The good news for southern supermarket shoppers is that Belle Foods has reversed its decision to close several stores and hold going-out-of-business sales. The bad news is, it’s instead decided to sell off all of its stores. Could it be that the owners saw dollar signs when another southern supermarket chain sold for nearly two and a half billion dollars,[Read More…]
Ordinarily, a billion-dollar merger combining two grocery companies that supply more than a thousand stores and own 17 different supermarket banners would send shivers down the spines of shoppers. Will the new owners mess with the stores? Will their products and sales be as good? Will they change the coupon policy? But there’s been little customer hand-wringing in reaction to[Read More…]
Price matching has become all the rage recently, as retailers try to curry favor with customers and gain the upper hand over their competitors. So why is one of the country’s largest supermarket chains calling it quits on its price-match program? Safeway introduced “Deal Match” in 2011, in two markets – the Hawaiian island of Oahu, and at Safeway-owned Dominick’s[Read More…]
There’s been some buzz about a lawsuit filed this week that some fear – or hope – might make the Kroger-Harris Teeter deal dead in the water. But fear not (or, don’t get your hopes up). The suit is likely just to line the lawyers’ pockets, and possibly force the companies to pass the costs on to customers. Nice. Attorneys[Read More…]
So far this year, at least nine grocery chains have come under new ownership. Could your store be the tenth? Kroger’s announcement last week that it’s buying Harris Teeter represents the biggest, and latest, deal in the grocery merger and acquisition game (read: “Sold! Kroger Buys Harris Teeter”). About six weeks earlier, Bi-Lo scooped up Sweetbay, Harveys and Reid’s (read:[Read More…]
You can add another activity to the list of things you shouldn’t do in a thunderstorm. Don’t take a shower. Don’t use the phone. And now, apparently, don’t go grocery shopping. A Louisiana woman learned that the hard way yesterday, when she was struck by lightning – inside a grocery store, while checking out. Thankfully, she’s okay. “I felt, like,[Read More…]
Harris Teeter fans have had a week now to digest the news that their favorite regional grocery store will soon be swallowed up by supermarket giant Kroger (read: “Sold! Kroger Buys Harris Teeter”). The initial cries of horror have turned into quieter grumbles of discontent, but the bottom line remains that the vast majority of Harris Teeter shoppers are not[Read More…]
Why wait til Monday when you can get a Twinkie today? Despite a huge marketing push heralding July 15th as the official return of the Twinkie, some stores are jumping the gun and selling them already. Might as well put them on the shelves now, than have desperate fans trying to break down the back door to get at the[Read More…]
Loyalty cards are out, but competitors’ coupons are in at Shaw’s. Meantime, the grocery chain is finding out the hard way that it still needs to stick price tags on everything. In all but a half dozen stores, that is, because they’re shutting down. Got all that? Three unrelated developments could change the way New Englanders do their shopping at[Read More…]
The country’s largest supermarket chain just got larger. Kroger announced today that it’s buying North Carolina-based Harris Teeter. The $2.4 billion deal will bring 212 new stores into the Kroger fold (for a total of 2,631 stores), and give the company a much bigger profile in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic. But what will it mean for Harris Teeter shoppers? Kroger[Read More…]
