Method and Apparatus to Automatically Facilitate Changes to a Fresh Produce Display
A control circuit is configured to use monitored-crop information from a crop-monitoring airborne drone to automatically facilitate changes to the fresh produce display of one or more retail shopping facilities. The crop-monitoring information can include, for example, one or more of information regarding crop maturity, weed infestation, insect infestation, a plant disease indicator, parched conditions, irrigation status, land-area yield, temperature conditions, conflicting neighboring crops, and post-harvest waste. Using such crop-monitoring information the control circuit can assess at least the likelihood that a particular crop of a particular produce item will be available for display in the fresh produce display by a particular date, in a particular volume, and having a particular quality. This same information can also serve to determine a distance that such crops must travel to reach the retail shopping facility and hence whether the produce items are fairly characterized as being locally sourced.
1 . An apparatus comprising:
at least one retail shopping facility having a fresh produce display;
a network interface operably coupled to at least one crop-monitoring airborne drone;
a control circuit operably coupled to the network interface and configured to use monitored-crop information from the crop-monitoring airborne drone to automatically facilitate changes to the fresh produce display.
2 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the changes to the fresh produce display comprise scheduled changes to pricing for fresh produce.
3 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the changes to the fresh produce display comprise scheduled changes to non-pricing promotional content in the fresh produce display.
4 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the changes to the fresh produce display comprise at least one of introducing and removing non-produce product tie-ins.
5 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the control circuit is further configured to use the monitored-crop information from the crop-monitoring airborne drone to automatically facilitate produce ordering from at least one alternative produce source.
6 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the control circuit is further configured to use the monitored-crop information from the crop-monitoring airborne drone to automatically facilitate routing of produce from a distribution center to the retail shopping facility.
7 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the control circuit is further configured to use the monitored-crop information from the crop-monitoring airborne drone to automatically facilitate routing of produce from another retail shopping facility to the retail shopping facility.
8 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the control circuit is further configured to provide information to the crop-monitoring airborne drone via the network interface regarding crop-monitoring geographic boundaries.
9 . The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the control circuit is further configured to receive information regarding the crop-monitoring geographic boundaries as sourced by an on-location smartphone.
10 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the monitored-crop information comprises information regarding at least one of:
crop maturity;
weed infestation;
insect infestation;
a plant disease indicator;
parched conditions;
irrigation status;
land-area yield;
temperature conditions;
conflicting neighboring crops;
post-harvest waste.
11 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the monitored-crop information comprises information regarding at least three of:
crop maturity;
weed infestation;
insect infestation;
a plant disease indicator;
parched conditions;
irrigation status;
land-area yield;
temperature conditions;
conflicting neighboring crops;
post-harvest waste.
12 . A method comprising:
by a control circuit:
receiving monitored-crop information from at least one crop-monitoring airborne drone;
using the monitored-crop information to automatically facilitate changes to a fresh produce display in a retail shopping facility.
13 . The method of claim 12 wherein the changes to the fresh produce display comprise scheduled changes to pricing for fresh produce.
14 . The method of claim 12 wherein the changes to the fresh produce display comprise scheduled changes to non-pricing promotional content in the fresh produce display.
15 . The method of claim 12 further comprising:
using the monitored-crop information from the crop-monitoring airborne drone to automatically facilitate produce ordering from at least one alternative produce source.
16 . The method of claim 12 further comprising:
using the monitored-crop information from the crop-monitoring airborne drone to automatically facilitate routing of produce from a distribution center to the retail shopping facility.
17 . The method of claim 12 further comprising:
using the monitored-crop information from the crop-monitoring airborne drone to automatically facilitate routing of produce from another retail shopping facility to the retail shopping facility.
18 . The method of claim 12 further comprising:
providing information to the crop-monitoring airborne drone regarding crop-monitoring geographic boundaries.
19 . The method of claim 18 further comprising:
receiving information regarding the crop-monitoring geographic boundaries as sourced by an on-location smartphone.
20 . The method of claim 12 wherein the monitored-crop information comprises information regarding at least one of:
crop maturity;
weed infestation;
insect infestation;
a plant disease indicator;
parched conditions;
irrigation status;
land-area yield;
temperature conditions;
conflicting neighboring crops;
post-harvest waste.