For all the talk of big-box retailers, drug stores, specialty grocers and dollar stores gobbling up a bigger share of the grocery pie, don’t count out the nation’s largest traditional supermarket. Kroger says it’s doing just fine, thank you. Kroger today reported its latest quarterly earnings, beating analysts’ expectations. For the year, earnings are up about 3%. “Not a particularly[Read More…]
Have you recovered from your Cyber Monday and Black Friday shopping experiences yet? The spending frenzy can make grocery shopping seem downright mundane in comparison. But what if grocery stores got in on the action? A recent report by the coupon processing company Inmar says Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers are hungry for grocery store deals as well. 61%[Read More…]
A supermarket in northern Indiana may have stumbled upon the next new trend in do-it-yourself grocery shopping – not only can customers there check themselves out, but they can apparently let themselves in as well. On Thanksgiving night, when most people were resting off their turkey dinners, or getting an early start on their Black Friday shopping, some people inexplicably[Read More…]
On this day before Thanksgiving, we offer you what you usually don’t get until the day after Thanksgiving: leftovers! Here are some Thanksgiving tidbits to enjoy before the big day: Target’s Turkey is Tops “We aren’t in the business of high-low pricing or gimmicks,” a Walmart executive sniffed, in reaction to competitors’ deals on Thanksgiving staples. Too bad, because Target[Read More…]
You can just hear the old timers: “In my day, we didn’t have scanners and bar codes – we read the price tags, punched the numbers into an old-timey cash register and we liked it!” But that was then, this is now. If you’ve ever seen an episode of Extreme Couponing, in which the register “locks up” and it takes[Read More…]
Despite some alarmist headlines this year that the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner is higher than ever, it’s actually not so bad. So let us be the first to alarm you with the real headline – next year, you may need to take out a new mortgage to afford a turkey! The American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual price survey of[Read More…]
If you’ve had a hankering for Twinkies after hearing about them in the news today – you’d better drop what you’re doing and get to the store, pronto. They’re flying off the shelves across the country. Hostess Brands, the maker of Twinkies and other iconic snacks like Ding Dongs, Ho Ho’s, Sno Balls, Drakes Cakes and even Wonder Bread, announced[Read More…]
Workers are back on the job at Raley’s supermarkets. But for how long? The nine-day strike that ended today has all sides breathing a sigh of relief – but it’s also raising questions about how long a unionized, locally-owned, family-run chain can survive in a Walmart world. Thousands of employees of Sacramento-based Raley’s, and Raley’s-owned Nob Hill, walked out earlier[Read More…]
Maybe you’re a supporter of unions, maybe you just don’t want the hassle of pushing past picketing employees – but perhaps you’d change your mind for some free bananas? It’s been one week since thousands of employees began a strike against Sacramento-based Raley’s and its Nob Hill affiliate (read: “Supermarket Strike Divides Shoppers”). And the store is trying everything it[Read More…]
Thousands of shoppers in Northern California have a choice – cross picket lines, or cross town, to get their groceries. And whatever their choice, most aren’t happy about having to make it at all. Union employees of Sacramento-based Raley’s and its Nob Hill subsidiary went on strike Sunday. Talks broke down after more than a year of negotiations centering on[Read More…]
