ShopRite store debuts online grocery pickup pod

ShopRite has picked up a first in grocery click-and-collect on the East Coast.

The Wakefern Food Corp. banner said yesterday that ShopRite of New Rochelle, owned by Shop-Rite Supermarkets Inc. (SRS), has deployed a Bell and Howell QuickCollect Go! Pod smart grocery retrieval system in its parking lot, providing customers with self-serve pickup of online orders.

An outdoor, freestanding unit, the QuickCollect Go! Pod holds ambient, refrigerated and frozen foods and employs automation to enable secure delivery and retrieval of online orders at anytime, Keasbey, N.J.-based ShopRite said. Shoppers place their grocery orders at Shoprite.com and select QuickCollect as their pickup option. When items are ready, customers receive a text containing a unique QR code to scan on the pod’s console screen, which brings the order to the pickup portal, allowing customers to access their groceries.

“The QuickCollect Go! Pod will make it even easier for our shoppers at the New Rochelle store to pick up their online orders. It’s self-checkout and pickup for online orders that’s done right outside the store,” SRS President Steve Savas said in a statement. “We are excited to be the first grocer on the East Coast with this technology.”

Bell and Howell noted that the QuickCollect Go! Pod offers grocers a 24/7, unstaffed pickup service option.

The ShopRite supermarket with the QuickCollect pod is located at 8 Palmer Ave. in New Rochelle, N.Y. Edison, N.J.-based SRS operates 36 ShopRite stores in New Jersey and in the Hudson Valley and Capital Region in New York.

Related:Lowes Foods pilots grocery pickup lockers at the workplace

Retail and e-commerce automation provider Bell and Howell said the QuickCollect Go! Pod’s intelligent software and robotics technology prepare orders placed at Shoprite.com for pickup. The Durham, N.C.-based company noted that the system’s intuitive interface and consumer-focused design provides a convenient, contactless experience, with the first totes dispensing to the customer in less than a minute.

“Retailers like ShopRite recognize that consumer convenience and fulfillment efficiency are critical to the next level of e-commerce,” according to Larry Blue, president and CEO of Bell and Howell. “Our data shows that consumers enjoy the convenience of this new, individual automated curbside pickup with our QuickCollect Go! Pod.”

Bell and Howell unveiled the QuickCollect Go! Pod in August, citing potential 24/7 pickup applications for grocers, pharmacies and other retailers. The company said in late September that it fielded multiple orders from “leading American grocers.” Designed as a self-contained “store in a box” for outdoor, drop-in installations, the pod offers drive-up service for customers and seamlessly accepts orders from logistics hubs, automated centralized and micro-fulfillment centers, manual fulfillment operations and other sources, Bell and Howell said.

Related:Jewel-Osco tests self-serve grocery pickup kiosk

Albertsons Cos. began piloting a in-store locker pickup service, branded as PickUp, using Bell and Howell’s QuickCollect GL system at Jewel-Osco and Safeway stores in October 2020. And this past June, Carolinas grocer Lowes Foods started testing a workplace locker pickup option for its Lowes Foods To Go online service via QuickCollect GL units deployed outside Bell and Howell’s Durham headquarters.