EQUITY RETAIL BLOG

Grocery Outlet continues expansion in Philadelphia

Grocery Outlet opened its fifth Philadelphia store last week, bringing a “much-needed local grocery option to the area,” according to the company. The store, located on 1801 North American Street in North Philadelphia, will be run by independent operators Jess Loflin and Marie Cole. Grocery Outlet’s strategy is to offer low prices by opportunistically buying […]

Dick's Bets on House of Sport

Dick’s Sporting Goods is trying to score with customers who want an engaging, hands-on in-store experience by pushing a big expansion of its House of Sport concept. Dick’s has been closing its remaining Field & Stream stores, with plans to convert some of them into its House of Sport concept or large-format Dick’s stores by […]

Lidl lays off 200 U.S. employees but "is still a danger for the U.S. grocery market"

“Lidl is still a danger for the U.S. (grocery) market.” That’s the statement made by Sebastian Rennack, a retail analyst at Aletos Advisory in Germany, in response to Lidl’s decision last month to layoff 200 U.S. corporate employees. The company’s geographical penetration in the U.S. is low, he says, because the locations were not well […]

Grocers plan to test ChatGPT

A new survey revealed that grocers are ready to experiment with ChatGPT, the chatbot AI technology that’s taking the world by storm. In the survey conducted by Grocery Doppio, Incisiv and Wynshop, findings included the following: 67% of grocers say they have discussed ChatGPT at senior level meetings 82% of grocers consider AI a necessity […]

Fiscal Retail Sales Up 9.4%

Recently released financial numbers for the year 2022 from retailers (most of whose fiscal years ended in January) shows that US sales were up 9.4%, not adjusting for inflation. However, even including inflation (which increased 6.4% in the past 12 months), retail sales were still significantly increased over 2021. Most categories showed positive increases over […]

Big Shifts, Strong Opportunities: A 20-Year Analysis of Banking Real Estate Trends

Equity Retail Brokers is known for its expertise in the Greater Philadelphia banking sector, but the team recently decided to zoom out for a big-picture look at the national data on U.S. bank real estate over the past 20 years. Using five-year increments running from 2003 to 2022, Equity Retail Brokers’ banking experts dove into […]

What do Zillennials want?

They’re 30 million strong, they live at home and they are willing to tell you all about their spending habits. Is your marketing strategy geared for the Zillennial micro-gen? A recent Forbes article honed in on the Zillennials micro-generation, the hybrid population that was born between 1990 and 2000. They’re 23-33 year-olds, bridging the Millennial […]

Kroger and Albertson may sell 250-300 stores to satisfy antitrust concerns

According to a recent report by Reuters citing unnamed sources, Kroger and Albertsons are discussing plans to divest between 250 and 300 stores in order to satisfy antitrust concerns around their proposed merger. The potential store closings may span across all the regions where the companies operate and could generate more than $1 billion through […]

Ahold Delhaize posts big sales gain in Q4

Giant Food parent Ahold Delhaize posted a strong performance in their most recent quarter, including a 9.2% increase in sales. Food Lion and Hannaford led the way, with same-store sales up by double-digits. Stop & Shop also performed well, according to a report in Supermarket News (SN). CEO Frans Muller told SN that he expects […]

'Marty' the Giant Food Store robot tried to escape a PA store

A post of Marty the Giant Food Store robot escaping into the parking lot went viral earlier this week. It (or is it he or she?) apparently made a run for it from its home in the Northampton, PA store. Marty roamed the parking lot for a little while until a human Giant employee (as […]