Kroger Opens Spoke Facilities in Nashville and Chicago
The Kroger Co. has announced the official opening of two new spoke facilities in Greater Nashville and the Chicago Metro area. Serving as last-mile cross-dock locations, the new spokes will operate as seamless extensions of regional fulfillment centers, making Kroger Delivery available to more customers in Tennessee and Illinois.
"Kroger Delivery promises an unparalleled shopping and delivery experience, making fresh just one click away at Kroger.com or the Kroger app," said Bill Bennett, Kroger VP and head of e-commerce. "From personalized digital offers to our white glove delivery service, the Kroger seamless ecosystem saves time and money. Kroger Delivery orders are brought to customers in our branded delivery trucks and delivered to their doorstep by our trained and uniformed associates — all with zero compromise."
The approximately 40,000-square-foot facility in Nashville will work in conjunction with the Atlanta fulfillment center, increasing the network's reach to customers up to 200 miles from the hub. The facility is located on Polk Avenue and will employ more than 180 associates.
Located approximately 20 miles west of Chicago in Maywood, Ill., the other spoke facility measures nearly 80,000 square feet and will work concurrently with the fulfillment center in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. The site will likely employ more than 180 associates.
The expansion in Greater Nashville and the Chicago Metro area represents an extension of a partnership between Kroger and Ocado Group, a technology provider for grocery e-commerce. In 2018, the companies announced a collaboration to establish a delivery network that combines artificial intelligence, advanced robotics and automation in a new way, bringing first-of-its-kind technology to the U.S.
"The continued expansion of the Kroger fulfillment network means improved access to fresh food for customers eager for the variety and value offered by Kroger that once could only be accessed through our stores," said Gabriel Arreaga, Kroger's SVP and chief supply chain officer. "This network enables Kroger to add scale, achieve reliability of experience, gain from the benefits of automation and ultimately widen our customer reach in current operating regions and new parts of the U.S."
Kroger currently operates customer fulfillment centers in Monroe, Ohio; Groveland, Fla.; Forest Park, Ga. (Atlanta); Pleasant Prairie, Wis.; Dallas; and Romulus, Mich. (Detroit). Additional customer fulfillment centers are slated for California; Frederick, Md.; Phoenix; Cleveland; Charlotte, N.C.; Aurora, Colo. (Denver); as well as South Florida and the Northeast.
To meet rapidly evolving shopper and associate needs, Kroger recently leveraged OneView’s headless-commerce capabilities – that is, the separation of the front end and the back end of the process – to finalize digital orders via curbside pickup or home delivery. OneView’s Unified Commerce platform enables e-commerce pickup and delivery at more than 1,000 Kroger locations.
Serving 60 million households annually nationwide through a digital shopping experience, and almost 2,800 retail food stores under a variety of banner names, Cincinnati-based Kroger is No. 4 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.
