Couldn’t get to Groceryshop 2023? Here’s a photo redux

The nation’s largest grocery conference, Groceryshop 2023, kicked off on Sept. 19 in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. The three-day event drew more than 4,000 attendees, including over 1,700 retailers and brands across segments such as grocery, CPG, convenience, beauty care and others. This year’s event showcased 175 speakers, including the CEOs of The Kroger Co. and Ahold Delhaize USA and co-presidents of Hy-Vee. Besides insights on the changing grocery retail landscape, topics included artificial intelligence, retail media, operations, marketing and merchandising, hiring and talent, the omnichannel experience, food pricing and inflation, technology and digital innovation, e-commerce profitability, store operations, consumer behavior trends and many others. The 2023 show also marketed the debut of Meetup, Groceryshop’s meetings program to enable 25,000 one-to-one meetings between grocery retail and CPG attendees.

Rodney McMullen, chairman and CEO of The Kroger Co., got Groceryshop 2023 with an opening keynote interview with CNBC’s Melissa Repko. He gave some perspective on what’s behind Kroger’s pending mega-merger with Albertsons Cos. as well as their $1.9 billion deal to divest 413 stores, eight distribution centers and other assets to C&S Wholesale Grocers to help gain FTC approval for the merger.

JJ Fleeman, CEO of Ahold Delhaize USA, discussed the East Coast grocer’s unified commerce strategy with Joe Laszlo, VP of content for Groceryshop. In his keynote, Fleeman also explained Giant Food’s move to pull some national-brand products and replace them with own brands at a Washington, D.C., store to combat excessive theft.

Midwestern grocer Hy-Vee made an early splash at the show with the official launch of Hy-Vee RedMedia, its new in-house retail media network, led by Jason Farver as president.

Jennifer Hopper, CIO of Save A Lot, and Luke Anderson, CIO of Cub Foods, gave their takes on building a strong technology workforce in a session titled “Hiring and Upskilling Digital Talent.” They noted that having business-line knowledge has become more critical for grocery industry IT and digital teams.

Matt Hamory (far right) led a discussion by Matt van Guilder, head of e-commerce and digital experience at SpartanNash (left), and Tiffany Hicks, VP of e-commerce and specialty channels for Bumble Bee Seafood, about achieving e-commerce profitability.

Scott Moses, partner and head of the grocery, pharmacy and restaurants advisory group at Solomon Partners, opened a lot of eyes in a rapid overview of grocery industry competition. His “12 Things You Might Not Know” about U.S. grocery presentation highlighted the steady growth of non-traditional grocers—mass merchants, warehouse clubs, dollar stores, limited-assortment discount grocers, drug chains and online retailers (read Amazon)—and how they’ve been siphoning grocery retail market share from conventional supermarkets over the past 20 years.

Longtime star Wall Street retail analyst Karen Short, former managing director at Credit Suisse, sized up the economic picture for the grocery sector heading into 2024. Among her observations: Grocery retailers can expect to make ongoing price investments and adjustments to help customers navigate with a difficult consumer environment.

Groceryshop’s two exhibit halls showcased more than 400 sponsors and exhibitors—unsurprisingly, a technology- and service-heavy array of vendors.

E-tail giant Amazon touted its array of e-commerce technology and services, including last-mile grocery delivery.

The Amazon Dash Cart, previously available only at Amazon Fresh grocery stores, enables shoppers to skip the checkout line by sensing products as they’re placed in the cart, keeping a running total of purchases and accepting payment for their items at the cart.

The Cruise Origin autonomous vehicle, which began production this year, can deliver up to five orders per trip, according to the company. Locked storage units and customer authentication keep orders safe, while sliding drawers in the self-driving vehicle ease loading and unloading for employees and customers.

Retail media was ever-present at this year’s Groceryshop in discussions and on the show floor, whether it was CitrusAd’s platform for connecting grocery retailers and their customers with CPG brands …

… or Firework’s shoppable livestream video technology for grocers (used by retailers such as The Fresh Market, Walmart and Albertsons) …

… or digital advertising and marketing network Grocery TV (whose users include grocers such as Southeastern Grocers and Wakefern/ShopRite, among others).

Catalina touted its solutions for analyzing shopper data and turning it into personalized messages and offers for customers.

“Goods to person” fulfillment technology also was on display at Groceryshop, including this touchpoint picking station from micro-fulfillment specialist Fabric …

… as well as Skypod robots from warehouse automation provider Exotec. Its robots act as assistants that support operators as they prepare online orders.

Diebold Nixdorf showcased its range of point-of-sale, self-checkout and mobile hardware, software and services for grocery stores and other retailers.

Afresh Technologies this month launched a new inventory management platform that leverages artificial intelligence to reduce inefficiencies in fresh food and other store departments.

Upshop’s software-as-a-service-based “total store” solution provides one operations platform for fresh and center-store departments plus direct-store delivery and e-commerce.

Brightdrop drew a lot of attention on the show floor with its Zevo all-electric van for last-mile delivery. The company also offers the Trace Grocery electrically propelled cart to help associates pick, hold and distribute online orders for pickup and delivery.

Liviri highlighted its Sprint line of insulated, reusable totes for cold shipping and storage.

Refrigeration specialist Hussmann spotlighted its roster of display case, merchandising and e-grocery solutions, including the SIM self-serve, four-side viewable island display and the Smart Exchange Locker for self-service pickup of online orders.

At Groceryshop, ambient IoT data carrier platform company Wiliot released new sensor technology that can detect and analyze humidity levels for fresh groceries throughout the supply chain.