Interactive Kiosk Tells Shoppers What's For Dinner

An improved recipe kiosk from Fairfield, Iowa-based My Menus helps supermarket shoppers plan healthy, nutritious meals while increasing sales of meat, dairy products and produce. The interactive kiosk answers the question, "What's for dinner?" by allowing shoppers to view and print recipes along with store-specific, aisle-by-aisle shopping lists and brand name recommendations.A recent enhancement to the unit enables store personnel to customize the kiosk software with weekly department specials that tie-in to highlighted recipes. Shoppers can see the new recipes, the sale price per pound or per unit, and the sale's expiration date.Shoppers can now view and instantly print the manufacturers' coupons of their choice without selecting a recipe. The kiosk tracks the number of bar-coded coupons printed for each brand and the number of times the product is mentioned in recipes and shopping lists. My Menus sends reports with this data to help manufacturers track the cost-effectiveness of their advertising."Relentless technological advancements have made it possible to offer computerized meal planning solutions in the store, so we did," says Nathan Otto, president of My Menus. "Shoppers can quickly narrow their recipe choices by food category or by specific ingredient or nutritional characteristic. The touch screen interface is very easy to use."In a recent promotion, sales of products in 14 categories increased an average of 44 percent over three months compared to the baseline month, according to Otto. In a one-month promotion of 47 spice products on 93 kiosks, sales increased by an average of 47 percent from the month prior.Data from recent installations show that consumer acceptance is high: in an average-traffic store (10,000 - 20,000 transactions per week), the kiosk gets 1,500 uses per month.More than 1,000 nutritionist-approved recipes are available on the kiosk. The meal planning software automatically adjusts selected recipes for family size and provides a complete nutritional analysis. My Menus adds and updates recipes via modem every six weeks.My Menus can customize the software for a store by showing a store logo and message while the kiosk is idle. Images are scanned at My Menus and downloaded via phone lines to the store. The software is also customized with store-specific shopping information such as the aisle locations for about 80 different product categories.The fiberglass unit measures 34 inches wide by 67 inches high by 31 inches deep (40 inches deep at the barrel). It holds a 17-inch-high resolution glass touch screen monitor. The kiosk was designed by the Lawlor/Weller Design Group, an architectural firm based in Fairfield, Iowa, and manufactured by Rinehart Manufacturing in Montezuma, Iowa. The proprietary software was developed in-house by My Menus.Approximately 140 kiosks now service supermarket shoppers in the U.S., with an additional 20 operating in England, Australia and New Zealand.

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