Alabama Grocer 2022 Issue 4 for Print Final

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NEW RETAIL PERSPECTIVES OUTSIDE THE BOX

Walmart Gets Cute As Americans returned en masse to summer vacation travel, Walmart paired with the startup company Getaway to open tiny, “cute” stores in Big Bear Lake, Calif. and the Catskill Mountains in New York. For the uninitiated, Getaway offers tiny vacation homes in situated in nature. Walmart calls these new store models, “The General Store,” and these diminutive retail establishments feature vacation goods, things you may have forgotten to pack, and local goods. While the notion of a general store conjures up old-timey, wild west imagery, similar neighborhood-based retailing concepts have proved popular over the last decade.

In the Palm of Your Hand Like a Jedi mind-tricking POS, Amazon’s latest frictionless payment concept allows customers to check out with the palm of their hands. That’s right, in 65 California stores Whole Foods shoppers can register their palms in participating locations. After the palm print is set up, store customers simply pay via a palm scan.

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Can You Hear Us Yodeling?

Whether its Korean facemasks, footmasks, or Frownies, it appears nobody can get enough of self-care. So let’s head to the home of fondue where if Mud baths aren’t your thing, but cheese is, you’re in luck. In Switzerland, cheese artisans have taken to offering tourists baths in giant vats of leftover whey. It’s a tradition that goes back centuries to a time when Europeans, who were justifiably over leech treatments, began bathing in whey – believing the soak had restorative effects on their skin. Every kilogram of cheese produced leaves behind nine litres of whey, so there’s plenty to go around.

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