The Friday Five: New school vs. old school

Here are the top articles from around the web that you may have missed this week. In this edition, we look at a few ways retailers are testing the boundaries of the traditional supermarket and a couple of arguments for keeping the food shopping experience old school.

1. UK supermarket trialing checkout-less shopping
Gizmag details an app from Sainsbury’s in the U.K. that will allow users to do everything from create a grocery list to find items in store to check out from their phones.

2. Loblaw tests new grocery stores offering ‘hard discounts’
Loblaw expanded a test of its “hard discount” stores it calls the Box, which feature a limited assortment of mostly private label products, Global News reports.

3. Area Food Lion stores tout recent upgrades
Food Lion’s second round of store upgrades, in North Carolina, focused on streamlining the checkout process and grouping products by consumer usage, according to the Carteret County News-Times.

4. Why Peapod should be concerned about the state of grocery shopping
The Chicago Business Journal highlights a Technomic study that found consumers rate brick-and-mortar stores higher than online food outlets — including when it comes to convenience.

5. What mom-and-pop stores can teach grocery chains
Strategy business contends food retailers need to go really old school — as in become more like the general stores that existed before supermarkets — to make customer service a differentiator.

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