Attention Kroger Shoppers: We Care About You
12-07-2009
By Mike Rozembajgier
In the event of a food recall, no audience is of greater concern than the customer. In the new age of digital and social media, recall information can be widely disseminated in a matter of minutes. But so can misinformation and consumer complaints.
Hats off to Cincinnati-based grocery chain Kroger who recently announced its plans for taking its shopper-loyalty program to the next level. The outreach program utilizes Kroger’s sales database to contact customers who’ve bought items that are later recalled for health and safety reasons. For example, if you happened to purchase peanuts that were affected by the massive recall earlier this year, you’d receive an automated call from Kroger warning you of the affected product.
If retailers really want to cover their bases, it’s best to take matters into their own hands. Many are seeking ways to enhance their own product safety initiatives and consumer communications. So now consumers don’t necessarily need to remember the lot number, brand and type of product they brought home from the grocery store. Instead, your grocer can remind you. While this type of communication doesn’t take the place of consumer’s educating themselves about product safety and recall events, we applaud Kroger for making consumer safety their number one concern.
It will be interesting to note whether other national food retail chains will initiate similar programs.
Stericycle ExpertRECALL™ is the industry leader in recall logistics and regulatory compliance for consumer product, pharmaceutical, medical device, juvenile product, and food and beverage recalls. ExpertRECALL’s professionals are experts in recall management who can help you streamline the entire product recall process.
[...] agency has set a focus on improving follow through after recall is announced through social media means (Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc.), recognizing that heightened awareness can lead to increased [...]