Vallarta Supermarkets automates detection of soon-to-expire products
A Hispanic-focused California grocer is tackling the issue of food waste with some help from artificial intelligence.
Vallarta Supermarkets is the first North American retailer to deploy the Smartway food waste management system that lets store personnel automatically detects items approaching their expiration date using its built-in AI capabilities.
The Smartway solution enables rapid and targeted identification of products to be processed, providing benefits including time savings for store personnel, reduced losses of expired products, and preservation of margins, without disrupting or complicating existing processes. In addition, corporate headquarters now has real-time visibility into daily store operations.
"We had a previous solution for this, with more complexity, many things had to be taken care of manually,” said Rodrigo Jimenez, director shelf edge at Vallarta Supermarkets. “With Smartway, everything is running smoothly from the very first time we went to the first store.”
Vallarta deployed the solution across 39 stores in six months, with rollout at its remaining 34 stores in five weeks. The grocer uses the technology in its center store grocery, deli, frozen and dairy departments.
The implementation project followed a structured approach of three to four months for pilot phase with five stores and validation, one month for preparation and planning alignment, and then an intensive five-week deployment across the remaining stores.
"To have a real global impact on food waste, it is unthinkable not to address the United States," said Christophe and Paul-Adrien Menez, co-founders of Smartway. “This country concentrates both colossal surpluses and pockets of food insecurity: the stakes there are immense. By establishing an initial partnership with Vallarta, a player as committed as it is emblematic in California, we are taking a key step in our international development, demonstrating that transformation is possible, even on a large scale."
Results of store employee surveys indicate high degrees of user engagement and satisfaction, according to Vallarta.
The Smartway deployment is not Vallarta’s only AI-driven effort to help ensure product freshness and availability. The retailer also uses the AI-powered Logile Fresh Item Management technology at its store locations. The solution’s advanced forecasting models leverage AI and machine learning to predict fresh item demand with accuracy of up to 97%.
[READ MORE: Vallarta Supermarkets deploys AI solutions for fresh food management]
Headquartered in Santa Clarita, Vallarta operates approximately 55 stores throughout California with a soon-to-open store in Glendale, Ariz.
