INNOVATION AT THE LEADING EDGE: A conversation with Peter van Stolk

BASED in Vancouver, Peter van Stolk and his team at SPUD.com have been working to expand the edges of innovation in the eCommerce grocery space for almost a decade. A serial entrepreneur, innovator and category disruptor, I spoke to him about the circular economy and his latest venture, Food-X, in this interview excerpt taken from The Voice of Retail™ podcast.

TVOR: First, tell us a bit about your personal journey to this point.

van Stolk: I started a soda company here in Vancouver called Jones Soda in 1997 and then I moved it to the United States in 2003 and retired in 2007. It was an exciting, fun ride with respect to competing in a retail space dominated by two major players. After having fun with retirement, I realized that I didn’t want to be known for selling sugar water, and was presented with an opportunity that was SPUD, which at the time stood for Small Potatoes Urban Delivery—but I hated the name (it is now Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery)!

 TVOR: Take us through your latest venture Food-X. What is it, how does it work and what is unique about it?

van Stolk: It’s the largest eCommerce fulfilment centre in Vancouver, completely automated It's super- cool, looking a bit like Star Trek. The interesting thing we were able to do was create AI around the process for building a shopping cart. Our AI uses what we call “the cube”. When you think of a truck that has to be “cubed-out”, our AI determines the size of the bin and products that will fit (perfectly) in the truck.

Because our totes are license plated to the customer, this allows reverse logistics. So if you are a customer of ours, we actually take back items from the doorstep. So think about if you drink Coca-Cola and there is a deposit on the bottle, we scan the item at your door and credit your account at the time we take the deposit items back.

Now the really cool thing is that we can also take back other things. When you look at the amount of flex packaging (plastic) in retail it is huge—we can take that back. Our system is a full cycle. It's the future of retail, becoming accountable for the packaging.

For the full-length interview with van Stolk, tune in to The Voice of Retail podcast available on iTunes or wherever you enjoy you podcasts each and every week.