If you’re going shopping this weekend, and paying with a credit card – watch out. Beginning Sunday, stores can charge you extra for it. Under the terms of a settlement reached last year, stores will have the option of adding a surcharge for credit card payments – passing the cost that they already pay to the credit card companies, on[Read More…]
Remember when Webvan was going to revolutionize the supermarket industry? Ordering your groceries online and having them delivered to your doorstep was going to be the way we all shopped in the future. But Webvan went bust a dozen years ago. So is it the future yet? In an era when music stores have been supplanted by music downloads, and[Read More…]
First, there was relief – several troubled supermarket chains would get deep-pocketed new owners. Then came uncertainty – who are these new owners, and what do they really want with these stores? Then came the realization – they’ve likely rescued the stores from an owner that was running them into the ground, just for the value of the ground they’re[Read More…]
(1/11 update – read: “Bigger, Better, or Goners? What’s in Store For Your Jewel-Osco, Acme, Shaw’s and Star Market”) The troubled supermarket operator Supervalu has now confirmed what’s long been rumored – it’s selling off several of its chains. Chicago-based Jewel-Osco, Philadelphia-based Acme, Boston-based Shaw’s and Star Market, and Albertsons stores in California, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington[Read More…]
If you’re saving up your pennies to buy the perfect holiday gift – be careful. Your local store may not take them. Portland, Oregon-based Fred Meyer found itself in the middle of a social media firestorm over the past 24 hours, after its Facebook fans reacted angrily to the story that a suburban Seattle woman shared last night: “My daughter[Read More…]
Sure, you like your local grocery store, but have you “liked” them? A roundup of the most and least popular grocery retailers on social media sites (see the full list below) can yield some interesting insights, though it also shows that “likes” aren’t necessarily everything. Florida-based Publix was recently criticized (in “Frozen & Refrigerated Buyer” magazine) for being “technology-challenged”: “Yes,[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…]
There’s a range of reaction to the news this week that Supervalu is closing dozens of Albertsons, Save-a-Lot, ACME and Jewel-Osco supermarkets (read: “Supervalu Sheds More Stores”). “I’m really upset about it,” said one customer of a soon-to-be-shuttered store. “Just a sign of the times,” sighed another. Only four ACME stores are on the list. But news of the impending[Read More…]
The good news from troubled grocery chain Supervalu is that the company isn’t going under, at least not imminently. The bad news is that your local store might be. Supervalu announced today that it will close about 60 “underperforming or non-strategic stores” over the next few months. Southern California will be hardest hit, with 19 area Albertsons locations on the[Read More…]
Back in the Dark Ages of self-scanning at the supermarket – way back in 2011 – customers thought it was cool if they could use a store-provided “wand” to scan their items as they shopped. Yawn, that’s so last year. Now, at least one major supermarket chain is letting customers scan items with their own phone – and soon, you[Read More…]
