Albertsons Cos. Opts for Afresh’s AI Platform

Albertsons Cos. plans to adopt Afresh Technologies’ artificial intelligence-powered predictive ordering and inventory solutions to reduce waste and offer the freshest product to customers. Afresh’s state-of-the-art AI technology in all of Albertsons’ stores will help the grocer optimize fresh forecasting, inventory, ordering, merchandising and operations while ultimately lowering greenhouse-gas emissions and saving water.

“By partnering with Afresh, we are now able to improve our processes to better manage our fresh product supply and provide our store teams with a tool to better predict demand and monitor inventory,” said Susan Morris, Albertsons’ EVP and COO. “Managing these variables ultimately allows us to offer our customers even higher-quality fresh products and further reduce our food waste.”  

As one of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Loss and Waste Champions, Albertsons aims to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030. Additionally, the company has pledged to set a science-based carbon reduction goal, and food waste will help reduce the carbon footprint within its value chain. 

“We know that fresh food drives the global grocery industry, yet the lack of technology for fresh departments causes immense food waste and expensive losses,” noted Matt Schwartz, CEO and co-founder of San Francisco-based Afresh. “We’re honored to support Albertsons Cos.’ investment in, and demonstrated velocity of, technology and innovation, which is making the grocery experience better and more efficient for both the retailer and its shoppers.” 

Founded in 2017 with the mission to eliminate food waste and make fresh food accessible to all, Afresh has grown rapidly with grocery customers across the United States. It currently has partnerships with grocers in more than 3,000 stores and 40 states, including WinCo Foods, Heinen’s, Save Mart, Bashas’ and Cub Foods. 

According to a survey commissioned last year by Afresh, consumers want to shop at retailers that are committed to fixing the global issue of food waste. Almost 60% of respondents to the survey, which was conducted byWaterford, N.Y.-basedMomentive, said that they’re extremely or very concerned about food waste, with another 36% of people saying that they're somewhat concerned. This concern manifests in their trying to reduce food waste at home (86%) and while dining out (57%). A little more than half (52%) try to reduce food waste while grocery shopping, an idea that significantly increased once they realized the magnitude of the food waste issue at retail.

Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons operates more than 2,200 retail stores with 1,700-plus pharmacies, 400 associated fuel centers, 22 dedicated distribution centers and 20 manufacturing facilities. It operates stores across 34 states and the District of Columbia under more than 20 well-known 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. 8 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America