Alabama Grocer 2022 Issue 4 for Print Final

TheGreatAcceleration

M id-January 2020, I was in Shanghai on a business trip exploring the latest consumer consumption trends and how corporations were leveraging emerging technologies processes to meet them. Little did I know as I boarded a plane back home to North America that I was just a few days ahead of one of the greatest technology adoption accelerations: the global pandemic. I spent the following weeks and months in constant contact with my Asian, then European, and finally North American networks as the pandemic rapidly expanded worldwide. Within this time, I learned and shared how businesses were adapting (read: surviving) to lockdowns and other extraordinary measures that radically changed the paths to purchase, plus their fulfillment.

By Carl Boutet

24 | ALABAMA GROCER