Foodservice

• &pizza has partnered with tech company Zume to integrate the company’s ‘Forward Mobile Kitchens’ with the pizza chain’s brand. The partnership will help &pizza break into new markets and test new products.

• Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. has expanded its mobile ordering platform. For a time, mobile ordering was only available to customers who signed up for the company’s DD Perks service. The company has now added a ‘guest checkout’ to its app in order to expand mobile orders.

• McDonald’s Corporation has expanded their third-party delivery with the addition of a new partnership with Grubhub. The partnership will service 500 locations in the NYC area. The company has also acquired AI Tech company Apprente who specialize in voice-based conversational technology.

• Starbucks Corporation has launched voice ordering in China. The service is available by using Alibaba’s smart speaker, called the Tmall Genie, and allows customers to order using their voice and receive their delivery within a 30 minute time frame.

Retail

• Target Corporation is now offering its Drive Up curbside click-and-collect service at 1,750 stores in all 50 states. The service allows customers to place a mobile order, pull up to their local store, and have an associate bring the order to their car for free.

Grocery/Convenience

• 7-Eleven Inc. is equipping field employees with Microsoft Surface devices that use Microsoft 365 and Power BI.

• Meijer Inc. has completed a 15-month rollout of its Shop & Scan mobile checkout solution at all its stores across the Midwest.

Drug/Health/Beauty

• Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc. announced it is introducing Sparked, a lifelike online store based on virtual reality technology.

• Vitamin Shoppe Industries is launching Only Me, a personalized online assessment that delivers a custom assortment of vitamin and supplements to participating subscribers each month.

• Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has announced a new partnership with Google’s sister company Wing and its Alphabet drone delivery service as part of a new pilot program.

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 930 companies in the Database of Foodservice Technology and Database of Retail Technology, with many of those companies’ records updated at multiple points.