Foodtown of Washington Heights Makes All the Right Technology Moves

When it came to installing technology solutions in Foodtown of Washington Heights, the location opted to concentrate on enabling shoppers to navigate the structure without difficulty.

“Much of the technology in this store is focused on moving customers throughout this two-level facility, and reflects services that you wouldn’t normally see in a neighborhood store,” explains John T. Derderian, president of Iselin, N.J.-based Allegiance Retail Services, a retail cooperative whose members operate 80-plus stores in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania under the Foodtown banner. “Two escalators (up/down) and two industrial elevators are strategically placed to move shoppers easily from one floor to the other. The escalators can move shoppers to the second floor and back who are just shopping for an express-sized order and can utilize a hand basket, or provide access if they are eating at the food court, while the elevators move shoppers who are there for a big shop, so they can easily move about the store with full shopping carts. Beyond Wi-Fi and product/advertising video monitors, the focus of the technology in this store was about moving shoppers easily about the store.”