The Internet of Things now includes the grocery store's frozen-food aisle

Every summer, people head to the grocery store in droves to pick up cartons of cold, creamy ice cream. It's a great way to stay cool. But shoppers will go elsewhere if the frozen dairy treat is crusted with yucky ice crystals--the result of freezing, thawing and refreezing. No one knows this better than Chris Hjelm, CIO at Kroger, a $108 billion supermarket chain and a 2015 CIO 100 award winner. Hjelm and his research-and-development team decided to try to ward off such problems by turning to Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. He equipped refrigerated containers with sensors that check temperatures every 30 minutes--instead of having employees manually check thermometers twice a day--and then alert store managers and facilities engineers if the mercury hits unsafe levels.