Halloween is three months from today – so what are you waiting for? Better head to your local grocery store and start stocking up on candy! “Holiday creep” has made its way into the dead of summer, as there are several reports of Halloween candy displays going up in supermarkets. Joe found some at a grocery store in Vermont. Cliff[Read More…]
Everyone loves a good popularity contest. Which is why, as you may have read this week, media outlets pounced on a survey that proclaimed Trader Joe’s the most popular grocery store in the country. Some even gleefully pointed out that Walmart was ranked as the “worst”. But the truth, as they say, is a little more complicated. The fact remains[Read More…]
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…]
