The discounter Hofer is planning a shopping revolution on several levels.
At the discount store Hofer, the price tags will soon be banned from the shelves. It is not the only revolution that the branch chain is planning.
At the local discounter Hofer, no stone should be left unturned when shopping. According to “Handelsblatt”, the company is pumping 1.5 billion euros into its branches and, above all, digitization, in Germany at Aldi as well as in Austria at Hofer. Also because with the corona pandemic, online orders were increasingly an issue. Hofer in Austria will be given pilot project status, according to “Trend”.
While almost everything from ordering and delivering to work in the branches is to be converted to digitalization, the previous price tags on the shelves will soon be a thing of the past for customers. Instead of the many price tags that have to be exchanged again and again, there should be fewer, but digital displays on the shelves, according to the report. Advantage: They can be updated quickly and display several product prices at once.
The shopping experience should also be completely new when entering a Hofer branch. So far, if you step through aisles with coffee, chocolate and Co., Hofer now wants to put the fresh offer in the foreground. As soon as you enter, you should stand in front of the products such as fruit and vegetables, which are freshly sold by the discounters. This should also be a counter-accent to online trading, which especially with fruit and vegetables cannot offer this freshness, says Hofer boss Horst Leitner in the “Trend”.
What is also being planned and discussed: A widening of the checkout area with more space for the storage of shopping trolleys, a new design for the fruit, vegetable and refrigeration department and the introduction of self-scanning cash registers and payment with the mobile phone. What Leitner envisions as “music of the future”: That you no longer have to go to a specific checkout when shopping. But Leitner does not say what that looks like in practice. At Amazon's US branches, this already works via sensors in the shopping trolleys and cameras on the shelves. Another thought: cooperation with supermarket delivery services such as Alfies or gurkerl.at.
As “Cash” reports, it is not the only revolution at Hofer. According to General Director Horst Leitner, the discounters want to move away from branded products that can be bought everywhere and convince them all the more with exclusive brands and rock-bottom prices, reports “Cash”. Quality and price have to be right, according to the Hofer boss. He would like it to go away from the “actionitis”, Hofer wants to score points here with the permanently lowest price instead of promotions.
In the corona pandemic, they also used the time to “switch everything that can somehow be converted to Austrian origin”. This applies above all to beef, pork and chicken as well as the range of ham and sausages, according to Leitner. In addition to regionality, attention is also paid to an organic range. “You don't have to dance at every wedding,” says Leitner, saying that not every organic trend is being picked up, but the area should be expanded.
