Kroger has announced the official opening of the Customer Fulfillment Center (CFC) inForest Park, GA, a city south ofAtlanta, powered by Ocado Group, a world leader in technology for grocery e-commerce. This marks an expansion of Kroger’s national fulfillment network, providing the region with an e-commerce delivery service that combines vertical integration, machine learning and robotics with affordable, friendly and fast delivery of grocery items and fresh food.
“We’re proud to launch Kroger Delivery in metroAtlantawith future expansion plans throughoutGeorgiaand beyond, a true milestone moment further accelerating our ability to provide our customers with fresh food on their doorsteps and create more job opportunities,” saidGabriel Arreaga, Kroger’s senior vice president and chief supply chain officer. “We greatly appreciate the support of GovernorBrian Kemp, the Georgia Department of Economic Development,Clayton CountyBoard of Commissioners and Forest ParkMayorAngelyne Butler. This group’s collaboration and commitment has provided the infrastructure to advance an innovative and industry-leading e-commerce operation, providing groceries to homes across the region, including in communities without physical stores.”
Kroger Delivery Customer Experience
After placing an order via Kroger.com or the Kroger app, customers in regions where a CFC is located have groceries delivered by a knowledgeable Kroger Delivery associate in a temperature-controlled van. The associate delivers industry-leading customer service, including ensuring order freshness and satisfaction, managing order changes and informing customers of loyalty membership benefits like digital coupon savings and fuel points through a partnership with Shell®.
“Kroger is uniquely positioned to transform grocery e-commerce throughout the region using a vertically integrated network to provide a reliable and consistent fresh food delivery service that repeatedly receives favorable customer feedback like a best-in-class Net Promoter Score,” saidBill Bennett, Kroger vice president and head of e-commerce. “Kroger’s unique service delivers fresh food, household essentials and personal care for as little as$6.95.”
The opening of the Forest Park CFC follows another e-commerce achievement for the retailer in the area, the recent launch of the Boost by Kroger Plus annual membership program. For either$59or$99per year, Boost provides customers access to benefits like free delivery and the opportunity to earn up to$1off per gallon of fuel twice as often.
Additionally, during the launch period, new e-commerce customers are invited to try the service and receive$15off their first three delivery orders of$75or more using thispromotional link.
Kroger Delivery Operations
The launch in metroAtlantarepresents an extension of a partnership between Kroger and Ocado. In 2018, the companies announced a collaboration to establish a delivery network that combines artificial intelligence, advanced robotics and automation in a bold new way, bringingfirst-of-its-kind technology to America.
The Forest Park CFC carries thousands of popular grocery products and represents one of the models engineered for the flexible Kroger fulfillment network. The CFC can fulfill thousands of orders per day.
Kroger Delivery is a vertically integrated network, enabling coverage of up to 90 miles from the hub location inForest Park. In these highly automated CFCs, more than 1,000 bots whizz around giant 3D grids, orchestrated by proprietary air-traffic control systems in the unlicensed spectrum. The grid, known as The Hive, contains totes with products and ready-to-deliver customer orders.
As customers’ orders near their delivery times, the bots retrieve products from The Hive which are presented at stations for items to be sorted for delivery, a process governed by algorithms that ensures items are intelligently sorted. For example, fragile items are placed on top, bags are evenly weighted, and each order is optimized to fit into the fewest number of bags, reducing plastic use.
Once completed, orders are loaded into a temperature-controlled Kroger Delivery van, which can store up to 20 orders. Powerful machine learning algorithms dynamically optimize delivery routes, considering factors like road conditions and optimal fuel efficiency.
“Kroger Delivery provides reliably fresh food in a convenient, innovative way. We are excited to deliver Kroger’s exclusive brands, including Simple Truth®, the country’s largest natural and organic private label and Private Selection®throughout metroAtlanta,” saidDavid Matthews, Kroger’s general manager of the Forest Park Customer Fulfillment Center. “The new Customer Fulfillment Center will introduce Kroger Delivery to both existing and new customers, accelerate our e-commerce capabilities and create hundreds of new career opportunities from our centralized location here inForest Park.”
Kroger Delivery Associate Experience
Talent on Kroger’s supply chain, technology and digital, data and analytics, human resources, operations and merchandising teams are partnering to design the Kroger Delivery network. At every CFC, on-site associates support delivery operations and help process, package and load orders. The Forest Park CFC currently employs more than 250 associates and continues to hire, with roles focusing on customer service and engagement, engineering, operations, inventory and quality management and transportation. To view available careers, click here.
“Kroger and Ocado are revolutionizing the online grocery landscape across the US. This CFC brings some of the most innovative technology available anywhere in the world to the heart ofGeorgia, enhancing Kroger’s online ecosystem in the state and delivering a market-leading quality of service online to Kroger customers here. It is also generating amazing opportunities for engineers based inAtlantato work with cutting-edge robotics and AI systems, enabling essential grocery services for communities across the state,”saidLuke Jensen, CEO Ocado Solutions.
TheForest Parklocation joins CFCs inGroveland, FLandMonroe, OH. The fulfillment network plans additional Customer Fulfillment Centers inCalifornia,Dallas, TX,Frederick, MD,Phoenix, AZ,Pleasant Prairie, WI,Romulus, MI, as well asSouth Floridaand the Northeast.
