Supermarket Perimeter - November 2021 - 17

J
ob openings in the United States are higher than they have
ever been, according to recent numbers released by the US
Labor Department. Many employers are struggling to find
enough workers.
" The pool of labor that is available to our retail clients is shrinking, "
said David Wilkinson, president and general manager of Atlanta-based
NCR. " Retail is on the front line and workers don't want to be exposed to
potential risks. "
Not only are employees leaving the retail workforce due to COVID-19
exposure concerns, but because of the labor shortage employees
are being asked to work more hours. Meanwhile, many shoppers are
ordering their groceries online, leaving store employees to spend extra
time picking increased online order volume.
Grocery retailers around the United States are feeling the impact
of the labor shortage. St. Louis-based Schnuck Markets, for example,
started reducing store hours and service hours of instore deli, meat and
seafood counters in stores throughout Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and
Wisconsin by one hour on Oct. 4.
The retailer is offering team members retention and performance
bonuses of up to $600 and holding companywide career fairs in search
of more employees. Any new employees who stay on through Jan.
2, 2022, will be eligible for the retention bonus. The retailer is also
increasing time off for employees around the holiday season.
David Cook, who represents Schnucks employees in the region
as president of UFCW Local 655, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the
changes are welcome.
" I gotta be honest with you, my members are not calling down here
saying, 'I need more hours,' " he said. " What they're saying is, 'I'm tired.'
We're coming up on 24 months of near-unlimited hours and probably
more hours than somebody would optimally want to work. "
Wilkinson predicts this labor crisis isn't going to go away quickly, and
heightened investment in retail technology and labor automation will
be a big piece of answering how retailers can deal with labor shortage
going forward.
" Technology and automation is one of the key investments they need
to make, " he said. " Everybody recognizes they need to invest in new
and different technologies to help enable the productivity gains that are
required to keep up with that labor crisis. "
Labor automation on the retail floor
Over the last year, a number of retailers have introduced robots that can
help maintain the store floor. Most recently, West Des Moines, Iowabased
Hy-Vee, Inc. partnered with Simbe to roll out its autonomous
inventory management and retail intelligence solution, Tally, to stores
across Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri to improve the instore experience
for customers and store teams.
Tally enables retailers to improve the customer experience through more
frequent and accurate inventory, pricing and promotion information.
Tally autonomously scans tens of thousands of products across grocery,
health and wellness aisles up to three times per day to ensure products
are in stock, in the correct location, and correctly priced. Tally is a
power tool and productivity driver for store teams, providing them with
actionable insights that can reduce out-of-stocks by up to 30%, allowing
teams to focus on more engaging tasks such as servicing customers.
supermarketperimeter.com
NOVEMBER 2021 - 17
Tally can provide accurate order forecasting and help retailers
optimize the store layout to support sales. This rich data, combined
with Tally's plug-and-play software platform and APIs, will provide
Hy-Vee with unprecedented insights into the state of its stores, giving
employees real-time recommendations to improve store operations and
maximize customer satisfaction.
Tally requires no infrastructure changes to the store environment to
operate effectively and is designed to be unobtrusive to the shopper's
experience. The robot strategically navigates store aisles during normal
store hours, safely maneuvering alongside shoppers and employees.
" The pandemic truly created a 'new normal' for grocery that has
illuminated the need for a greater frequency and fidelity of in-store
data, " said Brad Bogolea, chief executive officer and co-founder of
Simbe Robotics. " Hy-Vee is the perfect example of thoughtfully adopting
technology to improve the store experience for both customers and
their teams. As retailers face a growing number of considerations,
Tally provides a cost-effective solution that ensures they can continue
to provide excellent customer service and create a valuable, more
enjoyable working environment for their employees. "
Schnuck Markets also debuted Simbe's Tally robot at all stores in late
August, making the retailer the first grocer in the United States to utilize
AI-powered inventory management technology at scale, according to
the company.
" By deploying Tally to all stores, we are fully operationalizing these
insights into our supply chain and expanding our ability to leverage
real-time data to make revenue impacting decisions, " said Dave
Steck, Schnuck's vice president of IT infrastructure and application
development. " Tally has become an integral component of our
stores, streamlining operations and ultimately creating a better store
experience for our customers and teammates. "
NCR offers endto-end
enterprise
software from the
back office to the front
end, from mobile to
payments, loyalty
and beyond.
SIMBE, NCR
http://www.supermarketperimeter.com
Supermarket Perimeter - November 2021

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