Welcome to Momentum IoT’s weekly round-up; we curate and share noteworthy IoT news, insights and trends.

1. Inside the story of how HEB planned for the pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has shed light on the want vs needs. What we once took for granted – groceries, toilet papers, OTC pharmaceuticals – are flying off the shelf, feeding the panic buying frenzy.

The supply chain supporting this infrastructure has never been stress tested to this extend. Many grocers have failed to meet the skyrocketing demands and Amazon is even temporarily suspending orders that are deemed as nonessential.

H-E-B, headquartered in San Antonio, has shown resilience and strong leadership to weather the storm. The company has achieved this by 1) having a strong emergency preparedness plan (thanks to their experience during Hurricane Harvey), 2) protecting their employees by increasing wages and extending sick leave policy and 3) limiting purchases on high-demand items pre-emptively.

The company also took a customer-centric approach to crisis management by communicating transparently with their customers.

“One thing we learned from Hurricane Harvey is that our customers want to hear from us. They want to hear our perspective, they want to know what we’re doing, what we’re thinking, how we’re helping our communities.” – Dya Campos, director of public affairs, H-E-B.

Read more: https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/heb-prepared-coronavirus-pandemic/

2. Mayo clinic uses autonomous shuttles to help transport COVID-19 tests

Mayo Clinic made history by shuttling COVID-19 tests and medical supplies in a self-driving shuttles. Watch the video to learn how autonomous vehicles powered by IoT is helping fight the battle against the Coronavirus pandemic.

3. My Family Owns a Grocery Store. The Supply Chain Is a Real Problem.

Tori Draeger, director of marketing for Draeger’s Market, shares a candid story from the trenches of trying to meet the shart increase in demands for groceries and essential goods.

Simple health policies like “how often do we need to sanitize the shopping cart?” can have dire consequences, and Draeger reveals how they have adapted and are coping with life-changing decisions they are facing every day.

Read more: https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/03/coronavirus-grocery-stores-supply-chain-draegers.html