Based on a publication from Sam Silverstein in Grocery Dive, Automation beckons retailers as labor challenges endure.
La automatización atrae a los retailers a medida que perduran los desafíos laborales
Technologies like self-checkout and ordering kiosks are offering relief to grocers unable to hire enough workers to handle essential functions.
This story is the third in a series on key trends that will impact grocers in 2022.
To help deal with a persistent labor shortage that has severely tested their ability to keep stores staffed and stocked, grocers are stepping up efforts to mechanize a range of essential tasks that historically have been handled by people.
This includes adding more self-checkout terminals to stores and relying on automation tools that help them update prices and manage their inventory. Many of these tools have been available to food retailers, and they’re getting a closer look nowadays as the industry confronts what looks to be a long-term hiring and retention challenge.
But as retailers increase their reliance on time-tested automation solutions, they are also tackling pressing questions about the role human workers will play in supermarkets in the future, industry experts said.
Having workers perform tasks that technology can easily replace probably isn’t the best use of people’s time, said Gautham Vadakkepatt, director of the Center for Retail Transformation at the George Mason University School of Business. «Companies are getting smarter to that and saying given the new environment we’re operating in, let’s do this with automation and use our talented workforce in a context that actually adds value to the company,» he said.
Automation may be able to save retailers money and speed customers through stores, but human workers play a critical role ensuring that the experience of going shopping is satisfying for shoppers, Vadakkepatt said.
«Humans have that innate tendency to be able to address problems, solve problems, and that’s where we’ll see humans being deployed,» he said.
«I think labor shortages are pushing us into the future, and the grocers are smartly using this as an opportunity for growth.»
Henry Michaelson, Co-founder, President and Chief Technology Officer, Halla
A balancing act for retailers
The challenges retailers are facing in hiring and retaining workers are presenting a compelling reason for grocers to embrace technology in ways they might not have in the past, said Henry Michaelson, co-founder, president and chief technology officer of Halla, which provides personalization technology to retailers.
«I think labor shortages are pushing us into the future, and the grocers are smartly using this as an opportunity for growth,» said Michaelson.
Neil Stern, CEO of West Coast supermarket chain Good Food Holdings, said retailers are facing a complex balancing act as they navigate the labor crisis confronting the industry. «We have physical stores, we have customers coming in, we have shelves that need to be stocked,» he said. «I still need people to show up for work … in an environment right now that’s pretty challenging» because of the pandemic.
Good Food, which operates about 50 supermarkets under banners including Bristol Farms, Metropolitan Market and New Seasons Market, is significantly increasing its use of technology to maintain operations, Stern said. Self-checkout is a particular area of focus for the company because of its ability to help move customers along, he said.
«This is not just about an opportunity for retailers to save some labor on the front end, but it’s actually what the customer is preferring as a way to check out,» said Stern, noting that the Good Food dedicates one worker to monitoring every four self-checkout units.
Reflecting the importance shoppers place on convenience, more than three-quarters of consumers who participated in a survey conducted in December by mobile data company Anyline said they would be more likely to shop in a store if it offered scan-and-go checkout technology. Anyline is working on technology to allow shoppers who use scan-and-go systems to buy age-restricted products such as alcohol without interacting with a store employee, said the company’s co-founder and CEO, Lukas Kinigadner.
Stern said shoppers are increasingly interested in moving through stores quickly, a dynamic that in many cases is causing people to place a premium on automation when visiting Good Food’s stores. That focus is especially noticeable at foodservice counters, where shoppers sometimes have to wait for service, he said, so Good Food is installing sandwich-ordering kiosks to speed things up.
«You can say, ‘Isn’t it wonderful, all that interaction you’re going to get from us?’ but I think customers are also saying, ‘There’s got to be a better way. If I want to get a sandwich made, I’ll go use an app or use a kiosk to get it made, and I’m just picking it up,'» Stern said.
Good Food also will be testing smart carts, which use computer vision to record items as shoppers remove them from shelves, in some stores this year in partnership with Veeve, according to Stern. The retailer is also planning to pilot electronic shelf tags in 2022, he said.
While electronic shelf tags can help save on labor costs because they take less work to maintain, that alone doesn’t provide a substantial enough return to justify investing in them, Stern said. But when the digital price displays are used to also facilitate dynamic pricing, they become much more compelling, he said.
«That’s a big use case that I think a lot of retailers are going to be looking at,» he said.
Stern said Good Food is also looking into technology like the aisle-scanning robots produced by Simbe Robotics to automate inventory tracking in its stores, but hasn’t decided whether to proceed.
This article was originally published in Grocery Dive
