The Center for Advancing Retail & Technology (CART) and the National Grocers Association (NGA) today unveiled a new online platform for the supermarket industry. The CART marketplace at advancingretail.org is designed to help the supermarket sector keep pace with technology innovation that is rapidly transforming the way people shop.
“Retailers and brand manufacturers are experiencing information overload as they seek to stay informed of the rapidly growing number of innovative solutions coming into the market. CART’s platform is designed to help retailers and brands discover, evaluate and engage new technologies. There is nothing else like it available in the retail industry today,” said Gary Hawkins, CEO of CART.
The marketplace is a free resource for retailers, providing a place to discover new solutions, to learn from available white papers and case studies, and obtain guidance in the form of ratings and reviews provided by fellow retailers. Additionally, solution providers are able to benefit from efficient access to the sizable supermarket industry, particularly the thousands of stores encompassing the independent and mid-market sector. Solution providers also can avail themselves of guidance provided by the CART team who have extensive retail and technology innovation experience.
In addition to serving retailers and solution providers, CART provides research services to consumer goods brand manufacturers. Operating retail stores participating in CART’s network serve as “live learning labs” where CPG brands can test in-store merchandising innovation along with piloting new shopper-facing technologies. Live-learning-lab environments are designed to provide deep insight to real shopper behavior using the latest research tools, including mobile analytics.
Understanding the importance of access to technology and innovation to independent retailers, CART has established a relationship with NGA, the trade association focused on serving the independent supermarket sector. CART powers up the NGA SolutionCenter (available solutions), ResourceCenter (case studies, articles, etc.) and the InnovationCenter (new innovations coming into the retail industry).
“Given the importance of technology to retail we are excited to help bring the new CART marketplace to independent grocers and provide our members with resources and information on how to integrate the latest technology techniques into their business strategies,” said Peter J. Larkin, president and CEO of NGA.
NGA holds annual Best Bagger Congressional Showdown
In other NGA news, the group on Wednesday held its third annual National Best Bagger Congressional Showdown in conjunction with the American Frozen Food Institute Frozen Food Filibuster at the Library of Congress, located on Capitol Hill. NGA’s 2014 Best Bagger National Champion Andrew Hadlock of Maceys grocery store in Sandy, Utah, competed against his member of Congress, Rep. Jason Chaffetz. Hadlock, who won the Best Bagger title in February at the 2014 NGA Show in Las Vegas, kept his title as the National Best Bagger with a time of 38 seconds.
“NGA members—independently owned supermarkets and the wholesalers that supply them—have long been committed to providing the communities they serve with top-quality customer service and meeting their consumers’ expectations on a daily basis,” said Larkin. “Great grocery bagging is one example of exemplary customer service that differentiates our members’ stores from the competition. We appreciate Congressman Chaffetz’s participation in our Best Bagger Congressional Showdown and for trying out his bagging skills against a great bagger like Andrew Hadlock.”
The Best Bagger competition is a nationwide promotion for supermarket employees, which is intended to demonstrate a superior core customer service skill in a friendly competition. The 28th Best Bagger Competition was in February at the annual NGA trade show in Las Vegas. Finalists representing large regional food retailers as well as small local operators from across the country vied for the title of 2014 NGA Best Bagger Champion.
Finalists were chosen in state competitions. Contestants are judged by speed of bagging, proper bag-building technique, weight distribution in the bag as well as style, attitude and appearance.
