Albertsons Taps Afresh Solution for Meat and Seafood Departments Chainwide
Albertsons Cos. has introduced the Afresh platform in the meat and seafood departments at more than 2,200 of the grocer’s banner stores including Safeway, Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Vons and Acme. The Afresh platform aims to enable better decision-making across the fresh supply chain with intelligent and connected solutions built especially for the complexities of fresh food.
Since 2022, Albertsons has successfully collaborated with Afresh in the produce category. Following a successful two-month pilot in the retailer’s meat and seafood departments earlier this year, the Afresh platform began an immediate chainwide rollout to those parts of the store.
“Managing a meat and seafood department is particularly challenging because of the financial implications of shrink,” noted Dain Charette, chief revenue officer at San Francisco-based Afresh. “To meet these challenges, Afresh is leveraging AI at scale to support accurate ordering for complex cutting and production items. Additionally, we are excited about furthering our mission and continuing to support Albertsons’ ESG goal of reducing food waste.”
The platform will permit Albertsons’ meat and seafood associates to keep coolers and freezers light while boosting in-stock rates with AI-driven recommendations for such high-value, super-perishable items as fresh poultry and prefilled order quantities for slower-moving prepackaged items like bacon. Featuring an intuitive, easy-to-use interface and workflows that follow department-specific best practices, the solution enables department managers of any experience level to quickly place profit-maximizing orders.
“At Albertsons, we strive to create a distinctive experience in fresh foods, and our meat and seafood departments are a key component in this strategy,” said Susan Morris, Albertsons’ EVP and COO. “Afresh has enabled our associates to make smarter decisions daily that keep customer favorites in stock and ensure that we are offering them the best-quality freshest product. The Afresh platform also helps our stores to significantly reduce food waste as Albertsons continues to make progress toward our goal to have zero waste going to landfill by 2030.”
Earlier this year, Afresh revealed its expansion beyond produce into other core fresh departments, among them meat, seafood, deli and foodservice.
Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons operates more than 2,200 retail stores with 1,700-plus pharmacies, 402 associated fuel centers, 22 dedicated distribution centers and 19 manufacturing facilities. It has stores across 34 states and the District of Columbia under 24 banners, among them Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen, Carrs, Kings Food Markets and Balducci’s Food Lovers Market. Albertsons is No. 9 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2023 list of top food and consumables retailers in North America. PG also named the company one of its Retailers of the Century.
