EQUITY RETAIL BLOG

Lidl's Bear, DE store construction delayed by supply chain issues

Lidl announced that its planned store in Bear, DE is several months behind and most likely won’t open for another year. The company blames COVID-19’s affect on the materials supply chain. The 30,000 square foot store, under construction at the site previously occupied by Countryside Nursery and Garden Center near the corner of Pulaski Highway […]

Giant launches 30-minute delivery service

The Giant Company announced recently that it has introduced 30-minute Instant Delivery for convenience products, fresh groceries and household essentials from Giant and Martin’s supermarkets. The company said that about 20,000 items are available for the service, including prepared foods, snacks and beverages, and household items like paper towels, cleaners and baby care products. The […]

Kimberton Whole Foods to open store in Wyomissing, PA

Kimberton Whole Foods announced recently that it will open a new store at The Knitting Mills in Wyomissing, PA in a space formerly occupied by the Vanity Fair Outlet Center. The location will be the chain’s seventh, and construction is slated to start in November. At 13,000 square feet it will be Kimberton Whole Foods’ […]

Instacart acquires maker of smart shopping cart

Instacart announced earlier this week that it has acquired smart shopping cart company Caper, Inc. for $350 million in cash and stock. The artificial intelligence-powered carts enable shoppers to scan items they select from grocery shelves and pay for them directly via the cart. Instacart said that the Caper Cart will become part of its […]

The Grocery Business Is Going To Get Much More Competitive

During the pandemic, home delivery and customer pickup of groceries exploded. Those changes are now significantly impacting the future of the grocery business, making the business harder and more competitive than before. There are two reasons why this is occurring: one is in home delivery and the other is in-store. Home Delivery With the realization […]

‘Sweat Equity’ Is Still Relevant In Real Estate Site Selection

Back when national retail and restaurant chains were blanketing the country with hundreds of stores, hunches occasionally played a role in real estate site-selection. As part of an East Coast rollout, an up-and-coming chain could open three or four new locations in each of several metro areas. If hard data on traffic, sales, demographics and […]

Why retail bankruptcies have stopped dead — for now

To appreciate the turnaround the entire retail industry has made over the past year, consider the months of July and August 2021 compared to July and August 2020. In 2020, over those two months, 11 major retailers filed for bankruptcy. Over the course of just seven days last July, five retailers went bankrupt (The Paper […]

Delivery robots carting ShopRite groceries from two PA stores

Pennsylvania ShopRite customers in Yardley and Bethlehem can now receive same-day delivery via battery-powered delivery robots. The robots “rolled” out as part of a pilot program between Wakefern, the retailer-owned cooperative, and technology company Tortoise, which provides last-mile delivery options. ShopRite is the first supermarket on the east coast to utilize the Tortoise delivery technology. […]

Digital grocery sales are soaring, but profits are not

A study released a week ago states that the biggest challenge facing grocery retailers today is the low profitability of their online business. In fact, according to the study, released by Wynshop in partnership with Incisiv and titled “State of Digital Grocery: Growth at the Cost of Profitability,” 86% of grocers are dissatisfied with their […]

This Amazon Fresh Store Is Only Blocks From A Whole Foods. Why?

The two grocery properties are in the same Washington, D.C., neighborhood. But the stores are on such different trajectories it may not matter. On a July day in Washington, D.C., the latest Amazon Fresh store opened. The checkout-free grocery concept allows customers to enter through a QR code tied to their Amazon app, place items […]