I talked this week about how Jon Jenkins of AWS made the point during the NGA technology Summit that retailers should not compare smart carts to more traditional carts in terms of cost; instead, he suggested, they should be thought of a self-checkout systems being used throughout the store, taking pressure off the front end.
MNB reader Andrew Parkinson (and co-founder of both Peapod and MNB sponsor Sifter) responded:
It never occurred to me to think about Smart Carts as an investment in Self-Checkout, not just advertising, and thus a completely different way to consider the economics/ROI of smart carts.
John Malec (founder of IRI) was on Peapod’s board for a while and we had many discussions about the difficult economics of his VideoCart business given the capex and charging issues, but they were always presented as a way for CPGs to promote at the point of decision; not as a way to save on the checkout process. Very interesting. Thanks for the insight.
I found that to be an Eye-Opening insight, too. Thanks.
On the subject of FTC opposition to the Kroger-Albertsons deal, one MNB reader wrote:
A couple of points:
Grocery competition has increased from many different sources and the FTC fails to recognize it.
Kroger is a superior operator that would allow Albertsons to sharpen their pricing; improve the quality of stores ; and provide more job opportunities.
If the acquisition doesn’t happen , there is a chance Albertsons would still shed underperforming stores going forward.
Some unions will oppose the marriage regardless of the outlook just trying to get some leverage.
The FTC should look at their own history and failures. An example is they blocked Ahold from acquiring Pathmark. End results equal Pathmark goes out of business after a bad marriage with A&P and 35,000 good jobs disappear and prices in NY and NJ are higher than they would have been with a viable Pathmark.
In my opinion, there are a lot more negatives to blocking this marriage than positives.
We also had a reaction to some of our coverage from MNB reader Jeff Lenard:
The more I looked at the chart of largest grocers, the more odd it felt. Dollar stores and pharmacies are considered grocery stores, but convenience stores are not?
If c-stores were properly considered, 7-Eleven (12,601 U.S. stores) would be battling Aldi for #4 and Circle K (5,845) would crash the top 10. Other favorites like Casey’s (2,642), Wawa (1,043), QuikTrip (1,039), among others, would reshape the rest of the top 15.
It does call for a broader consideration of what a “grocery store” is.
And regarding music in stores, one MNB reader wrote:
No, no, just no curating by employees. We tried. Oh, how we tried and guess what – music is personal and someone always hated on what someone else liked. We tried numerous times in fact. You haven’t worked in a store for while and it show, KC – LOL.
Also, music is about branding. It’s part of the store experience. We now rotate through a variety of music that is curated and not stale. You don’t have to be stale anymore with all of the highly customizable music services out there.
And still, someone – usually an employee – will not like something. But guess what, if someone doesn’t like a song, it’ll change soon.
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