to more customers in Harrison and Gungahlin in the coming weeks and months,” the Google associated company says in a statement. Wing says customers can order fresh food, hot coffee or over-the-counter chemist items. They can order their goods using Wing’s mobile app, and have them delivered directly to their homes by drone in minutes. Wing has set up an “early flyers” scheme where customers get access to invite-only events and experiences.…
Read MorePHOTO GALLERY: Inside Nouria Energy's New Concept Store
In today’s evolving convenience store landscape, operators know that adaptation and cohesion play important roles in longevity and growth. Nouria Energy Corp.’s new retail brand — nouria — is proof of this ideology, as it represents a strategic repositioning for the company. “We knew that our brand stands for more than fuel, but that our focus had been fragmented across many different brands, with each location named either after the town it operated in or with a generic name,” said Joe Hamza, chief operating officer for retail and marketing. “We wanted to create a brand cohesion that would help customers know what to expect when entering one of our nouria locations.” Worchester, Mass.-based Nouria Energy owns 137 convenience stores in five New England states, 116 of which are company-operated and 21 of which are operated by commission and leased dealers. The company also owns and operates 47 car washes under…
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