EQUITY RETAIL BLOG

Sam's Club testing high-end product offerings

Sam’s Club CEO Roz Brewer said last month that an ongoing test to see how customers would react to high-end and luxury product offerings has been successful so far. According to Brewer, it provides “a look into the future of where we could go with our business.” Earlier this year a Sam’s Club store in […]

Five Giant stores in Southeastern PA among winning bidders for expired liquor licenses

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) announced winning bidders yesterday for 37 “zombie” liquor licenses, and Giant Food Stores won 11 of them. Interested parties had to submit sealed bids for the licenses, which had expired. The Giant stores in Southeastern Pennsylvania with winning bids include Bristol Township (Bucks County), Coatesville and East Caln (Chester), […]

Walter Robb out as Whole Foods co-CEO, will remain on board of directors

Whole Foods announced yesterday that Walter Robb, who has served as co-CEO for the last six years, would no longer serve in that position but will remain as a member of the company’s board of directors. John Mackey, with whom Robb has served as co-CEO, will become the sole CEO. The changes will take effect […]

Amazon may be planning to open 2,000 grocery stores

A Business Insider report earlier this week suggested that Amazon envisions having 20 bricks-and-mortar grocery stores open by the end of 2018, and as many as 2,000 in another 10 years. The report said the information was gathered from internal memos sent between 2014 and 2016. Amazon has not commented publicly. According to Business Insider, […]

Bass Pro Buying Cabela's

Fortune: Bass Pro Acquiring Cabela’s for $4 Billion

Kmart to Close at Least 24 More Kmarts by End of 2016

Consumerist Article

Amazon planning to sell groceries at its own convenience stores

A Wall Street Journal story last week outlined Amazon’s plans to expand its grocery business with new, bricks-and-mortar convenience stores. According to the story, Amazon envisions having stores that would sell milk, produce, meats and other perishable items that customers could take home. And using mobile phones, customers could order products like cereal and peanut […]

Albertsons' IPO plans at a standstill

Albertsons‘ IPO plans have been halted again, this time due to price deflation that has affected sales and earnings across the supermarket industry. Albertsons (Acme, Albertsons, Safeway, Vons and several others) originally proposed a public offering a year ago, but postponed it when Walmart’s announcement about earnings pressure prompted an industry-wide drop in valuations. Analysts […]

Lidl's next US target is Texas

German discount grocer Lidl, which is well on its way to opening about 100 stores on the East Coast in 2018, confirmed last Friday to Supermarket News that it also plans to expand into Texas. The move is seen as confirmation that the company is targeting competitive grocery markets, as Houston and Dallas are among the […]

Private equity firm to buy Save-A-Lot for $1.365 billion

Supervalu announced yesterday that it has entered into an agreement with private equity firm Onex Corp. to sell Save-A-Lot for $1.365 billion. The deal is expected to close by January 31, 2017. Supervalu and Onex also announced that they have entered into a five-year agreement where Supervalu would continue to provide support for Save-A-Lot, including merchandising technology, […]