We all live in a topsy-turvy world. There are more than a few reasons that we know this is true, but for the moment let’s focus on this strange fact: Amazon, the quintessential online retailer, has recently dipped its toes into the world of brick-and-mortar retailing. It started with the opening of Amazon bookstores. Amazon could soon open food stores by 2018. It’s rumored that the first stores will open in Seattle and San Francisco, perhaps with more to follow in New York City, Miami and Las Vegas. If the first wave of food stores …
Image Matters
The long-anticipated merger of two powerhouse European supermarket operators finally happened this summer. The merger of the two firms—Ahold of The Netherlands and Delhaize of Belgium—has great implications for food retailing in the U.S., far more than in Europe. That’s because the combined entity, known as Ahold Delhaize, operates a battalion of 2,000 supermarkets along the East Coast, from Maine to Georgia. That makes it one of the biggest players in the country. In total, Ahold Delhaize runs 6,500 food stores in 11 countries, but …
Irrational Fear of Amazon Go
Should supermarket executives start ripping out their hair in despair because of Amazon’s new Amazon Go food-store format in Seattle? Well, judging by some of the breathless publicity that has surrounded the new store, that might be the only reasonable course of action. Predictions abound that supermarkets will be driven out of business and thousands or millions of store workers will be kicked out of their jobs. Let’s hold on. Before anyone takes drastic action on account of Amazon’s little store experiment, let’s take a closer look at …
Hidden in Plain Sight
Every now and then, a sticky situation that has long existed, hidden behind the curtain, is suddenly thrust onto center stage. A recent manifestation of this is food waste. The new focus on food waste is destined to have a big effect on food production and retailing. More than that, this waste issue is likely to spill over to other forms of retailing as well. There’s no doubt that food waste is a big problem in the U.S. And there’s growing consumer attention to the fact that untold amounts of food are wasted in every link in the production …
Kroger’s Private Recipe
The Kroger Co. Has Been on Quite a Tear For a while now, Kroger has posted what is doubtless the best financial record of any conventional supermarket company. Check out these metrics: For 49 quarters in a row, it has registered increases in identical-store sales, excluding fuel. For the same period, it posted an unbroken chain of market-share increases—and for a full decade, has delivered double-digit compound increases in shareholder dividends. With 431,000 employees, Kroger is the third-largest employer in the nation, after Walmart and UPS. …
Why Would Supervalu Sell Its Crown Jewel?
Suppose a company that has long been in flux and owns a comparatively promising retailing asset decides to spin it off. Is this a good move for the owners, or a sign of desperation — buying time before something bad happens to the parent company? Of course, the latter is generally the case, as we’ll see when we take a look at Supervalu’s pending spinoff of its retailing subsidiary, Save-A-Lot. We’ll also see what this might mean for other retailers. Supervalu, based in Minnesota, is a major grocery wholesaler to many independent and chain …
New Frontiers for Supermarkets
Is this a great time for supermarkets to be rolling out new formats or expanding to new geography? The outlook for either isn’t too promising. As readers of “The Robin Report” well know, the industry has experienced the long goodbye of Fresh & Easy, Tesco’s entry into the U.S., followed by the quick and startling demise of Haggen. An 18-store supermarket retailer, Haggen acquired nearly 150 Albertsons supermarkets in new and remote territories. In fewer than six months, the whole thing collapsed and Haggen is now …
Debt Load Sinks Fairway. Who’s Next?
In a long-anticipated development, Fairway Market filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this week. Supermarket operator Fairway might not be well known to those outside New York City and its suburbs, but for many years it has been the much-beloved store of choice for shoppers passionate about food and specialty ingredients. Gourmands were attracted to the stores’ mass displays of product and quirky hand-written signs pointing to specialty departments and product attributes. For a time, one store featured a cold room where fresh food — fish …