📦 How SpartanNash is Digitizing Grocery Merchandising with AI & Robotics | FMI 2025
🎙 OmniTalk Retail Podcast | Live from FMI Conference 2025 🎙
Chris Walton & Anne Mezzenga sit down with Bennett Morgan, EVP & CMO of SpartanNash, live from the Simbe Podcast Studio at FMI 2025, to discuss how automation, robotics, and AI-powered analytics are shaping the future of grocery merchandising. Learn how real-time shelf data, vendor collaboration, and digital inventory tracking are improving in-stock rates, pricing accuracy, and store efficiency.
⏱ Time Stamps & Topics:
🔹 [0:00] – Live from FMI 2025 at the Simbe Robotics Booth
🔹 [1:00] – Meet Bennett Morgan: His background in retail & merchandising
🔹 [2:30] – How SpartanNash operates as both a wholesaler & retailer
🔹 [3:50] – Merchandising trends in grocery: Freshness, health, and convenience
🔹 [4:49] – How AI & robotics are improving pricing, planograms, and inventory
🔹 [6:15] – Expanding Simbe’s Tally robots to 100 stores & how it helps retail operations
🔹 [7:40] – Using robotics to enhance vendor collaboration & optimize shelf stocking
🔹 [9:50] – New AI-powered backroom inventory management with Simbe’s Tally Spot technology
🔹 [12:10] – Why digitizing the shelf is a game-changer for grocery retail
📢 Don’t miss this deep dive into the future of grocery merchandising!
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#retailtrends #fmi #retailstrategy #groceryinnovation
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Transcript
Hello, everyone.
Speaker A:This is Omnitalk Retail.
Speaker A:I'm Chris Walton.
Speaker B:And I'm Anne Mazinga.
Speaker A:And we are coming to you live once again from FMI in sunny Marco island at the Simbi Booth, booth number 108.
Speaker A:We're going to be here all day today, all day tomorrow.
Speaker A:And now I'm going to introduce to you Bennett Morgan, the EVP and chief merchandising officer at Spartan Nash.
Speaker A:Bennett, welcome to omnitalk, and thanks for joining us here at fmi.
Speaker C:Thanks, Chris.
Speaker C:Glad to be here.
Speaker C:Super awesome.
Speaker B:Bennett, tell us a little bit about your role and what exactly you do at Spartan Nash.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker C:So merchandising is what we call it, which means I buy stuff and I sell it and I do a good job.
Speaker B:Imports and exports kind of guy.
Speaker B:Is that what you're telling me?
Speaker C:Well, if I.
Speaker C:If I sell it for more than I buy it for, then I'm doing well.
Speaker A:He's the Art Vandelay of Michigan.
Speaker C:And if I don't, well, I'm not doing it.
Speaker B:Simple enough, simple enough, simple enough.
Speaker B:And what's your background?
Speaker B:What were you doing before Spartan Ash, Tell us a little bit about your career.
Speaker C:So I got into retail as a lowly consultant transformation down in Australia.
Speaker C:That was super fun.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker C:And I decided I don't really want to be a consultant anymore.
Speaker C:I just want to work in the retail business.
Speaker C:So I worked for HEB for a number of years, then Walmart in China with their Asian business, and then I worked with Amazon on their grocery store business in Seattle for a couple years.
Speaker C:And three years of Smart Nash.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker B:You've been in every facet of retail possible, in every place possible.
Speaker C:It seems like hopefully I learned some things.
Speaker A:That's quite the pedigree.
Speaker A:Quite the pedigree.
Speaker A:All right, so since you're a merchandise merchant, you're in merchandising and my background, particularly in merchandising, too.
Speaker A:I'm curious, what trends are you watching right now from a merchant perspective in the grocery industry?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So I think for us, and we are a neighborhood grocery store, so maybe if we take a step back for a second, a lot of folks may not know who Smart Nash is.
Speaker C:Great.
Speaker C:Smart Nash is 70% wholesale, 30% retail.
Speaker C:It's got a number of different components.
Speaker C:$10 billion in total revenue, 20,000 associates.
Speaker C:And within that business, in the wholesale business, you've got three components.
Speaker C:You've got the military business.
Speaker C:Very proud to serve our service women and servicemen across the.
