100% autonomous store in the Wakefern HQ
- Customer
- Product used
- EasyOut®
- Live from
- November 29, 2022
- Location
- Edison, New Jersey, USA
- Store type
- 100% autonomous
- Supported product lines
- Fresh sandwiches
Prepared foods
Over-the-counter medicine
Pre-packaged deli meat
Refrigerated items
Hygiene & toiletries - SKUs
- 600
- Store size
- 500 square feet
The chance to evolve in the self-service space at retail is important and we hope to learn more about frictionless checkout and how we can potentially provide this cutting-edge and convenient technology to Wakefern's member-owned businesses.
Annual revenue
Employees
Stores
Founded
The heart of Wakefern’s innovation center
Wakefern’s corporate headquarters are located in the Raritan center business park, alongside many other major global companies. This is where Wakefern’s first autonomous store will be located and, more specifically, it will be in the company’s innovation and design center. This building, also known as Plaza 7, is where Wakefern tests the latest in retail technology and in supermarket design – in every corner you can see, right before your eyes, every chair, shelf, and even hook being tested. As the largest retailer cooperative of supermarkets in the US, Wakefern is constantly looking for the newest and leading solutions to help their fifty-member companies provide the best shopping experience for their customers along the Eastern Seaboard.
Testing the technology
Stores within corporate office environments, like Wakefern’s, are classic applications of autonomous store tech. Shoppers – who in this instance are employees – usually only need one or two items and time is of the essence, so waiting in line might discourage them from visiting the store. Long lines are shoppers’ number one pain point, solved by autonomous store tech, allowing Wakefern’s corporate employees to easily go in and out of the store, skipping any lines in the process.
This on-campus store at Wakefern’s corporate headquarters is an especially fitting site for an autonomous store, as it can use this store to test the technology, new use cases, hardware, and algorithms, right in front of their eyes, and this is precisely Wakefern’s goal with this new store. It will serve as a proof of concept store and innovation test site, where Wakefern can evaluate multiple cutting-edge technologies to provide its customers with the latest innovations and a superior shopping experience.
The store in Wakefern’s HQ is unique in that it is the first time Trigo’s technology will be implemented in a completely unmanned store, made possible by the 100% autonomous format. Wakefern’s choice to open the store in the purest form – fully autonomous and without any staff involvement – reflects its openness and commitment to innovation alongside an understanding of its employees’ shopping needs for ease and convenience.