If selling cheap-chic isn’t working so well anymore, how about glamming up groceries? That’s looking to be Target’s new approach in the new year. Target is unveiling a new ad campaign that emphasizes its food offerings. In one commercial, a model clad in white holds a whisk and crushes an egg in her hand, as plumes of colorful smoke explode[Read More…]
Isn’t it nice of your local grocery store to offer free WiFi? That way, you can use your mobile device to email, go online – and have your every move tracked while you shop. Nice! It’s well known that one of the tradeoffs of having a store loyalty card is that your store knows what you’re buying. Plenty of shoppers[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…]
Price matching is the hot thing this season. But for all the attention given to Target‘s expanded holiday price match policy, the offer is so limited and cumbersome that even Target admits it expects few people to use it. Target made a splash last month, when it announced it would match select online retailers’ prices. It’s part of an effort[Read More…]
It’s not Walmart. It’s not even Aldi. The new grocery low-price leader is – would you believe – Dollar General? That’s not what Walmart would have you believe. The company trumpeted its price leadership at an investors conference last week, and the Wall Street Journal today headlined a Deutsche Bank price-comparison study that crowned Walmart the cheapest option. But while[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…]
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…]
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…]
As Walmart continues to run ads across the country, comparing its prices to supermarkets’, maybe it should have been keeping its eye on Target. Because Target has now toppled Walmart as the low-price leader – at least temporarily. A new Bloomberg Industries report finds that Target had lower prices overall than Walmart this month, for the first time since last[Read More…]
All week, grocery shoppers in Hampton Roads, Virginia have been told that “exciting things are in store” at Kroger. Today, those “exciting things” have been revealed. “Announcing New Low Prices!” the store’s weekly ad blares. A store executive tells the Virginian-Pilot newspaper that Kroger’s seven local supermarkets are cutting everyday prices on more than 10,000 of the 28,000 items in[Read More…]
