ShopRite Pilots AI Meal Planning Solution

Originally published by Progressive Grocer:

Wakefern Food Corp. has partnered with Locai Solutions to offer CookIt, a customized menu planning and food shopping solution, to its banners. CookIt has already launched a pilot with ShopRite and plans to expand to The Fresh Grocer later this year. 

CookIt technology provides personalized recipes, ingredient recommendations and meal costs to shoppers based on the items in their online shopping carts. It considers a shopper's dietary preferences and seasonal ingredients when providing the recipes. 

ShopRite customers in Connecticut can currently explore the new technology through The Recipe Shop to get those personalized recipe suggestions. The Recipe Shop also gives the price of the recommended recipe, and customers can choose from nearly 500 CookIt recipes.

"The CookIt technology powers our Recipe Shop to send customers delicious and practical recipes based on the pantry staples they are already shopping for in-store. The technology simplifies meal planning and makes recipe shopping easier and more cost-effective," said Steve Henig, Wakefern's chief customer officer.

"We're excited to partner on CookIt with Wakefern under both their ShopRite and The Fresh Grocer banners," said Mike Demko, CEO of Denver-based Locai. "They put a high value on what their brands deliver, and the addition of our CookIt product to their online shopping platform will further elevate the customer experience for both online and in-store shoppers."

The largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States, Keasbey, N.J.-based Wakefern comprises 50 members that independently own and operate 353 supermarkets under the ShopRite, The Fresh Grocer, Price Rite Marketplace and Dearborn Market banners in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Virginia. Together with its member companies, Wakefern, which is No. 8 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States, employs more than 70,000 people, and is one of the largest employers in New Jersey.