Perusing the fresh chicken at your grocery store and just can’t decide what to buy? If you spy a QR code on some of the packages, give it a scan – and a coupon could help make up your mind.

Proving that everything old is new again, Foster Farms is putting QR codes on all of its fresh chicken packages. The effort is personified by “DORI”, a “friendly emoji style” virtual assistant whose name stands for “Deals, Origin, Recipes, Info” – which is what you’ll gain access to by scanning the code with your phone.

“As more shoppers and retailers embrace scannable technology, including QR codes, we see DORI as a new channel to deliver information about our products and reward our loyalists,” said Ira Brill, director of communications for Foster Farms. “People are looking for convenience and savings and want to know more about where their food comes from. DORI is a new tool for us to share information that our consumers care about.”

I really see issues with this, since digital coupons so often mess up (MyMixx, anyone?).  To read the entire article, click here.

Do you want to buy your groceries and pick up fresh food at the drug store, while getting your prescriptions filled and browsing a full selection of health and beauty items at the same time?

That’s what Rite Aid and Albertsons envisioned, in their proposed merger that never came to be. But the idea lives on, as Walgreens and Kroger are now teaming up for what they hope could be the next best thing.

The two retailers announced this morning that they are collaborating on an “exploratory pilot”, to offer “a one-stop shopping experience where customers can access products and services from both companies”.

For now, the experiment will launch in 13 Walgreens stores in Northern Kentucky, near Kroger’s Cincinnati, Ohio headquarters. The stores will feature Kroger-branded groceries, and will serve as pickup locations for customers who order Kroger groceries online.  Read entire article here.