RUNNING WITH EQUITY RETAIL

Digital grocery budgets to rise despite losses in 2023

U.S. digital grocery sales ended the year at approximately $121 billion, down from $128 billion in 2022, yet overall grocery sales increased 3.1% to $926 billion for the year, according to a report from Grocery Doppio as reported in Supermarket News. Despite the decrease in digital sales, executives remain optimistic and still plan to invest […]

Pennsylvania saw the nation's largest grocery price increases in the last year

A recent report from Consumer Affairs said that the state of Pennsylvania and city of Philadelphia had the highest grocery price increases in the country over the last year. At 8.2% and 7.4% respectively, the state and city saw increases significantly higher than the 5.3% national average. Consumer Affairs, a customer review and consumer news […]

FTC to rule on Kroger-Albertsons merger by Dec 15

The Cincinnati Business Courier reported last week that Kroger told the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that it had met all the antitrust law requirements for its $24.6 billion merger with Albertsons. The FTC now has until December 15 to respond, at which time it can let the deal proceed, ask for more information, or take […]

Price Chopper purchases ShopRite's assets in upstate NY

Northeast supermarket chain Price Chopper/Market 32 announced yesterday that it finalized the purchase of the leases, store equipment and fixtures of the five ShopRite stores in the Albany, NY market that recently closed. Price Chopper intends to convert two stores to the Market 32 brand and sublease the location directly across from an existing Market […]

Aldi, fastest-growing grocer in the U.S., named retailer of the year

Progressive Grocer, a leading publisher in the food retail business, named Aldi its Retailer of the Year, stating that shoppers seeking relief from high grocery prices – and seeking products not found anywhere else – have become obsessed with them. Furthermore, “the fastest-growing grocer in the country just added more fuel to the rocket ship” […]

Giant Food Stores announced this week that it plans to move from its Allentown location on West Emmaus Avenue to the South Mall in Salisbury Township in 2025. The new 68,000 square foot store will open in the vacated Bon-Ton space, with a fuel station on a pad.

Gerrity's completes conversion to The Fresh Grocer

Gerrity’s supermarkets recently transitioned to The Fresh Grocer and became the 48th member of Wakefern Food Corp., the retailer-owned cooperative whose members independently own and operate grocery stores, including ShopRite and Price Rite brands, among others. The family-owned supermarket business, which began in 1895, consists of 10 Pennsylvania locations in Lackawanna, Luzerne, and Northampton counties. […]

Amazon closes apparel stores but plans to step up supermarket business

Amazon closed its two Amazon Style stores last week, less than two years after it shuttered its stand-alone bookstores and other non-grocery stores. However, the company said physical retail is still important and noted that it plans to expand brick-and-mortar grocery stores. “Physical retail remains an important part of our business,” according to Amazon spokesperson […]

Grocery Outlet hits $1B in net sales for Q3

Grocery Outlet announced last week that it reached the $1 billion mark in net sales for the company’s third quarter, which represents a 9.3% increase compared to the same period a year ago. In addition, comparable store sales increased 6.4%, while Grocery Outlet’s gross margin increased by 31.4%. The discount retailer, which opened eight stores […]

History says FTC will approve Kroger-Albertsons merger

According to an article in Supermarket News, a white paper recently released by the International Center for Law & Economics titled “Food-Retail Competition, Antitrust Law, and the Kroger/Albertsons merger” points out that the FTC has shown a pattern of approving deals that include the selling of stores. In fact, the paper states that over the […]