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I'm all too familiar with Fareway. Knowing their budget ethos, no way they are spending $$$ to gleen demographic info.



I met one of their VP's and had a good 30 minute chat once. Budget ethos is definitely there. Outside of advertisements during the Iowa high school Athletics events, they didn't really spend on TV ads until ~2-3 years ago when competition with ALDI and Hy-Vee seemed to dramatically increase.

No idea on the business model for the ad tablet system, but I could see a model where they pay an amount to the store on a monthly basis. Perhaps they would pay more if the store would turn over transaction data, or the transaction data and demographics would be traded as mutually beneficial.

They're very much not on the cutting edge of technology. I believe she said they didn't have email until ~2010. Store orders were submitted via fax to their distribution center.

In some ways they're saving money (only looking at mature options in the market and absolutely avoiding snake oil salesmen), but even an Excel based ordering system on a dialup connection would have been a major labor savings for 2000-2010 compared to faxes.




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