| Welcome to the Coffeyville Star, the online social platform for Montgomery County, KS residents and friends. We are a failed, prehistoric, underground, independent clandestine, news media of the future in a grayish, make-believe world that exists solely to hide the seedy undertakings of an insane, self-proclaimed preeminent, supreme, intergalactic, super-villain. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. Don't bother with Registration because it's probably complicated, slow, and very expensive. Be fair warned and just go away! Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Wal-Mart's carts; in the produce department | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 13 2016, 02:32 PM (14 Views) | |
| Entity | Jul 13 2016, 02:32 PM Post #1 |
|
Publisher
![]()
|
Wal-Mart is introducing carts for produce department employees to assist in reducing waste and increasing consumer engagement. The so-called “quality carts” are in 500 stores now and will be present in all 5,000 U.S. stores by the end of the third quarter. The carts have a scale and a box to collect discarded produce. “What we doing is taking a lot of our activity from the back room to the sales floor,” said John Forrest Ales, Wal-Mart spokesman. Produce clerks can weigh items, do quality checks, cull produce and assist customers with the carts. “We are 100% focused on the customer experience in fresh,” Ales said. Produce department staff will be more visible and spend more time on the sales floor with consumers, and interacting with them is part of the strategy, Ales said July 12. “If we are able to spend more time on the floor than the back room, that will help us take better care of customers,” he said. Ales could not say if the total number of produce staff is higher as a result of the addition of the carts. He said the concept was developed by Wal-Mart owned Asda in the United Kingdom and has been adopted by Wal-Mart stores in Argentina. “We’re bringing it here and we are really excited about it,” he said. The move could help Wal-Mart if it adds produce staff with the carts, said Anthony Totta, founding partner and consultant with Kansas City, Mo.-based FreshXperts. Health care costs and more off-site processing of fruits and vegetables have reduced staffing for all retailers, but Totta said the move by Wal-Mart could pay dividends. “A personality on the floor in a produce department can make an enormous amount of difference on sales,” Totta said. “If they are putting people with the carts, that will make a difference.” Bob Phibbs, New York-based retail consultant and principal of The Retail Doctor consulting company, said Wal-Mart’s attention to the fresh produce department is overdue. “The whole idea is that they are realizing that fresh produce is going to become the next battleground with Amazon Fresh and so everybody is upping their game,” he said July 12. Phibbs noted that Wal-Mart previously announced that they were adding staff to their fresh departments. A July 12 Reuters article said that Wal-Mart was on track to have fresh food managers in about one-third of its stores by the end of the year. “I think they started with hiring the right people and this is another tool to give what most of us would assume to be standard operating procedure,” he said. Phibbs said that Wal-Mart understands that keeping shoppers in the fresh produce department longer is key. “They are aggressively going after what they can control and that makes a lot of sense,” he said. One reservation people have about online delivery of food is the freshness of produce, and Phibbs said Wal-Mart understands it must have attractive offerings for consumers. “Shoppers don’t want to make extra trips these days so it all fits together,” he said. Phibbs said Wal-Mart is likely taking lessons from their smaller format stores and applying what worked. “With big data and motion sensors and everything you can do these days, you can see how long people linger,” he said. “If fresh produce looks fresh enough, people linger longer and that’s the whole key to get (consumers) to buy more things,” he said. -read more |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · Social · Next Topic » |







8:48 AM Jul 11