Walmart recently announced that you can earn a 5% credit by buying some of its healthier store-brand products. Kroger recently discovered that you can earn $7.2 million for buying its store-brand microwave popcorn. A Colorado jury this week awarded that chunk of change to 59-year-old Wayne Watson, who says he developed a chronic condition called “popcorn lung” following his enthusiastic[Read More…]
Some stores are loyal to their loyalty cards, others hope introducing cards will make their customers loyal to them. But still others refuse to go the loyalty card route – and they may be onto something. If you haven’t read the latest exciting issue of “Frozen & Refrigerated Buyer” magazine – and, really, what’s keeping you? – the trade publication[Read More…]
Increasingly, supermarkets caught in the middle between the likes of Walmart and dollar stores on one end, and Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s on the other, are facing a choice: go upscale, go downmarket – or go bust. Winn-Dixie nearly went the “go bust” route. But now it’s trying something different. This week, the Florida-based grocer opened its newest “transformational[Read More…]
The “Walmart Challenge” ads that target grocery stores across the country have not yet targeted Whole Foods. But they just might. Because now Walmart says you can save even more at its stores if you like to shop, and eat, healthy. Today, Walmart announced a new partnership with health care insurer Humana, offering a discount for purchasing healthy items in[Read More…]
As more supermarkets expand their selection to include more wine, beer and specialty foods along with the usual staple grocery items, Harris Teeter is taking a different tack. The southeastern grocery chain is planning a brand new store concept that ditches many of the usual staple grocery items altogether, in favor of high-end items that you might need to entertain[Read More…]
As Walmart expands its ad campaign that invites shoppers to “see for yourself” how much lower their prices are, more competitors mentioned by name in those ads are starting to fight back. First it was Milwaukee-based Pick ‘n Save, now it’s Florida-based Publix. But first, some background. Since early this year, the “Walmart Challenge” ads have been rolling out across[Read More…]
Sure, you’re loyal to your local grocery store – but do you have the card to prove it? More supermarkets are looking to the loyalty card as their ticket out of oblivion. Sacramento, California-based Raley’s, which also operates Bel Air Markets, Nob Hill Foods and Food Source stores across Northern California and Nevada, is the latest to unveil a store[Read More…]
For a while, “paper or plastic” was not a particularly controversial choice at the grocery store. Increasingly, though, shoppers are finding that the “wrong” choice could cost them – or they may have no choice at all. A San Francisco judge on Wednesday upheld a law, set to take effect next month, that will ban plastic bags from virtually all[Read More…]
If Walmart and Target can invade supermarkets’ territory by offering groceries, then Kroger is saying, right back atcha. The country’s largest traditional grocery chain is experimenting with offering shoes and clothes alongside its meat and produce. The test is taking place at a Kroger Marketplace store in Mansfield, Ohio. The Marketplace concept debuted in Columbus in 2004, with a 109,000-square-foot[Read More…]
A&P was Walmart before there was a Walmart – the largest retailer in the world, with thousands of stores coast to coast. Now, though, the financially-troubled company is hoping to unload a 16-store Manhattan grocery chain in its latest effort to save itself, and its 300 or so remaining stores in the Northeast. A&P confirmed to Crain’s New York Business[Read More…]