Speaker C:Across the world also service what we call national accounts, which we Amazon, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, these are folks that we help provide distribution for.
Speaker C:And then there's the neighborhood grocery store, which is independent grocers, which I presume you're very familiar with.
Speaker C:And then we have 200 of our own retail stores.
Speaker C:That's a recent jump from about 150 that we had.
Speaker C:So, interestingly, in our business, we have to be good at both retail and we have to be good at wholesale, which makes Spartan National a little bit unique.
Speaker A:And does your job cover all of that?
Speaker A:Where does it begin and end?
Speaker C:Well, most of my business is focused on the independents and the retail business.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I feel.
Speaker C:And the reason is national accounts.
Speaker C:Amazon, they don't need me to help them with merchandising.
Speaker C:And the military also makes their own merchandise.
Speaker C:So I focus mostly on neighborhood grocery stores.
Speaker B:And what do you think of, like, what are your values or your goals as you're thinking about kind of merchandising for across all of those categories at Spartan Ash?
Speaker C:Yeah, I think for us, if you think about the neighborhood grocery store, it kind of ties back to some of the trends that you were talking about.
Speaker C:We think a lot about sort of freshness and health.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker C:Those are things that are big trends for us, important for the folks that we service.
Speaker C:And a lot of the places that we're in, they're smaller towns.
Speaker C:And if you are going to go shop somewhere else, you usually have to drive a while.
Speaker C:So you think a lot about what is the community connection that you get in that grocery store and what is the convenience offering that I have.
Speaker C:And then of course, there's also technology.
Speaker C:So even though we support a lot of smaller grocery stores, their ability to leverage technology shouldn't be worse than what you're able to get in some of the bigger players.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:And we try to bring that both in our own retail stores and for independent customers.
Speaker A:So how are you trying to do that?
Speaker A:Cause that was always a tough battle too.
Speaker A:Like you want to make the assortment more healthy, more nutritious.
Speaker A:What have you found that works in that regard?
Speaker C:Yeah, I think partnering with the vendor community is really important because what we find is they're pretty passionate about it.
Speaker C:And a lot of ways they are able to hit some of these bigger channels, bigger players that are in the market.
Speaker C:They struggle to get into some of these communities that we serve.
Speaker C:And so a lot of it is connecting what we're trying to do for our customers with the capabilities they have and bringing the two together.
Speaker C:So we met with Chobani today.
Speaker C:As an example, something they're very passionate about.
Speaker C:And we were talking about how do we activate some of the programs that they're bringing, bring them to market quickly, and help service folks in those communities.
Speaker A:To get in lockstep with the vendor community to make it happen.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:I'm curious, too.
Speaker A:What kind of technologies are you using in your job, particularly?
Speaker A:I know you guys have invested in robotics.
Speaker A:Tell us about that and how it's working and what benefits you're seeing from it.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So it probably wouldn't surprise you, given my background, that we're doing a lot of things to leverage technology in how we make what you would call merchandising.
Speaker A:Oh, interesting.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So if you think about things like pricing and promotions, how do I leverage technology to do that?
Speaker C:You think about assortment.
Speaker C:How do I leverage technology to do that?
Speaker C:And we service a lot of different communities, so you need to understand what the differences in those communities are.
Speaker C:And so we leverage technology to do that.
Speaker C:Those are all things that the big players have figured out how to do.
Speaker C:And we brought a lot of that to Spartan Ash.
Speaker C:We also recently have expanded our partnership with Simbi, and they have the tally robots.
Speaker C:We've now expanded to 100 of our retail stores, and we have importantly, concentration in our Michigan and Indiana markets, which is the bulk of our.
Speaker C:The bulk of our retail sales come from that area.
Speaker C:We now have 100% coverage in those stores.
Speaker C:So something exciting for us because it.
Speaker C:It digitizes the shelf.
Speaker C:And for us, that's super valuable information to run a great operation and partner with vendors to figure out how to drive sales.
Speaker A:And how does that help you as a merchant?
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker A:Like, that's a key thing that I don't think we've ever talked about on our show, but I want the audience to know, like, how does it help you as a merchant?
Speaker C:Sure, sure.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So one is you can write a plan in the office.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:If that plan's not getting executed well, that's not worth a whole lot.
Speaker C:And so what.
