Week 4 of March Tells Similar Story
If March’s retail sales are anything, they’re consistent. Unfortunately that means that week 4 was another down week according to the latest survey of independent grocers.
Same store sales in the fourth week of March were down 1.41 percent and customer counts were down 2.25 percent.
Tomorrow the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its March unemployment report. Initial estimates from other organizations put growth somewhere in the mid 200,000s, which would be solid continued growth after last month’s very positive 300k+ report.
While some retailers are contemplating whether to get into the e-commerce space to compete with larger chains like Amazon and Walmart, some tech companies are looking for ways to use e-commerce to cut the retailer out from the interaction altogether. Tech startup INS Ecosystem is developing a blockchain platform that would connect manufacturers directly with consumers and therefore turn the grocery buying experience from a “push” system from the retailer to a “pull” from the consumer.
For the unfamiliar, “blockchain” describes a digital ledger of information that’s shared among a peer to peer network, which validates the contents. By leaving the regulation up to those using it and making it extremely resistant to tampering, it in effect deregulates transactions. Bitcoin, the digital currency without a central bank regulating it is the most commonly known use of blockchain technology.
INS Ecosystem describes two problems in the grocery industry: large grocery retailers like Walmart and Kroger as having too much leverage over manufacturers, which leads to higher prices, and the need to reduce stock outs leads to enormous food waste. INS intends to make the supply chain more transparent for all parties, down to the consumer.
INS Ecosystem claims that by the grocery industry adopting blockchain tech, it would benefit retailers by allowing them to better vet their vendors, but ultimately the company’s goal is to connect consumers directly with the manufacturers, identifying retail as one of the “middlemen” that can be eliminated.
What do you think? Is an opaque supply chain leaving you unsure of the quality of goods you’re getting from your manufacturer? If it’s true that the big retail chains have too much leverage over their manufacturers, where does that leave independents?