Grocery Search

The day before a tropical storm passed through San Diego — and the last weekend before school started — the line at Ralphs Grocery Company (a subsidiary of Kroger) was 30 people deep.

I got bored, scanned a QR code on the floor, and installed the store app to test the onboarding process.

Like most men, asking for help is the last step, after all other search-and-find options have been exhausted.

Employees — from the stocker to the deli to the cash register — are trained on knowing the location of all kinds of items, so when a customer asks, they can point them to the specific aisle.

I’ve always been amazed at their instant recall to send me in the right direction.

As a user on the app, I can search for any product, sorting and filtering by a dozen criteria.

The killer feature is “real” SEO: the app displays the aisle!

Now I know exactly where the seaweed snacks are…