Speaker C:What the customer sees on the shelf is really what matters.
Speaker C:So planogram integrity would.
Speaker A:Integrity.
Speaker C:That would be a big one.
Speaker A:Sleep better at night with that.
Speaker C:Yeah, sleep better at night with that.
Speaker C:Are we actually executing the way that we need to execute it out there in stock would be a big component of that.
Speaker C:So if.
Speaker C:If the plangram's right, but it's not in stock, that's obviously not also not going to work.
Speaker C:And then you think about simple things like price, execution, tag, execution.
Speaker C:Am I actually getting that the parts that we're now leveraging it.
Speaker C:So I think that stuff's sort of in the strike zone for where Tally and Simbi can help you.
Speaker C:I think the part that we're pushing on is how do we leverage it in fresh.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:So I'll give you an example.
Speaker C:When this, when the robot runs around, it's not actually translating that into dashboards right now.
Speaker C:So I figure that's something that'll be coming in the future.
Speaker C:But what I can do is if I see that my sales take, I'm going to pull up the bottom 10% of the store.
Speaker C:Store performance, something you would commonly do.
Speaker C:If I go do that, I can start pulling up images in the store and say, gosh, they're really not setting that the way that they set it.
Speaker C:And we're using that to actually send out field merchants to go work with the stores.
Speaker C:Could be a training issue, could be Right.
Speaker C:Could be a labor issue.
Speaker C:Could be a number of different things that we need to work on.
Speaker A:That's really giving me a facing issue.
Speaker A:I mean, I remember that in my day, like, you know, like it's not.
Speaker A:So it's not selling well.
Speaker A:It's because we didn't, we didn't believe in it.
Speaker A:We didn't put a stand behind it.
Speaker A:You know, that kind of thing can happen too.
Speaker C:Well in fresh, you know, you got to be particularly in fresh, you got to be the right time.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:So if I don't get it at the right time, you put deli chickens out there at 9 o'clock in the morning.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:That's probably not going to work if you're out at 5pm Right.
Speaker C:So I got to get it at the right time.
Speaker A:You have to tell people what they want to buy or what you want them to buy.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:That's a key thing.
Speaker B:Well, Bennett, I'm curious because of the, the different types of retail operations that you have, the different locations that you mentioned, how are you measuring success with some technology like the Simi robots that you're mentioning or even just other, outside of just robotics in store?
Speaker B:Like what are you using to determine, like this was successful.
Speaker B:We should continue to invest in this area.
Speaker C:Two primary ones that we started with.
Speaker C:And the question is, where do we take it from there?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:In stock, it's easy for us to measure.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker C:I've got the robots are running around, they shoot the shelf three times a day.
Speaker C:So it's super easy for me to tell.
Speaker C:Get a real on shelf measurement of what my in stock is.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And we see with this technology that we're improving the in stock on shelf.
Speaker C:So that one's easy.
Speaker C:You can translate to sales.
Speaker C:You can see the in stock improvement.
Speaker C:You know, that's helping you.
Speaker C:The other one is I'm directing labor.
Speaker C:So there are things that the robot's able to scan.
Speaker C:I'm not having to go walk and have somebody go scan the shelf.
Speaker C:I can save that labor and I can direct the work for those folks.
Speaker C:Those would be the two major ones that are going after.
Speaker C:I think that the next frontier I mentioned.
Speaker C:I mentioned fresh, but I think the next frontier is how do we then go partner with vendors?
Speaker C:So we've digitized the shelf.
Speaker C:So what now?
Speaker C:What can I do with the vendor?
Speaker C:Can I help them optimize their DSD network as an example?
Speaker B:Interesting.
Speaker C:Could they help me figure out maybe the planogram is not actually optimized in this area?
Speaker C:They've got a lot of folks.
Speaker C:Some of these vendors have a lot of folks out in the community.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker C:They know it quite well.
Speaker C:They can give us some of the feedback on things that we're doing if we can connect it to where the vendors are at.
Speaker C:So that part.
Speaker C:We're having conversations now actually, at fmi, trying to figure out how do we pair it with where the vendors are at and figure out how to activate that from a.
Speaker C:From a vendor perspective.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:That could unlock a whole host of volume, too.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:I was going to say, I mean, it's really interesting to see the other places outside of the typical reasoning that we see for an investment like a shelf scanning robot.
