In the usual course of events, when Amazon or its close sibling Whole Foods opens a new food-retailing format, a huge burst of publicity ensues, often featuring enthusiastic, ill-informed predictions about how the new format… Read More
The dam has burst. It’s now evident that there’s no stopping the proliferation of curbside pickup points being rolled out by food retailers. The most compelling indication of that came a short time ago when… Read More
The first preview emerged a few weeks ago when Amazon acknowledged that the Whole Foods “365” format would no longer exist. Later, it was further acknowledged that all 12 of those stores would be converted… Read More
How about getting lunch from a vending machine? Strangely enough, maybe yes. The seemingly antiquated technology behind enterprises such as the Automat are taking on modern aspects and resurfacing in unexpected ways. One version is… Read More
Not too long ago, the sales of private label products stood as a useful barometer for food retailing and the economy in general. When the economy was in decline, which caused a drop in food… Read More
As food retailing’s big three go, so goes all of food retailing. That’s not as extravagant a claim as it might seem. Walmart, Kroger and Albertsons together sell the vast majority of all food and… Read More
A strange thing happened to Blue Apron on its way to an IPO, and then in its aftermath. The whole experience for Blue Apron was an economic misadventure, which tells us a lot about the… Read More
The Amazon Go concept is innovative enough that it may prove to be a highly disruptive force. Yet, it might be a little too soon for anyone in established food retailing to despair. Nonetheless, let’s… Read More
Every now and then news crosses my desk that seems so unlikely that I suspect it might be a hoax. Of course, that happens with alarming frequency when it comes to political news, but in… Read More
It has been almost exactly one year since Amazon made its stunning buyout of specialty grocery retailer Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion. So, what better time than now to take a look at how… Read More
