Fareway Stores, a growing Midwest grocery company, currently operates more than 130 stores in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Missouri and Kansas. Ensuring a superior customer experience is one of their top priorities. To make sure their shelves are stocked with what customers need, the flow of products from producers and manufacturers must be proactively managed. Fareway had been using clipboards, paper and pens on the store floor to gather shelf levels and compliance information for later entry. To stay competitive, Fareway knew they needed to streamline its operation by eliminating this manual process. They found that the process took too much time, was prone to errors and made it difficult to share data.
Challenge: A mobile solution that would hold up in demanding retail use
“We were looking for a rugged solution, something that would hold up in demanding retail use. I worked in the meat department for a long time before taking on the role to manage our technology so I know that we’re not necessarily easy on electronics,” said Zach Lane, Fareway IT Director.
After successfully supplying mounted rugged iPads in each of the grocer’s trucks in 2019, Fareway again looked to MobileDemand for a rugged solution when adding iPads to their in-store operations.
Cost Saving Results
The solution enabled each store to reduce time and improve accuracy by automating many processes including recording compliance check information. Lane estimates a savings of an hour a day across each of their stores which is 40,700 hours saved every year. Lane added that they eliminated the use of multiple sheets of paper daily and the inefficient back and forth of writing order information down and walking back to the office to input. “The iPads have made us more efficient,” said Lane.
Lane says they continue to find more ways to utilize their MobileDemand bundled iPad solution for each of their stores and trucks.
Download the full case study to learn how Fareway improves productivity by 40,700 hours annually.