Foodservice
• CaliBurger is trialing facial recognition software in its ordering kiosks in 10 locations.
• Sweetgreen named Thomas Prommer to the newly created position of CIO, in which he’s tasked with boosting the chain’s digital capabilities across the board, from supply chain to customer engagement.
• Wingstop will roll out delivery nationally in 2019 using a proprietary app platform. The company will continue to use Olo’s online ordering platform for the back end but replace the interface with one developed in house. Currently, 24% of Wingstop sales are digital, and the company has a goal to increase that number to 40%.
Discount
• Dollar General Corp. launched its DG Go! app, which allows customers to use their phones to scan items as they shop, and checkout directly through the app. The app is being piloted in 10 stores in Nashville. However, Dollar General plans to roll it out to another 100 stores in the second quarter.
• Walmart entered into an agreement with Microsoft designed to further the relationship and boost Walmart’s digital transformation. First up is migrating Walmart.com and Samsclub.com to the cloud using Azure.
Grocery/Convenience
• Amazon.com Inc. announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire PillPack, an online pharmacy that offers pre-sorted doses of medications and home delivery.
• Amazon.com Inc. is building a second Seattle store under its checkout-free Amazon Go banner. The new store will be 1 mile away from the original and open this fall.
• Giant Eagle Inc. has launched Scan Pay & Go, a new service that enables customers to use their smartphones or a store-provided device to scan groceries as they shop.
• Hy-Vee Inc. announced it will partner with Instacart and Shipt to expand its delivery footprint and provide shopping options for customers in more than two dozen markets.
• Kroger rolled out OptUp, a new app designed to enable shoppers to make healthier choices while shopping. The app provides a score (1 to 100) ranking the healthfulness of products.
Hardware & Home Improvement
• Do it Best Corp. promoted John Mergy to VP of IT.
• The Home Depot plans on adding lockers for online order pickups in its stores.
Just because we don’t mention it here doesn’t mean it didn’t happen – or we didn’t capture it. In the past four weeks, we’ve updated more than 625 companies in the Database of Foodservice Technology and Database of Retail Technology, with many of those companies’ records updated at multiple points.
