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BrightDrop Trace Grocery Launched As Temperature-Controlled eCart

BrightDrop just unveiled Trace Grocery, a new temperature-controlled eCart designed to streamline the order fulfillment and pickup process for online grocery purchases. American supermarket company Kroger will be the first to introduce BrightDrop Trace Grocery into its e-commerce operations following a successful product pilot.

GM launched BrightDrop in 2021 as an ecosystem of last-mile delivery solutions, software, and services, offering, among other things, the BrightDrop Trace (previously known as the BrightDrop EP1) electrically assisted cargo pallet. Now, BrightDrop is offering Trace Grocery as a solution for the rapid expansion of online grocery shopping.

According to BrightDrop President and CEO Travis Katz, online grocery shopping saw a significant increase in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, fulfilling online orders can be a challenge for retailers.

“With the Trace Grocery, we saw an opportunity to help companies like Kroger tackle these challenges head on,” Katz said. “As online shopping continues to grow, BrightDrop is committed to developing innovative solutions to help our customers keep pace.”

Based on the BrightDrop Trace Platform, Trace Grocery features temperature management to safely store food for up to four hours, as well as electric propulsion assistance to move as much as 350 pounds at walking speeds up to 3 mph. Trace Grocery also features nine separate storage compartments to organize items by order, temperature, and product type, as well as weatherproofing to suit a variety of temperatures and outdoor elements.

BrightDrop and Kroger recently completed a pilot program for Trace Grocery in Lexington and Versailles, Kentucky. According to BrightDrop, Kroger saw a “noticeable improvement in the customer and associate experience,” and as such, the company will be the first Trace Grocery customer, set to receive the first units later this year.

BrightDrop states that online grocery retail is expected to rapidly expand in the future, reaching $240 billion by 2025.

Further BrightDrop products include the BrightDrop Zevo 600 all-electric delivery van (previously known as the BrightDrop EV600), the first units of which are already in operation in California.

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Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. Great, now these things are going to be in the way and clogging the grocery store isles for in person shoppers?

    Reply
    1. This has nothing to do with grocery store isles. READ the article. Its for online shoppers that will get their items delivered to their homes. Proper temperatures will hold foods to their optimum.

      Reply
      1. I believe the store clerks run these up and down the isles as they pick the items for online orders.

        Reply
        1. You believe but you are not sure. Nowhere does it say that these will be used in store isles.

          Reply
    2. They are no different in size from the multi-bin rack carts the by-hand grocery pickers are using now. Just do what I do when at the supermarket: steer around the rack cart, or in this case, the electric cart, and go on about your business.

      Reply
  2. Lovely more crap to isolate and depress people even more than they are now, kill more jobs, clog up existing stores and eventual empty building eyesores to look at. What’s next a box with piped in oxygen, your cell phone and video game entertainment that you never have to leave?

    Reply
  3. Only good thing is at least it will keep items refrigerated.

    Reply

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