Over the past few decades, the size and scope of supermarkets have grown by leaps and bounds. Without breakthrough technological innovations-whether on the aisle or behind the counter, most of the growth would be impossible to achieve. 

Rick Stein, vice president of freshness at FMI-Food Industry Association in Arlington, Virginia, said that from a retailer and consumer perspective, peripheral technology has made tremendous progress.

He said this growth has been particularly strong in the past few years. Inventory control is essential for anything that involves fresh foods, and the clocks for these foods start counting even before they reach the store.

"A lot of work has been done to manage inventory to ensure that only the freshest products are sold," Stein said. "When I look back on my career, it was done manually 45 years ago-even 10 years ago it was still done manually."

Now, with the help of artificial intelligence and other technologies, retailers can accurately monitor what is sold and when. With the correct algorithm, they can keep enough products to meet consumer demand and prevent food from spoiling and unsellable.

Stein said that most retailers today are worried about labor shortages, which is more important than ever.

"The surrounding area is stepping out of the Stone Age and becoming like a central store."

Stan says that the same is true from a shopper's point of view. Not long ago, consumers had to rely entirely on in-store signs and printed flyers to understand the products they were interested in buying. Now, through the QR code, know which foods are local, organic or pesticide-free, or learn how to prepare and cook them, with just one click.

Stein said that during the COVID, the drive to create and apply these technologies has grown exponentially, with countless conversions on the digital side, using e-commerce to buy fresh food, using augmented reality to figure out what to do with them after purchase, and many other applications .

"Now that consumers use mobile phones to shop is commonplace, the era of QR codes has arrived," Stein said.

But e-commerce and technology applications are not just substitutes for the in-store experience. Stan says they also make the experience more attractive.

"I think the one thing that retailers will really put in a lot of effort is to create a better physical experience for consumers. Think about all the real estate they own. One area that really allows them to create more experiences is the surrounding area."

Point A to Point B-faster

One of the biggest technology-related changes that helped the grocery store grow into today is the revolution in transportation efficiency.

Eric Richard, the industry relations coordinator of International Dairy, headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, said that for most of the grocery store’s history, agricultural products and other fresh products have been subject to seasonal restrictions because they were pushed before they spoiled. How difficult it is to market the Deli Baking Association (IDDBA).

With the advancement of refrigeration technology, logistics and other factors benefiting from high-tech upgrades, all this has changed.

"Now, thanks to advances in logistics and supply chains, we can enjoy products from all over the country and around the world," Richard said.

He added that nowadays, blockchain and other technologies continue to further refine these supply chain-related advancements. Especially in preventing or at least controlling and minimizing epidemics related to food safety, these technologies play a vital role.

Richard said, especially looking at specific surrounding departments, in-store bakeries have benefited a lot from oven innovations recently. 

He remembers that in the 1990s, the in-store bakery of the grocery store where he worked as a teenager in New Jersey was asked to help. He said that the difference between the baking technology at that time and the current one was like "day and night", which made him a lot of anxiety about his efforts as a young man.

"Being able to bake high-quality products in an in-store bakery has a lot to do with equipment innovation," he said. "This will definitely make me more confident that the bread I want to bake will be perfect. Having the right oven with the right temperature and the right settings, easy to program and calculate-this is especially important when training the next generation of bakers."

He added that equipment innovations make it easier for in-store bakeries to recruit new employees, which is particularly important in today's labor-intensive environment.

Richard said that in-store deli shops have also benefited from technological upgrades in ovens and other equipment in recent decades. For example, the stove oven has transformed the deli from a department known mainly for deli meats, cheeses, and side dishes in the last 90s to a department that is now comparable to many restaurants in terms of retail food service quality.

"In order to prepare all these foods, you must have the right equipment," Richard said.

There is a fine line between helping consumers through technology and giving them too much, but Stein believes that retailers will continue to find the right balance. Shoppers who have downloaded the retailer app will start receiving messages as soon as they enter the store, and they can use this information to guide them to accurately understand the types of goods they might buy.

"It becomes an experience-they don't think it is overwhelmed by technology, they like it. This not only helps them find the exact ingredients they need to cook that night, but it also helps them figure out how to use leftovers to avoid food waste. "

In the latest round of FMI's Speaks industry survey, retailers told the association that they plan to expand their retail food service business, and technology will be the key to helping them achieve this goal. Stein said that this is no longer just a question of dinner-consumers are also looking for breakfast and lunch options. 

Stein said that for decades, grocery stores have not been as motivated to embrace technology as other industries. That's because supermarkets have always enjoyed a strong labor market. They don't need to be automated like the clothing industry, the automotive industry is like that. 

"Everything is merging together at the same time to inspire our retailers to consider technology as the foundation. Now we are seeing a lot of progress. When the supermarket industry is determined to do something, it will be done, and it will do better than most other industries. Better. I think technology is the foundation that runs through all our businesses. Business will develop, new technologies will emerge, and supermarkets are ready to accept more things than ever before."

Richard said that the floor plan of the store's department also benefited from the technological upgrade. On the one hand, considering the emergence of smaller and more efficient boxes, these boxes come in various sizes to fit the appropriate space, so they are easy to handle. 

"In the past, when you had huge, heavy boxes walking around, it was difficult to browse," he said. "And the lighting in the box has been greatly improved. You didn't know what you were looking at before, it was too dark inside."

The ease and convenience of take-and-use and other self-service boxes helped transform the in-store deli into the multi-faceted, consumer-friendly place it is today.

