— By Meg Mason — How Lowe’s has reduced water use and its carbon footprint with smart irrigation. Lowe’s is focused on reducing its environmental impact while also increasing the efficiency of its operations. To address these goals, Lowe’s installed HydroPoint smart irrigation controllers to optimize landscape irrigation at more than 900 of its stores. Each year, the controllers reduce water use at these facilities by about 650 million gallons, saving Lowe’s an estimated $5 million in total water costs.1 Because water treatment and pumping use a lot of …
vendors
Toronto — Array Marketing, the market leader in end-to-end in-store merchandising solutions, has appointed Alex Bertoldo as chief operating officer. He most recently held the position of vice president of operations for SPX Corporation, a $1 billion global supplier of highly engineered products and technologies. In that global role, Bertoldo had oversight of 10 manufacturing facilities and worked across teams to drive operational efficiencies, while also engaging with client teams to enable customer satisfaction and growth. Prior to that, he was with IDEX Corporation, a manufacturer of fluidics systems and …
San Francisco — Uber Technologies, Inc. and Albertsons Companies, Inc. have expanded their partnership to include more than 2,000 of the grocer’s banner stores nationwide, including Albertsons, Safeway, Jewel-Osco, ACME, Tom Thumb, Randalls and more through Uber Eats. This expansion brings nearly 800 new locations to Uber Eats including to consumers in Connecticut, Indiana, New Hampshire, Utah, Vermont and Rhode Island for the very first time. To enable this growth, Albertsons Cos. stores are more accessible within the Uber Eats app than ever before. Now, in addition to stores being …
Greensboro, N.C. — Pete’s of Erie Inc., a convenience store retailer with 50 stores across Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, has selected Gilbarco Veeder-Root’s Passport® Express Lane™ self-checkout system to elevate the overall customer experience and store efficiency. The brand will install Express Lane in all 50 stores along with the CPI Paypod cash recyclers to ensure all forms of payment including cash, card and contactless options are available to customers. “Busy stores create new challenges in the shopping experience and we’re no different,” says Doug Mercer, information technology director. “Self-checkout allows us to maintain the …
Los Angeles and Denver — Nextbite, a leader in virtual restaurants, has hired Dominic Calcagno, a supply chain leader experienced in national QSR foodservice supply chain management, as director of supply chain. Calcagno will lead Nextbite’s supply chain team focusing on driving operational excellence, introducing new capabilities, controlling costs and building its supply chain partnerships. Prior to Nextbite, he held leadership positions at HAVI, a supply chain services company, where he managed various aspects of the supply chain for McDonald’s North America. During this time, he led source & spend …
Rogers, Ark. — Bold Strategies, Inc., (BOLD) a leading end-to-end e-commerce strategy and services firm, has appointed Matt Parry as its new chief operating officer (COO) effective immediately. BOLD accelerates profitable growth for brands in the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) space. The company helps brands who want to sell to consumers on their own direct-to-consumer (DTC) websites and on major marketplaces, including Instacart, GoPuff, Amazon and Walmart.com. In addition to a complete multifunctional growth team, BOLD clients benefit from the company’s proprietary e-commerce playbook, software and optimization toolkit. Parry most recently …
— By Garrett Fishaw — 4 ways to improve your curbside pickup and delivery services. Curbside pickup and food delivery apps have taken the restaurant and grocery industry by storm. No longer do customers have to physically enter retail and restaurant locations to enjoy their products. Whether it’s a cheeseburger from McDonald’s or a week’s worth of groceries from Walmart, it can be had by logging into a mobile app, clicking a couple of buttons, and voilà, it’s either on the way or waiting to be picked up. Convenience …
Winston-Salem, N.C. — SWIPEBY, a holistic off-premises platform for curbside, pickup and delivery, has launched an initiative to start deploying its technology platform at convenience stores for ordering and in-store pickup as c-stores work to take back ownership of off-premise purchasing using the ordering platform that has been proven in the restaurant space. The effort is underscored by a deployment of the platform at Quality Marts in Winston-Salem, N.C., this month and other c-store chains in New England and the West Coast over the next few months. This is the …
Newton, Mass. — Paytronix Systems, Inc., an advanced digital guest experience platform, has teamed up with Aloha Poke Co., a premier fast-casual poke restaurant concept. Aloha Poke Co. has deployed the full Paytronix platform, including loyalty, order and delivery, and a white-labeled mobile app, to both its company-owned restaurants as well as a growing number of franchise locations. The points-based Aloha Rewards program encourages guests to spend and earn rewards that can be redeemed for bowls. “Aloha Poke Co. selected Paytronix because it is an all-in-one system that includes loyalty, order and delivery …
— By Nancy Troyano — Entomologists provide their 2022 pest prognosis for retail and restaurant managers. As the world continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the business and operational world has shifted. Labor and supply shortages continue to impact everything from grocery stores to restaurants and distribution centers. One thing that is not in short supply for many of these commercial spaces: pests. Pest experts across the country expect to see an increase in pest activity in 2022. With minimal products stocking the shelves and fewer …