Foodservice
• Burger King gained attention when it offered a one-day deal for customers using the revamped BK app. Customers could order a Whopper for a penny if they were within 600 feet of a McDonald’s.
• Pizza Hut will acquire QuikOrder, an online ordering platform, in a move to boost its digital business.
• Shake Shack released its new mobile app and introduced nationwide web ordering.
• Sweetgreen plans to invest a large portion of the $200 million it raised in its last funding round on technology, including delivery systems and blockchain technology to provide supply chain transparency. The current round of investment values the company at $1B.
• Starbuck’s announced a partnership with Uber Eats that will expand delivery to 2,000 US locations in early 2019. The company recently stated that in the last 2 years, mobile orders and payments in the US increased from 5% to 12%.
• Taco Bell will begin installing ordering kiosks in 2019.
Retail
• Overstock plans to sell its retail business by February.
• Petco partnered with Yantriks to introduce instore pickup for online purchases at 1,500 US stores.
• Walmart Stores Inc., in collaboration with Japanese online giant Rakuten, has opened its first Walmart e-commerce site in Japan.
Grocery/Convenience
• Albertson’s implemented the Identity Cloud platform by identity software provider Okta.
• Amazon.com Inc. opened the seventh Amazon Go store in Chicago in the Ogilvie Transportation Center. The company has revealed plans to open the first international Amazon Go concept in London’s West End, and plans to open Amazon Go locations in airports in the future.
• Whole Foods Market and Instacart are ending their 5-year partnership following Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods last year.
• The Kroger Co. will soon introduce its first automated warehouse in Monroe, OH.
• SpartanNash Company has launched Check Out Now, a scan, bag, and go mobile app.
Drug/Health/Beauty
• CVS Health expanded its MinuteClinic Video Visits program, available through the CVS Pharmacy App, CVS.com, and two more states, bringing total coverage to 18 states plus DC.
Home Center & Hardware
• Lowe’s opened a new $150 million, 1.1-million-square-foot, automated direct fulfillment center in Coopertown, TN.
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 900 companies in the Database of Foodservice Technology and Database of Retail Technology, with many of those companies’ records updated at multiple points.
