With brief, occasional, italicized and sometimes gratuitous commentary…
• Geissler’s Supermarkets announced that it will replace a majority of the shopping carts in its seven stores in Connecticut and Massachusetts with Caper Carts, Instacart’s artificial intelligence-powered (AI) smart carts.
According to the announcement, "Caper Carts use computer vision and AI to automatically identify items as they’re placed in the cart, and Geissler’s will deploy them to transform the traditional checkout experience, allowing customers to bag as they shop and pay from wherever they are in the store. Customers will be able to use their loyalty account on the carts, giving them access to personalized promotions and savings as they shop."
• The Wall Street Journal reports that Netflix is considering getting into the boxing business, pondering the advantages of livestreaming a match "featuring boxer and YouTube influencer Jake Paul, as well as a potential bout between boxers from Premier Boxing Champions - a show currently on Paramount’s Showtime."
Two things are happening simultaneously. One is that Showtime has decided to get out of the sports business after almost four decades, saying that it needs to "efficiently allocate resources and align our content offering across the business." In other words, it wants to save money.
The other is that Netflix, like other streaming services, is looking for proprietary content, and live sports fits that description. The Journal notes that "on Nov. 14, Netflix will stream its first live sporting event, 'The Netflix Cup,' a live golf tournament featuring athletes from its Formula One documentary, 'Drive to Survive,' and 'Full Swing,' its show following professional golfers … Netflix has also focused more on sports programming for its service after seeing success with some of its shows, such as 'Quarterback,' which followed three NFL quarterbacks last season and was among the streamer’s top 10 shows for several weeks this year."
Amazon - which has made major investments in live sports coverage with both the National Football League and Major League Baseball - also is said to be interested in. making a bid for the boxing packages.
These kinds of sports packages are the media world's version of private label, and in their own way underline what retailers have to do - offer products and services that are unique to them.
