Nestle Launching Floating Supermarket on the Amazon River

Photo by Nestle

Nestle is sending a floating supermarket up the Amazon river in an attempt to reach customers not normally exposed to normal retail channels:

The world’s largest food company will send a boat with 100-square meters (1,076 square feet) of supermarket space on a journey to 18 small cities and 800,000 potential consumers on the Para and Xingu rivers in Brazil, before starting the journey again. The vessel will carry 300 different goods including chocolate, yogurt, ice cream and juices.

Photo by Nestle

Though there might not be much profit in these kinds of customers today, Nestle and it’s competitors hope to profit in the future:

Nestle expects as many as 1 billion people in emerging markets to exit poverty and be able to afford its products in the coming decade. The foodmaker has adapted its products in such regions by offering smaller, cheaper versions of products such as Alpino ice cream and Ninho milk powder through direct distribution to make them more accessible to low-income shoppers. Unilever has also been building a distribution network into Brazil’s shantytowns.

Here’s the press release.

Photo by Nestle.

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