345 Global and Wiliot on fire, Instacart must think bigger than Caper Carts: Brittain Ladd hits Groceryshop

Groceryshop has been taking place this week in Las Vegas. And Brittain Ladd, a supply chain consultant, former Amazon executive and RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencer, has been in attendance.

Here are his key takeaways:

“I enjoy being at Groceryshop because lots of people love to get a few minutes with me and tell me their unfiltered opinions and share confidential information with me. I also use the time to ask questions to executives to confirm certain things their companies are working on or planning to do - confidentially of course. These are the things that I have found the most interesting:

345 Global led by CEO Mark Edwards is on fire. I was the first consultant and analyst to see how special 345 Global is. A senior executive from a retailer who watched a demo of its software at Groceryshop told me, “On a scale of one to ten, the 345 platform is an 11. Every retailer should be using the platform. Meta, Google, Walmart, hell every retailer wishes they had something like 345 Global’s platform but they don’t.”

Wiliot is also a company that is on fire. I was able to speak with multiple sources from Walmart and Amazon who confirmed for me they’re using Wiliot’s tags. I anticipate that Sam's Club will become a Wiliot customer.

I anticipate that the company will sign the majority of grocery and convenience store retailers. Costco Wholesale and Best Buy should become customers.

Instacart and Fidji Simo are both respected but many individuals confided in me that they believe “Instacart doesn’t have any more juice to squeeze. The company isn’t growing.”

Several executives and two industry analysts told me that they believe Instacart needs a new CEO.

Suzy Monford is viewed as the ideal replacement for Simo according to the sources I spoke with. In my opinion, Simo has made a catastrophic error by not doing whatever it takes to convince Uber to acquire Instacart. Pushing Caper Carts isn’t thinking big.

Claire Peters (Vice President Worldwide, Amazon) is losing support internally, according to sources from Amazon. Executives from Amazon’s competitors aren’t impressed with Amazon’s grocery strategy. I am on the record as stating that Amazon Fresh stores aren’t the answer. Andy Jassy needs to make a big move and acquire Publix Super Markets.

I received lots of questions about the Kroger/Albertsons merger. I believe it’s 50/50 that the merger will be approved. I am a big fan of Kroger but I’m not convinced a merger with Albertsons is the right strategy.

I believe Albertsons and Ahold Delhaize USA should merge. The brutal truth is this: Merging two Union companies to compete against the leading grocery retailers who are non-union has failure written all over it. My vote is that Kroger should partner with Temu, or  acquire Casey's or Seven & i Holdings.”

2024 RTIH INNOVATION AWARDS

Grocery retail is a key focus area for the sixth edition of the RTIH Innovation Awards, which is now open for entries.

The awards, sponsored by CADS, 3D Cloud, Brightpearl by Sage’s Lightning 50, and Retail Technology Show 2025, celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Key 2024 dates

Friday, 25th October: Award entry deadline 

Tuesday, 29th October: 2024 shortlist revealed

30th October-6th November: Judging days

Thursday, 21st November: Winners announced at the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards ceremony, to be held at RIBA’s 66 Portland Place HQ in Central London.