It's rare for anyone to have the opportunity to view nearly all the technology designed for retail stores under one roof, but that's what is now possible at the "Future Store" opened by Metro Group in Rheinberg, Germany, in late April (SN, May 5, 2003, Page 122).
es, electronic shelf labels, PDAs and anti-theft portals. Some of the applications make use of the latest RFID (radio frequency identification) technology developed by the Auto-ID Center at MIT.
Nothing is set in stone, however. It's all a big test to see what works for consumers and employees, what doesn't, and what is cost-justifiable.
It's one of the most closely watched supermarket tests in the world, with major implications for both branded and private-label products. A progress report will be provided by Ralph Jacobson, executive marketing manager, retail industry, IBM, Glendale, Calif., at the Private Label Manufacturers Association's annual trade show, Store Brands Confidential, running Nov. 16 to 18 in Chicago. Jacobson will be presenting a talk titled, "Tomorrow's High-Tech Supermarket," on Sunday, Nov. 16, from 2 to 3 p.m. "When you talk about the store of the future, there seems to be a lot of vision and not a lot of execution," said Jacobson, who was once a store manager for Jewel. "So I want to share some real-life examples, and Metro's store is one of the better examples in the world."
IBM was a major systems integrator at the Metro Future Store, working with a slew of other technology providers, including Intel, SAP, NCR, Wincor Nixdorf, Hewlett Packard, Mettler Toledo, Symbol Technologies, Oracle and Cisco, among others. Jacobson said IBM is working with retailers in the United States who are thinking of developing a comparable store in this country.
In discussing future technology, Jacobson said food retailers need to apply systems that "convert consumers' desires to demand," adding that "few grocers have done a good job with that." An important part of that, well represented at the Metro Future Store, is providing self-service technology -- what Jacobson called "the ATMing of retail." Consumers, he noted, should have the same flexibility in stores that banks have offered through ATMs, while also being offered the full-service treatment at some stores if that's their preference.
Jacobson said one of the most interesting applications at Metro Store -- one that IBM is also developing with a food retailer in the United States -- has to do with providing store employees with wireless, Web-based PDAs to which store alerts may be sent.
"This will mean a store manager will no longer have to sit behind a PC terminal digging through reports to see where he is weak in store performance," he said. "He can be out on the sales floor and if an ad breaks on Thursday, he could get an alert on the handheld PDA saying the top ad item is moving 20 times faster than anticipated, but don't worry because you're getting a delivery tonight. But you might want to schedule extra people."
That type of application "is getting me excited," he said, because of its potential to prevent loss of revenues and enable employees. "This can happen today," he said.
