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Lowes Foods pilots grocery pickup lockers at the workplace

Partnership with Bell and Howell targets corporate campuses, office buildings

Russell Redman

June 10, 2021

2 Min Read
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Lowes Foods and QuickCollect have deployed the first set of grocery pickup lockers outside Bell and Howell’s headquarters in Durham, N.C.Bell and Howell

Carolinas grocer Lowes Foods has partnered with Bell and Howell’s QuickCollect Solutions unit to fulfill online grocery orders delivered to temperature-controlled pickup lockers at workplaces.

Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Lowes and QuickCollect have deployed the first set of grocery pickup lockers outside Bell and Howell’s headquarters in Durham, N.C., Bell and Howell said yesterday. Groceries are delivered to the lockers via the Lowes Foods To Go service.

Plans call for the companies to roll out QuickCollect GL pickup lockers to more office and corporate campus locations, enabling employees to order groceries from Lowes online and have them delivered to their worksite for pickup.

Overall, Lowes Foods, a subsidiary of Alex Lee Inc., operates more than 80 supermarkets in North and South Carolina. The grocer noted that the launch of the locker pickup service reflects elevated demand for online grocery shopping and contactless delivery. Lowes has offered curbside pickup and delivery service for nearly 25 years.

“We’re excited to take the foundation we’ve built in grocery delivery and layer in a completely new level of convenience,” Chad Petersen, vice president of e-commerce at Lowes Foods, said in a statement. “Our personal shoppers pick, prepar, and stage orders with the quality and accuracy they would as if they were shopping for their own families. Then we take the convenience of contactless delivery to the next level by partnering with QuickCollect Solutions to mobilize that experience for our guests. We are striving to provide as much ease and convenience as we can to ease the stress of our very busy guests.”

Related:Stop & Shop tests in-store pickup lockers

Currently, Lowes delivers groceries to the QuickCollect lockers outside Bell and Howell’s headquarters three times per week. Orders are placed online through the Lowes Foods To Go service and brought to the lockers on the next delivery day. The modular QuickCollect GL lockers keep food fresh using multiple temperature zones — from heated to frozen — that the grocer can configure remotely. When orders are ready for pickup, Bell and Howell workers are notified via text or email and receive a unique pickup code. Next, they go to the locker, scan the code and retrieve their items.

“In today’s contactless delivery world of ease and convenience, this partnership provides consumers with more pickup and delivery options for their grocery shopping experience,” commented Joe Zuech, vice president of grocery pickup for QuickCollect Solutions. “Our QuickCollect GL lockers are already being used for automated order pickup of fresh food order by grocers, retailers, food banks and farmers markets across North America.”

Related:Jewel-Osco tests self-serve grocery pickup kiosk

About the Author

Russell Redman

Senior Editor
Supermarket News

Russell Redman has served as senior editor at Supermarket News since April 2018, his second tour with the publication. In his current role, he handles daily news coverage for the SN website and contributes news and features for the print magazine, as well as participates in special projects, podcasts and webinars and attends industry events. Russ joined SN from Racher Press Inc.’s Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers magazines, where he served as desk/online editor for more than nine years, covering the food/drug/mass retail sector. 

Russell Redman’s more than 30 years of experience in journalism span a range of editorial manager, editor, reporter/writer and digital roles at a variety of publications and websites covering a breadth of industries, including retailing, pharmacy/health care, IT, digital home, financial technology, financial services, real estate/commercial property, pro audio/video and film. He started his career in 1989 as a local news reporter and editor, covering community news and politics in Long Island, N.Y. His background also includes an earlier stint at Supermarket News as center store editor and then financial editor in the mid-1990s. Russ holds a B.A. in journalism (minor in political science) from Hofstra University, where he also earned a certificate in digital/social media marketing in November 2016.

Russell Redman’s experience:

Supermarket News - Informa
Senior Editor 
April 2018 - present

Chain Drug Review/Mass Market Retailers - Racher Press
Desk/Online Editor 
Sept. 2008 - March 2018

CRN magazine - CMP Media
Managing Editor
May 2000 - June 2007

Bank Systems & Technology - Miller Freeman
Executive Editor/Managing Editor
Dec. 1996 - May 2000

Supermarket News - Fairchild Publications
Financial Editor/Associate Editor
April 1995 - Dec. 1996 

Shopping Centers Today Magazine - ICSC 
Desk Editor/Assistant Editor
Dec. 1992 - April 1995

Testa Communications
Assistant Editor/Contributing Editor (Music & Sound Retailer, Post, Producer, Sound & Communications and DJ Times magazines)
Jan. 1991 - Dec. 1992 

American Banker/Bond Buyer
Copy Editor
Oct. 1990 - Jan. 1991 

This Week newspaper - Chanry Communications
Reporter/Editor
May 1989 - July 1990

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