In the USA, start-ups are launching new grocery stores that provide ready-picked goods for pick-up – exclusively for online ordered purchases. In the US state of Massachusetts, the company Addie’s has opened its first store of this kind, while in Oklahoma the start-up JackBe is launching drive-up stores.
Addie’s opened its first pick-up store last week in Norwood, Massachusetts. Supermarket News reported. Customers order their products online and choose a time slot when they want to pick up their purchase. In the meantime, the start-up retailer’s employees pick the orders and hand them to customers on demand in front of the store. The retailer says it plans to open 2,000 more pick-up stores of this kind in the USA.
To use the service, customers select their groceries via app or via the online shop addies.com. They also specify when they want to receive their products in person on site. Employees of the retailer then pick the goods inside the 22,000 square metre warehouse. At pick-up time, customers drive to an available parking area in front of the store and log in to the Addie’s app with their parking space number. The purchase is then either handed over to the customer by the retailer’s employees or loaded directly into the car if desired.
Pick-up stores could be a new trend in the US
The retailer’s assortment currently comprises more than 4,000 items, both food and drugstore items, including products of brand manufacturers and goods from local suppliers. Customers do not need to enter the store or pay additional service fees by picking up products at the store. In addition, non-value-added labour could be reduced. Refrigeration of items could also be implemented more efficiently than in traditional supermarkets by using walk-in large-capacity refrigeration units. “By doing this, we reduce costs and increase quality for customers,” said Jim McQuade, Co-Founder, and CEO of Addie’s to Supermarket News. Customers can pay by credit card, Apple or Google Pay. The entire technology behind the new concept is a proprietary development, Addie`s told the Retail Optimiser. The store is located at 911 Boston Providence Highway, in Norwood, Massachusetts.
Addie’s is not the only start-up in the US trying out the concept of drive-up stores. Already at the beginning of this year, retailer JackBe opened its first 17,000-square-foot store in the state of Oklahoma with a similar concept. Also here, customers can order their purchase via app or via the homepage Jackbenimble.com and then personally receive it on site at their desired time. To do so, customers must scan the QR code, which is displayed on a sign at the respective parking space in front of the store.
The App and the software were individually designed for the retailers purpose the start-up told the Retail Optimiser. In a press release, the start-up also stated that it could serve up to 200 orders per hour. JackBe’s pick-up market is open from eight in the morning to eight in the evening seven days a week and is located at 18001 North May Avenue, in the Edmond district of Oklahoma City. By the end of the first quarter of 2023, two more pick-up stores are planned to open in the Oklahoma City area.
