Kristin Popp Talks Robotics and the Secrets Behind Woodman's Success
Kristin Popp, the Executive Vice President of Woodman's Food Markets, joins Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga, live from the VusionGroup Studio at Groceryshop, to discuss the unique operational model of Woodman's, known for its large-scale grocery stores that focus exclusively on groceries. With an impressive 27 years of experience at the organization, Kristin shares insights into the company's innovative approach, particularly highlighting their successful robot program that enhances efficiency in their stores. The conversation delves into the impact of technology on grocery retail, including the potential applications of generative AI, which Woodman's is cautiously exploring. As the company prepares for growth with a new store opening in Racine, Kristin emphasizes the importance of staying curious and open to new opportunities in the ever-evolving retail landscape. Tune in to hear about the exciting developments at Woodman's and their commitment to providing consumers with a vast selection at great value.
Takeaways:
- Kristin Popp has been with Woodman's Food Markets for 27 years, gaining extensive experience across various departments.
- Woodman's operates large grocery stores, averaging 235,000 square feet, focusing exclusively on grocery items.
- The company prioritizes technology, particularly their innovative robot program that enhances operational efficiency.
- Generative AI is an area of interest for Woodman's, though they are still exploring its applications.
- The upcoming store opening in Racine represents Woodman's commitment to growth after recent challenges.
- Kristin emphasizes the importance of learning from both team members and customers in their operations.
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Transcript
Hello, everyone.
Chris Walton:This is Omnitalk Retail.
Chris Walton:I'm Chris Walton.
Ann Mazinga:And I'm Ann Mazinga.
Chris Walton:And we are coming to you live from grocery shop from the fusion group's booth, booth number a two 10.
Chris Walton:Come on by.
Chris Walton:We'll be here all week, the next couple days, recording tons and tons of interviews.
Chris Walton:And up first today, I am excited to introduce our first guest at grocery shop, Kristin Pop, the executive vice president of Woodman's food markets.
Chris Walton:Kristen, welcome to Omnitalk.
Kristin Pop:Thank you, Chris.
Kristin Pop:Thanks for having me.
Kristin Pop:I'm excited to be here.
Chris Walton:It's great to have you.
Chris Walton:We've been.
Chris Walton:We've been trying to make this happen for a while.
Kristin Pop:Right.
Chris Walton:This has been in the works for, like, almost four or five months, and now we're here.
Chris Walton:It's great.
Ann Mazinga:Well, Kristen, let's start by getting a little bit of your background and then tell the listeners who might not know about Woodman's a little bit about the operation, because it's pretty unique, right?
Kristin Pop:Sure.
Kristin Pop:Yeah.
Kristin Pop:And absolutely.
Kristin Pop:So like you said, Kristen Patton, the executive vice president for Woodman's food markets, I've actually been with the organization now for about 27 years, so, learned a lot.
Kristin Pop:I've been through the HR side, the accounting side, and the operations side, and so now I'm done basically responsible for all things and just keep, you know, keep things moving along.
Ann Mazinga:What do you like about the organization?
Ann Mazinga:You've been there for a while.
Ann Mazinga:Like, what's kept you hanging on?
Kristin Pop:I mean, I know it sounds cliche, but obviously the people.
Kristin Pop:Yeah.
Kristin Pop:You know, both our, both our consumer and our team members, I just.
Kristin Pop:I love the opportunity to learn from them, grow with them, you know, interact with them, and it's fantastic.
Ann Mazinga:And what's really unique about the Woodman's operation, like, dive into that a little bit for some of the audience.
Kristin Pop:Yeah, absolutely.
Kristin Pop:So we're a different format than I think most would realize.
Kristin Pop:And actually, I've had a couple conversations with some people here about what our format is.
Kristin Pop:So we're about a 235,000 square foot average store.
Kristin Pop:Wow, that's pretty big.
Ann Mazinga:I mean, it's a good size on average.
Kristin Pop:Yes, it's big.
Kristin Pop:And we operate one format, so we don't have a smaller format, but we sell only groceries, so we aren't operating.
Kristin Pop:We aren't offering soft lines, electronics, not your clothing.
Kristin Pop:We have your standard departments, and our model is biggest selection at the best value we can bring to our customers.
Kristin Pop:So lots of items to pick from.
Kristin Pop:I always, you know, it's interesting to me when we're in the stores and I hear, I've never seen this much cheese or I've never seen this much x, y, or z.
