Build vs Buy: How Wegmans Built In-House Forecasting Capabilities With PyMC Labs
Details
Opening a new supermarket is a multi-million-dollar bet, and a strong forecast for one site can still hurt the portfolio. Wegmans, with 100-plus stores, chose not to buy a black box. They built their own forecasting capability with PyMC Labs.
Hear how the two teams co-designed a Bayesian site-selection model that encodes Wegmans' operator expertise, uses real drive-time trade areas, forecasts in-store and e-commerce demand separately, and measures cannibalization across the network. Built on PyMC, it runs on an analyst's laptop and is owned and extended by Wegmans today.
What you'll learn
- Why Wegmans chose to build forecasting in-house, with a partner, instead of buying
- How to judge a new site by its effect on the whole portfolio, not just its own forecast
- How operator knowledge, limited data, and real geography fit in one Bayesian model
- What it takes to own and extend a model after the partner steps back
📜 Outline of Talk / Agenda:
- 5 min: Introduction to PyMC Labs and speakers
- 40 min: Panel discussion
- 15 min: Q&A
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💼 About the speakers:
Dr. Luca Fiaschi (PyMC Labs Partner, Gen AI Vertical)
Luca helps organizations unlock the value of data and AI. With 15+ years of experience, he’s led and scaled teams at Mistplay, HelloFresh, Alibaba, and Stitch Fix, driving breakthroughs in personalization, marketing optimization, and causal modeling. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from Heidelberg University.
Connect with Luca👉 LinkedIn🧩 Github
Ian Costley (Wegmans, Data Scientist
Ian Costley is a data scientist in the Customer Insights group at Wegmans Food Markets, serving as a technical lead on applied modeling work. They collaborate across the organization to provide statistical support for decision-making. His interests include probabilistic modeling, inference at scale, and building bespoke models to uniquely fit business problems.
Connect with Ian 👉 LinkedIn
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📖 Code of Conduct:
Please note that participants are expected to abide by PyMC's Code of Conduct.
Connecting with PyMC Labs:
🌐 Website: https://www.pymc-labs.com/
👥 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pymc-labs/
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/pymc_labs
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PyMCLabs
🤝 Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/pymc-labs-online-meetup/
🎮 Discord: https://discord.gg/MARSCNemw3