Those were the takeaways from the two winning presentations out of the six heard at the Capstone conference of the Food Industry Management Program on April 6 at the University of Southern California.
In stores of the future, retailers will go above and beyond to personalize the experience for shoppers.
But exactly what the personalization will look like will vary from store to store.
Well, Kroger has been roaring down the middle of the road for years, setting speed records and bowling over the competition. And it shows no signs of stopping.
The German discount chain has ambitious plans to expand in the U.S. It is now in year two of a five-year plan to build 650 new stores on top of the approximately 1,300 existing ones, at an investment of about $3 billion.
This year, the grocer celebrated its 85th anniversary and credits its founder, George Jenkins (or "Mr. George" as he's known), with the unique customer-oriented culture that persists today. In fact, one of Mr. George's lessons teaches associates to "treat customers like royalty."
