Wakefern Food Corp. provides agentic AI support to fresh buyers
The nation’s largest retailer-owned cooperative is assisting its fresh product buyers with leading-edge artificial intelligence technology.
Wakefern Food Corp. is among the first grocery retailers to deploy the new Afresh Fresh Buying solution. The solution leverages agentic AI to orchestrate forecasting, vendor selection, truck building, and issue resolution into one seamless, intelligent workflow for fresh buyers.
Wakefern, which operates supermarket banners including ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace, The Fresh Grocer, Morton Williams, and Fairway Market, will deploy the Fresh Buying solution across its produce, meat, seafood, deli, and bakery distribution centers.
As a result, the retailer hopes to help buyers prioritize daily tasks in distribution center-level operations by automating routine decisions and issue resolution to maximize service levels, freshness and margin, freeing up buyers to focus more on areas such as managing relationships with local growers and suppliers.
"Wakefern has a proud legacy of investing in fresh—from partnering with local farmers to embracing best-in-class technology," said Darren Caudill, chief sales officer at Wakefern. "This kind of innovation is poised to transform the industry — and Wakefern is committed to leading that transformation."
Key capabilities of the new fresh buying solution include AI-enabled replenishment, real-time flagging of fresh supply chain disruptions with suggested fixes, real-time decision modeling, and recommendations for daily priorities.
"Afresh was founded with a simple conviction: fresh is different — it demands purpose-built technology," said Matt Schwartz, CEO of Afresh. "Together with Wakefern, we're modernizing how fresh moves through the supply chain — making it easier to get the right products to the right stores, at the right time, with less waste."
Wakefern AI-enables its enterprise
Wakefern also recently began leveraging AI to better target shoppers with individualized offers. The company is implementing the Birdzi customer intelligence platform and Visper AI-driven personalized campaign engine.
By combining Visper with the Birdzi platform’s shopper analytics and forecasting and planning capabilities, Wakefern banners including ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace and The Fresh Grocers seek to enhance and scale their personalized marketing campaigns.
Other examples of Wakefern utilizing advanced AI technologies include its continuing expansion of automated shelf-scanning robots across locations of its ShopRite banner.
[READ MORE: ShopRite parent expands inventory robots to more stores]
Wakefern Food Corp. members include more than 360 grocery stores in nine states across a variety of banners that include ShopRite, Price Rite, The Fresh Grocer, Dearborn Market, Gourmet Garage and Fairway Market.