Kristin Pop:You know, everybody has their thing that they go to the store and look for in our stores.
Kristin Pop:You can find whatever it is in that aisle that you need.
Chris Walton:Are you, like, job well done?
Chris Walton:When you hear people say that?
Chris Walton:That's gotta be great.
Chris Walton:I've never seen so much cheese.
Chris Walton:That's awesome.
Chris Walton:All right, so this is your.
Chris Walton:I know this.
Chris Walton:Cause we've talked in the past, but this is your first time at grocery shop as well, right?
Kristin Pop:It is.
Chris Walton:What brought you here?
Chris Walton:Why do you wanna try this out?
Kristin Pop:Why?
Chris Walton:Is this your maiden grocery shop voyage?
Kristin Pop:So, actually, a couple things.
Kristin Pop:I had the opportunity to connect with the grocery shop team.
Kristin Pop:Wonderful team.
Kristin Pop:Love talking to them.
Kristin Pop:And they gave me the opportunity to attend.
Kristin Pop:Just check it out from a couple different perspectives.
Kristin Pop:Our marketing director has been here for several years, and so when I talked to him about the opportunity, he's like, absolutely.
Kristin Pop:You gotta come.
Kristin Pop:It's a wonderful event.
Kristin Pop:You're gonna love it.
Kristin Pop:Come check it out.
Ann Mazinga:So, well, in addition to Woodman's being one of the largest grocery store boxes that I think I've ever heard.
Kristin Pop:Right.
Ann Mazinga:We also.
Ann Mazinga:We know you because you are, I think, one of the most technologically advanced retailers that we've talked to and continue to follow.
Ann Mazinga:What would you say are kind of the technologies that Woodman's is focused on right now, that one you're most proud of, and two, have delivered the best Roi for you?
Ann Mazinga:Because that's kind of the theme of this conference here right now, is paying.
Kristin Pop:Off some of these technology investments.
Kristin Pop:Absolutely.
Kristin Pop:And we are an innovative company.
Chris Walton:You are 100% sure we have the.
Kristin Pop:Opportunity to do that, just being the independent that we are and employee owned company, too.
Kristin Pop:So we try and be at the forefront of a lot of the different technologies that come out.
Kristin Pop:I think one of the biggest ones right now that I talk about a lot is our robot program.
Kristin Pop:So, actually, our partners are here with that program, badger technologies, and we've worked with them for several years, but we've really built that out in a lot of different ways.
Kristin Pop:And we have a team member on our team that's very passionate about it.
Kristin Pop:And so we're always looking at opportunities and how we can utilize the information out of there to become innovative with them and more efficient and effective at what we're doing.
Kristin Pop:And I think that's been a great partnership.
Ann Mazinga:What did you start to do with the robots when you first rolled them out.
Ann Mazinga:And what is it now doing for you in the store?
Ann Mazinga:I'm always curious because it's like, all these technologies we've been talking about, Chris, for so long, it's like, now they're building on them.
Ann Mazinga:So cool.
Chris Walton:And Woodman's was one of the first people in the water on robotics, quite honestly.
Kristin Pop:Yeah.
Chris Walton:And I remember, I actually, I think I interviewed that gentleman on your team about four or five.
Chris Walton:You guys have had it for like, four or five years.
Chris Walton:Right, as well, so.
Chris Walton:Yeah, that's a great question, Anne.
Kristin Pop:Yeah, it is a great question.
Kristin Pop:Because I don't know if I remember why we originally brought them on.
Kristin Pop:We've grown them.
Kristin Pop:Many reasons.
Kristin Pop:Different ways.
Kristin Pop:Yeah.
Kristin Pop:Yeah.
Kristin Pop:I think, you know, originally, it was scanning our shelves to look at the opportunities that we see, whether it's through the set pictures, you know, but now we can do price verification.
Kristin Pop:Right.
Kristin Pop:We can look at our out of stocks with them.
Kristin Pop:Our pricing team loves them because they lay out the map being such large stores.
Ann Mazinga:Yeah.
Kristin Pop:Now they get a more effective way to run through the stores and do their work because it's leading them through the aisles and the path that they need to go in.
Chris Walton:Right.
Chris Walton:Well, and that's funny that you said that, too, because, you know, in a lot of ways, and I'm sure, I'm guessing you guys feel the same way, because a lot of the grocers we talked to that have deployed robotics, they.
