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I was alerted to two stories regarding grocery stores, data mining, and apps from Franz Dill at The Eponymous Pickle. First, Kroger acquired "customer science" company dunnhumbyUSA last week with the goal of boosting their "Customer 1st" strategy:
Continuing dunnhumbyUSA's work, [new subsidiary] 84.51° mines mountains of customer transactions via Kroger's loyalty card program to figure out what shoppers want.
84.51° helps Kroger to thoughtfully evaluate what products to stock, expand or discontinue. The firm's insights are also used to send coupons relevant to shoppers' habits, such as issuing pet food offers to customers who actually buy pet food.
Aitken says noted 95 percent of Kroger's growth in the last decade has come from winning more business from existing customers – which is a smarter, most cost-effective way to do business. He notes too many industries – from mobile carriers to cable TV providers – chase after new customers with one-time incentives that ultimately encourage switching, not customer loyalty.
Also, Winn-Dixie is releasing a mobile app that features:
..."personalized" digital coupons, all stored on your smartphone or other electronic device. Winn-Dixie, a subsidiary of Bi-Lo Holdings, partnered with Coupons.com for this new savings system, which sends you cyber coupons based on your own shopping preferences.
The Winn-Dixie app also features a virtual shopping list and fuelperks rewards.
(Score: 2) by bziman on Monday May 04 2015, @01:14PM
That's funny, since I can get the same exact brands at WalMart that I do at Kroger... they are just less expensive. And the produce at WalMart is actually surprisingly high quality, though not up to the local farm stands. Kroger does make me crazy though, by having commercials announced over the PA system every five minutes, and by printing out a meter of coupons at check out that I refuse to leave the store with.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2015, @01:38PM
> Kroger does make me crazy though
The Albertsons nearest me just closed. I hated going in there because every checkout line had a TV blasting commercials at you as you waited. Good fucking riddance.
Sprouts opened up one block away and that place is sooo much nicer. No loyalty cards either.
(Score: 2) by bziman on Tuesday May 05 2015, @03:04AM
Yeah Sprouts is great, but they just don't have the selection of the larger stores and can't compete with Trader Joe's on price. They are, however, much better than Whole Foods.