Dive Brief:
- ShopRite has started using a new cooling solution from Phononic for picking e-commerce orders at one of its New York stores, according to a Thursday press release.
- At the undisclosed location, the grocer is using Phononic’s freezer and refrigerated totes to pick, store and stage online orders.
- ShopRite said that the totes help cut down on the amount of store space needed for fulfillment because they can be used to pick, store and stage online orders.
Dive Insight:
ShopRite’s usage of Phononic’s cooling totes at a New York store is the latest example of how grocers are looking to boost e-commerce efficiencies.
The totes allow grocers to store grocery orders in totes at refrigerator or freezer temperatures, keeping perishables at safe temperatures. The solution aims to reduce congestion during peak hours at the store and has minimized the staging room requirements by 70% without impacting order volume, the announcement noted.
“Not only is it easy to integrate the totes into ShopRite’s existing operations, but it's incredibly scalable — capable of growing easily alongside ShopRite’s booming curbside business, and agile enough to keep up with daily order fluctuations,” Larry Yang, chief product officer at Phononic, said in a statement.
Phononic’s totes do not use hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are widely used in commercial refrigerants and air conditioning systems. Grocers have been moving away from HFCs recently as the result of the federal government and states setting limits on their usage.
With the launch at the New York store, ShopRite is the first grocer in the U.S. to use Phononic’s second-generation Active Cooling Solutions (ACS) totes, per the announcement.
A few months ago, Phononic unveiled a joint solution with Vidir that combines the former’s totes with the latter’s vertical lift system to let grocers keep frozen, chilled and ambient orders in one place.
ShopRite is a banner of Wakefern Food Corp., a retailer-owned supermarket cooperative that also runs the Price Rite Marketplace, The Fresh Grocer, Dearborn Market, Gourmet Garage and Fairway Market banners.