Speaker B:But you're taking those images and using them in different ways.
Speaker B:You're using them to work off the same sheet of music with the dsds and that kind of thing.
Speaker B:Is there any other areas that you've been able to apply that, too?
Speaker C:I'll tell you the new SPOT technology, which are the stationary.
Speaker A:Oh, Tally Spot.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:These are the new stationary cameras.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:So we're actually testing.
Speaker C:We're doing a lot of work on inventory management.
Speaker C:Everybody.
Speaker C:It's successful is, by the way, obviously, you got to be good at that.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:We're putting those in the back room.
Speaker C:We're trying to figure out how to leverage it in the back room.
Speaker B:Interesting.
Speaker A:And I just went, oh, at the same time.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:So explain that more.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:What do you like?
Speaker A:As much as you can like, what are you doing in the back room?
Speaker A:How are you deploying them?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So Tally's scanning the shelf, which is great.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:I don't have that in any systematic way.
Speaker C:I can actually get that now across 100 stores in our case.
Speaker C:But then I look in the back room, I can now connect what's in the back room to what I'm seeing on the shelf.
Speaker C:Now that's going to take.
Speaker C:You think about things like 5s.
Speaker C:I can use the term 5s, right?
Speaker C:You think about things like 5s.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:You're going to have to execute those things maybe a little bit differently in the back room.
Speaker C:So it's not turnkey.
Speaker C:There's.
Speaker C:There's required process change, but I think the process changes that you're going to follow are ultimately going to make you better.
Speaker C:So enabling the technology and things you're going to do to enable the technology or things you should be doing anyway.
Speaker A:I'm curious too, from a leadership perspective, as you've implemented these technologies, particularly robotics, particularly Talispot, how much time have you had to spend on the process change internally to get the most out of them?
Speaker C:I think, look, have there been things that we've had to adjust our ways of working?
Speaker C:Sure, yeah.
Speaker C:I think the technology actually compared to other technology, things that are pretty hard to implement, this one's been pretty turnkey.
Speaker A:Okay, got it.
Speaker C:Interesting.
Speaker C:So I think this one, look, do I have to.
Speaker C:I have to build the API from my CAO or my ordering system?
Speaker C:I have to build that API into tally for this to function.
Speaker C:So there's work to be done.
Speaker C:I'm not saying there's not work to be done.
Speaker C:And then from a store perspective, we have to define rules.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:So if it's going to scan something, what do you want somebody in the store to do?
Speaker C:So there is a lift in terms of implementing it, but when we talk about adding it, we went to 75 stores this past summer and we just made the decision to take it to another hundred.
Speaker C:Ramping up that next 25 stores, or even going 75 last summer really is not a big lift.
Speaker C:We're able to make that transition relatively easily.
Speaker A:That's really interesting because so much we hear about when people implement technology can come down to internal processes and how well they're able to adapt to what the technology can do.
Speaker A:But you're saying it's pretty straightforward and pretty turnkey.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I've worked in other ways of trying to get at a digitized shelf where it's very restrictive.
Speaker C:So if you look at.
Speaker C:Just walk out as an example, that's a pretty hard technology to work with.
Speaker C:It's very rigid.
Speaker A:And actually, because Not a merchant's best friend.
Speaker C:No it's definitely not.
Speaker C:Well, it's not an operator's best friend.
Speaker A:Yeah, Right.
Speaker C:So it's great if things are perfect.
Speaker C:The problem is it's tough to work within that system.
Speaker C:Whereas I think what Simbi and Tally are doing is they're actually augmenting what you're already doing.
Speaker C:It's not rigid, it's not a constraint.
Speaker C:It's actually helping you power and grow your business.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And, well, we have to give a big thank you to you, Bennett, for taking time.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Big thank you to Simbi because, Chris, this has been already like, we've got.
Speaker A:Some banger interviews so far today.
Speaker B:We're learning so much.
Speaker B:Thank you so much.
Speaker B:If you're here at the show, we'll be here the rest of today and tomorrow at the Simbi booth.
Speaker B:So come say hi.
Speaker B:Check it out.
Speaker B:You might run into someone like Bennett and get to ask them a few questions, but until our next interview, be careful out there.
