Majid Al Futtaim has launched Bright Bites, a new grocery retail ecosystem and the world’s first supermarket built especially for kids.
The new shopping experience aims to redefine the role of retail by establishing a holistic, purpose-led environment that blends shopping, learning, and play, to inspire better eating habits, smarter food choices, and positive lifelong associations with more nutritionally balanced food.
“With Bright Bites we are enabling an interactive, educational, and empowering gamified shopping experience, with kids at the heart of the experience – the world’s first supermarket designed especially for kids,” says Dr. Günther Helm, Chief Executive Officer at Majid Al Futtaim Retail.
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Bright Bites will setup a comprehensive 360-ecosystem to engage with its target customers:
- Bright Bites Kids Supermarket: A unique gamified grocery experience that aims to inspire and empower kids to shop independently while learning about balanced eating in an environment parents trust. Using the 2-in-1 play-and-shop Bright Bites card, kids unlock educational games, track progress on leaderboards, and shop at five key stations based on the “Pick Your Five” system.
- The Bright Bites Academy: A multi-purpose community hub that brings kids, parents, caregivers, and teachers together in a safe space to learn and grow. Through hands-on workshops, cooking classes, it offers an engaging and memorable way to inspire learning and collaboration.
- School Programme: An engaging curriculum designed to engage students in classrooms across the UAE through gamification, vibrant characters, and practical tools. The programme, developed in collaboration with certified nutritionists and behavioural change experts, and co-created with parents and teachers, offers ready-to-use resources, including lesson plans, activity guides, and logistical support for teachers.
The shopping experience made for kids
Under the platform ‘Lunchbox Revolution’, Bright Bites aims to place children at the heart of their food journey, empowering them to make informed food choices based on the “Pick Your Five” system – an evidence-backed framework aligned with global dietary guidelines.
“The mission is simple: to redefine how children connect with food, nurture better eating habits, and support their long-term well-being through a simplified, evidence-based system – ‘Pick Your Five’ that aligns with internationally recognised frameworks such as the UK Eatwell Guide and UAE national dietary guidelines,” says Helm.
Children shopping at Bright Bites will be led through a gamified journey, scanning their 2-in-1 play-and-shop Bright Bites card at each of the five categories – Fruits & Vegetables, Main Meals, Dairy Foods, Beverages and Mindful Snacking – to unlock games, track progress and pay for their own shopping.
“This is innovation,” Helm says. “As we purposefully placing children at the centre of the experience, Bright Bites is shaping the habits of our next generation of customers while making eating better more fun.”
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New retail media opportunities at Bright Bites Kids Supermarket
Through its holistic, purpose-driven ecosystem blending shopping, learning, and play, Bright Bites aims to introduce a unique proposition and an entirely new retail space.
With this, comes a new avenue for Majid Al Futtaim’s retail media partners. “Through the strength of Majid Al Futtaim’s dedicated retail media network, Precision Media, Bright Bites and its partners will benefit from the ability to drive visibility of campaigns through the breadth, scale and personalisation offered by omni-channel retail media solutions,” says Helm.
“This includes access to 6M+ unique customers across Majid Al Futtaim’s ecosystem, 600k monthly transactions at Mall of the Emirates, 1M+ customers on Carrefour’s digital platforms, and engagement across the wider Majid Al Futtaim network,” Helm adds.
He further says: “With the endorsement of Bright Bites, partners will not only be able to boost brand visibility but deliver relevant messaging that supports Bright Bites; targeted to the right customer, in the right place at the right time across leading in-store, online and off-site media channels.”
360-degree marketing campaign to support launch of first kids supermarket
Bright Bites will engage with audiences in the UAE through a 360-degree marketing campaign that embeds its mission into every customer touchpoint, making healthy eating yummy, fun and easy.
“Alongside OOH and digital advertising, social media and influencer partnerships, the initiative leverages a unique phygital ecosystem to communicate key messages to both parents and children,” Helm says.
“For schools, nutrition education is integrated directly into the curriculum with gamified learning and ready-to-use resources, ensuring active engagement and encouraging behavioural change,” he adds.
Finally, Bright Bites builds on Majid Al Futtaim’s established commitment to family health and wellness, following the launch of its “Choose Better” programme in 2023, which aims to educate, empower, and reward customers who make healthier choices by making better alternatives more accessible, affordable, and appealing.
Furthermore, “as an Emirati company, we decided to launch this initiative in our own backyard, the UAE, in alignment with Vision 2031 and the UAE National Nutrition Strategy 2020–2030,” Helm says, therefore “allowing us [Majid Al Futtaim] to contribute meaningfully to national priorities and youth well-being, on the long–term.
Bright Bites’ Kids Supermarket and Academy are exclusively available at Carrefour, Mall of the Emirates. Select products will also be available across a number of Carrefour stores across Dubai.
