Stretching Boundaries

MICHAEL GARRY

As food retailers think about how they can apply technology in 2008, some may be planning major new projects that represent a clear break from the past. But it's also possible to leverage existing technologies in new ways, as described on the following pages.

The Internet offers myriad ways of adding on new twists to old programs. Community donations, for example, are made by practically every retailer, but they can be facilitated by the Internet, as organizations like Associated Wholesalers Inc. (AWI) and Food Lion have discovered.

Gerrity's, a progressive nine-store independent served by AWI in Pennsylvania, has implemented many creative target-marketing ideas with its Gold Card loyalty program. But one of its most successful card programs is focused not on customers but on employees, who are offered a 5% rebate per quarter for buying their groceries with the Gold Card at Gerrity's stores.

And while all retailers are trying to become more energy-efficient, Giant Eagle is showing how a company can reinvent store-level energy awareness by creating a new corporate-level position, energy awareness champion, who oversees compliance with energy-saving procedures.

North of the border, Longo Brothers Fruit Markets is using technology to stretch the efficiency of its online delivery service, Grocery Gateway. Online deliveries to consumers are made within a 90-minute time window 97% of the time.

In 2008, Longo's plans to roll out a computer-assisted ordering system that will allow computers, rather than employees, to handle store replenishment orders.