Chris Walton:They basically are of the opinion, like, they would never take it out of their store.
Chris Walton:Like, it's just that integral a part of their operations.
Chris Walton:Now, would you say the same thing?
Kristin Pop:Absolutely.
Kristin Pop:And I think, you know, we did a rollout of them.
Kristin Pop:We didn't deploy them in all of our stores at the same times.
Kristin Pop:The same time, which I think was effective.
Kristin Pop:But we had stores calling, when do I get mine?
Kristin Pop:When do I get mine?
Kristin Pop:Because they were hearing how effective they were and how they were helping people do their job and just be more efficient at it.
Chris Walton:Right.
Chris Walton:Yeah.
Chris Walton:And helps, you know, allocate that payroll, too, so that they can do the things in the jobs that they want to do across the chain.
Chris Walton:I imagine this gotta be key.
Kristin Pop:It allows them to do different things and be a little bit more proactive on some of their work versus just trying to play catch up all of.
Ann Mazinga:The time, especially in a 235,000.
Chris Walton:Yeah.
Chris Walton:Right.
Chris Walton:I imagine there's a lot of work to do.
Chris Walton:Yeah, right.
Kristin Pop:Footprint.
Kristin Pop:Yeah, there's a big footprint.
Ann Mazinga:We can make some robots to help out on that floor walk.
Kristin Pop:We can make it more efficient in how they walk.
Chris Walton:Right.
Chris Walton:All right.
Chris Walton:So I think Ann and I would lose our journalist card if we didn't ask you this next question.
Chris Walton:There's been a lot of hubbub in the industry about generative AI.
Chris Walton:How at all are you and your role at Woodman's evaluating the application of that technology?
Kristin Pop:So that's a good question.
Kristin Pop:I wish my marketing director was here with me right now because he is itching to use AI.
Chris Walton:That's what we hear a lot.
Chris Walton:Marketing for sure.
Chris Walton:Yeah.
Kristin Pop:Right.
Kristin Pop:And we certainly partner with different organizations and software programs that use AI on their end, and we get the results of that.
Kristin Pop:I think we're interested in it.
Kristin Pop:We just haven't dove in yet.
Kristin Pop:And I think just trying to understand what is the best use of it.
Kristin Pop:How do we use it effectively and safely, too.
Kristin Pop:Right.
Kristin Pop:Because you hear, and it can be very overwhelming and you hear a lot of the things that can scare you.
Kristin Pop:And so just being smart about it, but it's definitely something that we're looking into.
Ann Mazinga: he rest of this year and into: Ann Mazinga:What are you excited to look around the floor here to check out, to potentially test in Woodman's in the coming months?
Kristin Pop:Oh, gosh.
Kristin Pop:When I look around the floor, there's so much to look.
Chris Walton:This is like the first hour that the exhibit hall has been open, too.
Kristin Pop:So it's like.
Chris Walton:It's like.
Chris Walton:Oh, my gosh.
Chris Walton:It's like a kid in the candy store.
Kristin Pop:Exactly.
Kristin Pop:Exactly.
Kristin Pop:So one thing I would be amiss if I didn't mention we had kind of been in a holding pattern on growth, just rebuilding from the labor challenges that everybody saw.
Kristin Pop:So we've done a lot of work to rebuild that, and we're back in a growth pattern.
Kristin Pop:And we are actually looking to open a new store next year.
Kristin Pop:So it's under construction right now.
Chris Walton:Where is it?
Kristin Pop:It's in Racine.
Kristin Pop:Congratulations.
Kristin Pop:Thank you.
Kristin Pop:So I'm excited about that.
Kristin Pop:I'm excited to look around and see what opportunities there.
Kristin Pop:I think this, just looking at this format and the show itself will be a good challenge for me to kind of look at what opportunities are out there, what's a good fit for us, and how do we effectively bring it back and talk about it for possible use.
Ann Mazinga:Yeah.
Kristin Pop:Wow.
Chris Walton:That's a great way to approach the show, just to stay curious and take it all in.
Chris Walton:That's what we always recommend to everyone as well.
Chris Walton:So, well, Kristen, thank you so much for being with us again.
Chris Walton:Kristen pop of Woodman's we are going to be here all week long.
Chris Walton:Thanks to the fusion group for supporting our work here at the conference.
Chris Walton:And until next time.
Chris Walton:And when we're going to come back with the Sam's club CEO.
Chris Walton:So stick around for that and be careful out there.
