Karns and EmpowerFresh: A Fresh Advantage

Karns Quality Foods Invests In Smarter Tools

Karns has built its reputation on quality, value, and strong execution at the store level. That makes produce performance especially important.

EmpowerFresh fits naturally into Karns’ operation by supporting disciplined ordering, real-time visibility, and consistent execution across stores. With AI-driven forecasting and financial insights, produce teams gain clarity around shrink, in-stocks, and margin while keeping shelves fresh and customers confident.

We’re excited to support Karns as they continue to invest in strong teams and smarter tools in produce.

Ask The Experts: Guaranteed Margin Improvement with AI

Margin has always been the quiet scorecard of a produce department. Sales get the spotlight, shrink gets the lectures, but margin is where the real story lives. Every decision made on the floor eventually shows up there. What is changing fast is how Artificial Intelligence is turning margin improvement from a hope into something far more probable.

At its core, margin improvement is about better decisions made more often and made faster. AI excels at exactly that. Modern AI tools process thousands of data points across movement, cost fluctuations, weather patterns, seasonality, promotions, and labor inputs in seconds. What once required weekly reviews and instinct driven adjustments can now be managed daily with confidence. When margin erosion is identified early, corrective action becomes more likely rather than reactive.

One of the most impactful areas where AI delivers margin improvement is pricing intelligence. Traditional pricing depends heavily on experience and historical comparisons. AI evaluates real time sell through, elasticity, inventory age, and even nearby store performance. The result is smarter price recommendations that protect margin while maintaining volume. In produce, where freshness has a ticking clock, these precise adjustments reduce panic markdowns and create margin improvement through better sell through at planned retail. The adage of “Your first loss is your best loss” now is minimized. Either keeping you out of that position from the start or shortening the time period and amount of margin lost during that markdown or price point.

Shrink reduction is another area where AI creates margin improvement without adding complexity for the team. Predictive ordering models analyze historical sales, seasonality, promotions, local events, and weather data unique to each store. Instead of ordering by averages, AI orders by probability. When temperatures rise, volatile and impulse categories can drive up. When rain arrives, certain categories slow. AI sees these patterns consistently and acts on them. The result is less excess inventory, fewer markdowns, and margin improvement through tighter buys.

Labor often feels like a fixed cost, but AI reframes it as a margin protection tool. Intelligent task forecasting aligns staffing with actual workload. AI understands delivery timing, ad changes, traffic patterns, and production needs. That alignment ensures displays are built on time, rotation is executed properly, and quality remains high throughout the day. Strong execution supports full retail selling and avoids margin erosion later. This operational precision creates margin improvement by preventing preventable losses.

Assortment optimization is another powerful but often overlooked contributor to margin improvement. AI analyzes SKU level performance to determine which items truly earn their space. In produce, over assortment can slow turns and increase handling and shrink. By identifying low contribution items and redundant varieties, AI helps streamline assortments without negatively impacting customer satisfaction. The correct assortment of SKUs means stronger turns, cleaner displays, and margin improvement driven by efficiency.

AI does not replace the produce director’s experience. It strengthens it. Leaders still set strategy, understand customer behavior, and develop teams. AI simply removes guesswork and highlights margin opportunities sooner. With better visibility and faster insight, margin improvement becomes less about reacting to problems and more about steering outcomes.

In produce, pennies matter. When AI protects just a few basis points across pricing, shrink, labor, and assortment, the cumulative impact is significant. With AI in place, margin improvement stops being aspirational and becomes guaranteed, measurable, and sustainable.