June 2, 2021 | GroceryGeniuses Blog

Plant-based foods saw a sharp demand upsurge during the pandemic

GroceryGeniuses June 2, 2021

Instacart has conducted a survey recently about grocery-shopping habits during the pandemic. 30% of the shoppers who participated in this survey plan to continue cooking meals with plant-based foods. Instacart recorded the sales of plant-based meat went up by 42% in 2020 as compared with 2019. The adoption rate at which people chose plant-based milk was up 27% last year. Terms like plant-based, meatless, and vegetarian were the most searched amongst food categories during 2020.

Price Chopper expands AdvantEdgewards Rewards and lets shoppers pay off school loans

GroceryGeniuses June 2, 2021

Price Chopper Supermarkets, a U.S. based grocer, has expanded its reward earning program named AdvantEdgewards Rewards. The grocer will let its customers redeem their points earned through online shopping and support local charities, schools, pay off study loan, or enter sweepstakes and other games using these digital points. The grocer teamed up with international marketing firm TCC and renewed its loyalty program to retain customers. Shoppers can enjoy perks with an enhanced digital experience while using the grocer’s app.

Albertsons to launch a pocket-friendly, customizable wedding floral service online

GroceryGeniuses June 2, 2021

Albertsons will soon be launching its online wedding floral decor service under its brand Debi Lilly Design. The grocer will ship flowers and offer services throughout the U.S. states. Customers can customize their bouquets, garlands, aisle makers and decoration themes. Albertsons wishes to make its customers’ wedding and other events memorable yet affordable. Albertsons will require customers to place order 21 days ahead of the event.

Stor.ai and Trax team up for a seamless online grocery process for retailers

GroceryGeniuses June 2, 2021

Stor.ai, an end-to-end digital commerce firm, has partnered with Trax, a tech and AI firm for retailers, to simplify the online order fulfilment process for retailers. Stor.ai will fuse Trax Flexforce, an on-demand crowd marketplace with a 1.4 million experienced retail workforce, into its one-stop offering for grocers to unify their digital and physical presence. Stor.ai will trace the grocer’s in-store fulfilment and allocate the right expert matching grocer’s algorithm, experience, location and workload to get the job done.

Apeel acquires Impact Vision to gauge freshness and quality of fresh produce

GroceryGeniuses June 2, 2021

Apeel Sciences, a produce-preserving firm, has acquired Impact Vision, a machine learning platform, to step up its food waste efforts. Impact Vision’s imaging technology will let Apeel see inside the fresh produce and gather information about its freshness, ripeness, and other quality features before it adds the invisible, edible skin coating to increase its shelf life further. Apeel made this acquisition as it eyes to connect with supplier partners and grow its network in the future.

Giant Co. nutritionists embark on a culinary road adventure and teach healthy recipes virtually

GroceryGeniuses June 2, 2021

Giant Co. nutritionists will soon pack their bags and embark on a foodie road trip to travel and teach recipes whilst exploring the States. The experts will teach kids and families cooking healthy recipes via Zoom throughout June, July, and August. The foodie adventure will include live cooking and interactive Q/A sessions with families and baking classes on Saturdays. Viewers will earn rewards upon joining classes regularly.

Google partners with Albertsons Cos. to change the future of grocery shopping

GroceryGeniuses June 2, 2021

Google and Albertsons Cos. have signed a partnership to work on the common goal of making online shopping effortless. These giant firms are planning to introduce some cool tech features such as AI-powered conversational commerce, building a predictive grocery list via Google Cloud, and maps with dynamic hyperlocal features. Google will let Albertson’s customers use its AI predictive technology and offer suggestions to make the shopping experience innovative and easy.

Carrefour partners with Filiera Italia to promote Italian products and a sustainable supply chain

GroceryGeniuses June 2, 2021

Carrefour Italia has signed a partnership with Filiera Italia, an Italian Agri-food platform, purely made in Italy. This partnership will promote and supply Italian products to various markets like South America and Asia, where Carrefour has a strong presence with a robust supply chain. Developing a sustainable food supply chain is another incentive behind this collaboration.

Unilever has teamed up with a food-tech firm ENOUGH to grow plant-based products

GroceryGeniuses June 2, 2021

Unilever has signed a partnership with food-tech company ENOUGH (previously 3F BIO) to bring new plant-based meat options to the market. This partnership comes as a result of the growing demand for plant-based meat products of its brand The Vegetarian Butcher. The brand is the fastest-growing market in 45 countries across all the continents. The tech firm uses a zero-waste fermentation process that produces high-quality plant-based meat enriched with nutrients.

Coca Cola and Blue Yonder struck a deal to advance the supply chain

GroceryGeniuses June 2, 2021

Coca Cola HBC has signed a deal with Blue Yonder that is a U.S. based firm providing digital supply chain management software and expertise. Blue Yonder’s SaaS-based Luminate Planning solutions will support end-to-end planning for a 24/7 supply chain and product portfolio. The cloud-based solution will optimise the supply chain of Coca Cola’s bottling partner. It will also sense demand, leverage material and resources, achieve operational agility and digital collaboration to transform it completely.

APAC’s plant-based firms think out of the box to expand dairy-free milk options

GroceryGeniuses June 2, 2021

The plant-based dairy industry in the APAC region is constantly thriving to innovate and grow vegan milk options. After almond, soy and coconut milk, a Malaysian firm Snappea has introduced plant-based milk made of peas. The industry is still growing in the APAC region as more awareness needs to be spread but has a lot of potential to grow. Pea-based milk has 20% more protein than cow milk and 10% more than almond milk.

Walmart acquires MeMD and Amazon expands Care to shape the future of healthcare

GroceryGeniuses June 2, 2021

Grocery and Tech giants are on the verge to shape the future of healthcare and automate it completely. Walmart acquired a telehealth services firm MeMD. Amazon also moved a step forward to expand its virtual primary care business named Amazon Care. Google parent Alphabet and hospital chain HCA Healthcare also signed a deal to unravel algorithms using patients’ previous data and assist future medical decisions regarding their health.