A new way to win in fresh

The phrase "do more with less" has never been more true, especially in grocery retail IT. And yet, some IT executives are finding ways to lead transformational change for their brands, while still balancing resource allocation and prioritization amid unprecedented market constraints.

In some ideal utopia, average consumers could solve the planet’s food waste problem simply by throwing less food out. Realistically, that will never happen. As the oft-cited stat goes, around one-third of the world’s food goes to waste each year. In more recent years, nonprofit think tank ReFED has made it abundantly clear that waste happens up and down the supply chain, not just in consumer homes.

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Fresh is the most important part of any grocery retailer’s digital strategy and identifying the best-in-class technology for fresh operations is critical. Explore this page to find out why grocers are taking a purpose-built approach to technology and download your free Fresh RFP template to get started on your search!

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SpartanNash has been steadily investing in technology over the past several years, most recently by joining forces with fresh food technology company Afresh Technologies to pilot the Afresh platform, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered predictive ordering and inventory management solution.

In order to be effective in fresh, a system must assess the available data with the expectation of imperfection (which is inherent to fresh goods) and apply techniques jointly across inventory estimation, demand forecasts, and order recommendations to understand and adjust for the degree of uncertainty within the data.

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