Pyaterochka has equipped 15 more stores with a system for people with visual impairment. The retailer installed the Talking City® equipment in stores in Krasnodar, Novorossiysk, Nizhny Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Kursk and Moscow, increasing the number of inclusive "Pyaterochka" in Russia to 26. This is stated in the message of the network.
The Talking City® system helps people with visual impairments to independently find the entrance to the store and navigate its interior. Blind and visually impaired visitors have access to a special free application on a smartphone or a push-button subscriber device (issued by an NGO), with which you can easily find the right door and get an idea of the interior space of the outlet. Informational messages about obstacles in front of the store and beacons help to navigate.
As part of the connection of retail outlets to the program, the entrance groups of stores were equipped with radio receivers and several sound beacons with a range of about 15 m. When approaching the area of operation, a user with visual disabilities receives information about the object and the features of the approach to it (the presence of steps, ramps, how the entrance door opens, the main routes of movement after entering, and so on).
First of all, the "Talking City"® system is equipped with "Pyaterochka" located near social facilities that are most in demand by people with visual disabilities: specialized schools, rehabilitation centers. The pilot cities of the program in January 2022 were Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as Gatchina in the Leningrad Region.
X5 Group is a leading Russian grocery retail company that operates stores of several retail chains: "at home" stores under the Pyaterochka brand, supermarkets under the Perekrestok brand and hard discounters under the Chizhik brand. The company develops digital businesses Vprok.ru Crossroads, 5Post and "A Lot of Salmon".
As of June 30, 2022, the company had 19779 stores under management, with leading positions in Moscow and St. Petersburg and a significant presence in the European part of Russia. The network includes 18558 Pyaterochka stores, 986 Perekrestok supermarkets and 153 Chizhik hard discounters. The company manages 48 distribution centers and 4347 own trucks in the territory of the Russian Federation.
X5 Retail Group's net profit under IFRS (IFRS 16) for the first half of 2022 increased by 29.7% to RUB 29.26 billion from RUB 22.56 billion a year earlier. Revenue increased by 18.8% to 1.25 trillion rubles from 1.05 trillion rubles, gross profit – by 17.7% to 317.4 billion rubles from 269.64 billion rubles, EBITDA – by 21.4% to 159.7 billion rubles from 131.56 billion rubles.
