A-I — or is it ‘aye’ as in, “Aye, matey”?
I have only casual exposure to how AI, or artificial intelligence, is affecting grocers today.
The floral clerk at my neighborhood store explained what she was doing with her handheld phone-like device last week as I waited for my better half to buy a plant.
“I scan the bar code on this sheet, then add my desired case quantity,” she said.
“Pretty cool,” I responded. I mentioned how that would have helped when I worked as a produce manager and told her how we used to have to key-enter the entire long product number, followed by the quantity.
“Too easy to make mistakes that way.” I thought further about the time I keyed in 22 cases of garlic instead of just two. I received all 22 all right. Whoops.
On another occasion, I observed a produce clerk moving through the upright packaged salad case. He was scanning bar codes on the shelf. When I asked if that’s how he made an order, he said this was a fast way of making a list of what products he needed to retrieve from the cooler in order to stock the case.
Ah, so this is the future, I thought. No more writing a needs list with pesky pencil and paper.
I can see how AI can be especially helpful in a pinch. I assume that chains have in place a way for a produce department to receive an order in case the produce manager ever misses a deadline due to sickness, bad weather or whatever caused the no-order emergency.
AI, in this case, can automatically generate an order based on order history. It wouldn’t be as accurate as if the produce manager were doing it, but it would prevent the store from not receiving anything at all, avoiding a merchandising crisis.
Come to think of it, we also had an “emergency order” in place back in the day, but it was a primitive model, at best.
AI is a great tool, but the human factor must remain. I have a niece who is a produce manager now, and she recently said that while “the computer” offers suggested order quantities, the data is based on the prior year averages.
“We’re doing way more business this year,” she said. “If I went with what the computer said I needed, we’d run out of everything midday.”
In case you think this is my awkward, “golly, what-will-they-think-of-next” moment, well, think again.
AI may indeed be poised to deliver miracles beyond our imagination when it comes to medicine, fabrication, space exploration, etc., but in the humble grocery business are produce department managers who still hold the upper hand when it comes to applying good old common sense.
I can think of what happens during the course of merchandising and ordering. Sudden inclement weather, crop volume upticks or shortages, price, quality, local harvest periods, something like stores participating in a college festival weekend or a how a store hosting a chili roasting event outdoors can affect customer traffic — and with this, anticipated order volume — are all factors in which AI would have little clue to be of any assistance.
I once covered for Rick, a fellow buyer at a foodservice company. I ordered the wet salads category per his instructions and used the AI-provided suggested order.
“Don’t worry,” he assured me. “When I return on Monday, I’ll make the quantity adjustments.”
Well, guess who got laid off the following Monday morning? Rick.
In all the confusion, Rick’s wet salads arrived as ordered. After a few weeks passed, we were long on many items and faced a hefty amount of shrink. Rick’s order wasn’t adjusted because he wasn’t around to fix it. So much for AI, right?
It was my buyer number that was connected to the order, but if the right person was in the right place to intervene — well, that’s how that story ended.
So yeah, AI is a great tool to have and to continue to use (with caution).
Armand Lobato’s more than 50 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions. He is retired from the Idaho Potato Commission and has written a weekly retail column for nearly two decades.