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, […]
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, […]
Canadian private equity firm said to be leading bidder for Save-A-Lot
On Friday published reports indicated that Onex, a Toronto-based private equity firm, is the leading bidder to purchase Save-A-Lot from Supervalu. An auction is underway to find a buyer. Prior to the auction, Supervalu had planned to spin off the discount grocer into a publicly traded company controlled by Supervalu shareholders.
Albertsons banners – including Acme – to expand e-commerce
On the heels of a recent analyst report recommending that food retailers slow their e-commerce efforts, MyWebGrocer announced that several Albertsons banners – including Acme – plan to add “click-and-collect” and delivery service on its platform. Albertsons has used MyWebGrocer’s software since 2012 for online shopping lists and circulars. A report released earlier this month […]
Study concludes that food retailers should focus on families, not e-commerce or millennials
A study on food and beverage buying released earlier this month by Tabs Analytics concluded that food retailers should slow their investments in e-commerce and on millennials, and focus instead on old-fashioned promotional spending at stores and on marketing to households with children. The study included 1,000 geographically and demographically dispersed consumers between 18 and […]