ShopRite expands online shopping with new micro-fulfillment centerhu
ShopRite of Hunterdon County has opened its first automated micro-fulfillment center.
Located next to the ShopRite of Flemington on Route 202-31, the facility will increase capacity for ShopRite from Home orders and enhance the online shopping experience for customers.
“Interest in online shopping and our ShopRite from Home service has grown extraordinarily over the past several months,” said Joe Colalillo, chairman & CEO of Wakefern Food Corp. and president of his family-owned company, ShopRite of Hunterdon County.
Since the pandemic erupted earlier this year, more and more customers of all businesses are opted for online shopping because they don't want to leave their homes.
“This micro-fulfillment center represents an important investment in our stores and the ShopRite from Home service,” Colalillo added. "It allows us to continue to provide our customers with the outstanding quality and service they expect from ShopRite, whether shopping us in-store or online.”
The new micro-fulfillment center will assemble a portion of each online order before the order is completed at the store.
That will ease the pressure on in-store teams by increasing online shopping capacity and allowing store associates to focus on fulfilling online orders for fresh foods such as meat and produce.
Customers can pick up their ShopRite from Home orders curbside and in-store or have them delivered to their homes.
The new fulfillment center will employ 50 people when fully operational and support ShopRite from Home operations at the ShopRite of Flemington and ShopRite of Clinton. In the future, the center will support three more ShopRite of Hunterdon County stores in Phillipsburg and in Yardley and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
The center was created in partnership with Wakefern Food Corp. and Takeoff Technologies, which has already launched similar micro-fulfillment centers in Clifton and Egg Harbor to service ShopRite stores in other parts of New Jersey.
The center celebrated its grand opening on Tuesday.
Robots are beginning to pick your e-groceries for you. I went to Shoprite's new NJ microfulfillment center to investigate...https://t.co/OnRfcd3ihj
— matt newberg (@thenewb) January 16, 2020