Carolyn Bilger, Marketing Director of Hobart Food Equipment Group in Troy, Ohio, said that the development of meat slicers and other equipment used around it is in the rapid expansion of many value-added deli and prepared food products. Played a vital role.

Bilger said: "More and more shoppers are choosing cooked food instead of going to restaurants or saving time in the kitchen at home." "In addition to these dining options, the retail rush area started to grow before COVID-19 and has been since the pandemic. It is growing exponentially."

She added that more and more people are buying deli meats and cheeses around the deli, instead of lining up at the counter.

Customers now have more choices than ever in preparing fresh meals. Bilger said that the ready-made deli meat and cheese options now include premium options as well as store brands, and the convenience of shoppers today who prefer to choose fresh sliced ​​items without having to line up at the counter matches their busy lifestyle.

Hobart has met this surge in demand with its recently launched partial scale slicer and other products, which integrate weighing equipment into the slicer to improve the efficiency of ready-to-use preparation.

"The user can program the required weight, and the automatic slicer will slice the required amount and pause to allow removal," Bilger said. "After the pause, it will again slice meat or cheese according to the set amount."

The built-in scale of the slicer eliminates the need for users to weigh the number of packages individually, thereby improving the efficiency of the entire process. Hobart research shows that using a portion slicer can save operators up to 40% of the preparation time of 10-pound meat pieces.

Bilger said that growth in the fresh peripheral sector shows no signs of slowing, especially as more and more consumers seek to help create family meal options. She added that Hobart sales representatives like to spend time at retail deli stores across the country, learning from users and understanding their pain points.

"Our goal in product development is to continuously improve our equipment and find solutions to increase the efficiency and satisfaction of the deli staff. This gives them more time to provide meals and deli solutions around."

Marjorie Proctor, a design and marketing expert at Dover Food in Conyers, Georgia, said that in the past few decades, as food retailers strive to win and retain shoppers’ loyalty by offering fresh and healthy options, Grocery stores have the fastest growing retail surroundings, with products ranging from Hillphoenix brand refrigeration systems, power systems and display cabinets to Anthony brand doors.

She said that grocers are always at the forefront of industry technology and provide them with a competitive advantage. They cooperate with manufacturers such as Hillphoenix to change the surrounding environment by exploring new in-store designs and technologies.

This includes lighting, departmental planning, merchandise display, maintaining product integrity and energy efficiency-all of which have helped the grocery industry achieve what it is today.

For Hillphoenix, this journey began 30 years ago when Phoenix Refrigeration, a refrigeration manufacturer, saw the need to acquire a display case company to make forward-looking investments in the entire refrigeration field.

Phoenix then teamed up with Hill Refrigeration to create Hillphoenix. Since then, Hillphoenix's many innovations have helped the surrounding sectors develop and prosper.

Coolgenix display cabinet technology is the most prominent. Coolgenix adopts a secondary coolant conduction design, which can significantly extend product shelf life and significantly reduce product shrinkage in fresh meat and seafood service display cabinets. It is completely different from the convection cooling traditionally used to refrigerate the entire interior of the cabinet. The cooling is not directly concentrated on the product.

Hillphoenix has also made major innovations in natural refrigerant technology. Twenty years ago, the company installed the first test storage using CO2 as an auxiliary fluid.

"With the phasing out of refrigerants, natural refrigerants such as carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons such as R-290 are more important than ever, because as sustainable refrigerants transition to the overall food sustainability plan, environmental issues become The first question," Proctor said. "They have zero impact on the environment, and they are more efficient and economical."

Proctor said that in the past 30 years, especially in the past 15 years, advances in lighting technology have also brought about tremendous changes in the surrounding departments.

That period witnessed the introduction of LEDs, reduction in tube diameters, changes in color temperature, and more direct focusing of light on products to increase contrast.

"Gone are the days of just providing lighting in stores," Proctor said. "For today's surroundings to be successful, it is important for shops to use lighting to tell their stories."

In 2009, Hillphoenix launched the Clearvoyant LED light system, designed specifically for the company's refrigerated display cabinets. Compared with T8 fluorescent lamps, Clearvoyant saves 69% of energy. Proctor says grocers also appreciate the ability to direct light from an angle of 0 to 30°, the low profile of the light bar design, and the variety of color temperatures available depending on the type of food being sold.

As important as lighting, it just sets the stage-merchandising is the star.

"In the past few decades, we have seen product displays become more three-dimensional in terms of protruding displays, falling water products, and vertical displays," Proctor said. "Today, compared with 20 or 30 years ago, most cases have a higher vertical height. This is where the entire refrigeration and storage packaging comes in."

The cabinet and the refrigeration system must be designed to work with all the different merchandise displays, so that they not only look good, but also do their main job-keeping the products fresh.

Proctor said that another technology that has made great progress in recent decades, especially in the past 10 years, is refrigerated door frames.

In the past, it was generally believed that once a product was placed outside the door, sales would be affected. But today, due to improvements in door design and door frame lighting, sales can actually be obtained through the sale of goods behind the glass door.

"Not only does it save a lot of energy, but it also increases the time customers spend buying products in the department due to warmer aisles and wider sales plans."

As the publisher of Supermarket Perimeter, Sosland Publishing Company is ready to celebrate the 100th anniversary of providing timely information, news, and commentary to professionals in the food industry. We will publish a series of articles covering all titles to celebrate the past, present and future of the food industry to feed the world People and industry.