AU: Convenience is king in retail wars
Convenience, not quality, is proving the greatest lure for fresh produce buyers. Despite current popular diets such as juicing, Paleo eating, vegan cooking and avoiding gluten, Aussie consumers are largely putting convenience and price before nutrition and quality when it comes to fresh produce.
Convenience, not quality, is proving the greatest lure for fresh produce buyers. Despite current popular diets such as juicing, Paleo eating, vegan cooking and avoiding gluten, Aussie consumers are largely putting convenience and price before nutrition and quality when it comes to fresh produce.
Supermarket chains like Gessa, Walmart and Auto Mercado are looking with optimism the coming year and pushing forward with their expansion plans, even though they consider the Costa Rica market increasingly competitive.
Carrefour to let clients take part in backstage activities
For one week (beginning the 5th October), Carrefour’s clients will be able to sign up to take part in a fun selection of behind the scene activities in their hypermarket. The happy few will be able to do things like make the bread in the pastry department, cut the meat alongside the butchers, or get involved in the fish or fruit and vegetable aisles. The idea is to show that the bread is made in store, to meet local producers and show how the company deals with food wastage.
Carrefour to open first hypermarket in Abidjan
Carrefour will open their first hypermarket in Abidjan in November (rather than October as planned). The opening will create 1,000 job opportunities and is the first investment project amongst a series of 70 shopping malls across West Africa and the Centre, with priority on the Ivory Coast. It has already been announced that six other hypermarkets will be created on the Ivory Coast.
A&P poised to sell more stores in N.Y.C. region
A&P is getting sold off bit by bit, with a dozen stores tentatively set to be sold to rival grocer Wakefern Food Corp., parent of the Shop-Rite supermarket chain. A&P is gradually selling off its stores to rival grocery chains as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Those that aren't sold will be shut down.
Grocery store wars have only just begun in Houston
Houston’s grocery store chains are offering an ever-wider variety of products and experiences to shoppers, one-upping each other time again as they engage in a take-no-prisoners battle for Houstonians’ notoriously fickle supermarket dollars.
“From a national perspective, Houston is one of the most competitive grocery markets in the country,” says Kristal Howard, public relations manager for Kroger Southwest. Why? Well, for one thing, we don’t have a dominant local supermarket brand, as most cities do. Technically, the top three grocers in the area are Walmart, H-E-B and Kroger respectively, but they’re really neck and neck, each occupying roughly a quarter of the overall market, according to industry publication The Shelby Report.
Walmart doubles down on online grocery shopping with curbside pickup
Walmart today is announcing an expansion of its online grocery shopping service with launches in eight additional markets, as well as plans for a continued rollout to several more regions in the months ahead. The news comes at a time when a number of startups and larger companies, including Amazon, are vying to become consumers’ preferred online grocery delivery service.
Amazon Spain starts online grocery sales
Amazon Spain has entered the Spanish grocery market via a new "Supermarket" section on the amazon.es portal, reports Expansion. The e-commerce giant has decided to take on local supermarket chains such as Carrefour, Mercadona and El Corte Ingles by offering a wide range of non-perishable food and cleaning products. Orders can be received within 24 hours and Amazon Prime subscribers won't have to pay delivery charges. In addition, the e-commerce giant is offering same-day delivery of items ordered before 14.45 for users resident in Madrid.
Whole Foods cuts workforce by 1,500
Grocery chain Whole Foods is to cut its workforce by around 1,500 over the next two months. The staff being let go represent around 1.6% of Whole Foods' current workforce but the company said it expected a sizeable number of those being made redundant would successfully apply to work elsewhere within the organization.
The organic groceries seller added more than 9,000 jobs last year but has decided to retrench to free up money to enable it to lower prices.
Tesco retains lead in grocery war as Lidl lures shoppers
The latest supermarket data from research group Kantar Worldpanel shows that Tesco has managed to keep its number one position as Ireland's biggest grocery retailer, fending off a continuing challenge from SuperValu.
The latest Kantar data shows that Tesco had a 24.8pc share of Ireland's multi-billion Euro grocery market in the 12 weeks to September 13. Aldi and Lidl both posted strong gains. Lidl's share of the market rose 0.6 percentage points to 9pc, while Aldi's rose 0.2 percentage points to 8.7pc.
Super Market food sales in Greece drop 1.9%
Super market food sales in Greece will drop by 1.9 percent in 2015, an analysis by the Research Institute of Retail Consumer Goods (IELKA) shows.
Despite the fact that in the first six months of 2015, there was a 1.25 percent increase in sales, and July showed a spectacular 6 percent rise, an increase in the value added tax, the upcoming tax bills and general consumer psychology will bring an estimated drop of 5 percent in food sales.
Metcash plays down threat of expanding Aldi in south and west
Metcash chief executive Ian Morrice says investors are over-simplifying the problems facing the company in South Australia and Western Australia when German discounter Aldi starts in 2016, by automatically assuming the eastern states' experience will be repeated.
Mr Morrice said some of the best supermarkets in the nation were trading under the IGA and Foodland banner supplied by Metcash in those states, and they were primed and ready to do battle on price, convenience and quality, and were better-positioned than independent stores were in Victoria and NSW for the entry of Aldi with its low-cost model.
Lidl and Groupe Casino improve French market share
Lidl and Groupe Casino improved their market shares in France on a like-for-like basis between 10 August and 6 September, according to Kantar Worldpanel, while those of Auchan, Carrefour and others regressed, lsa-conso.fr reports.
On a like-for-like basis, Lidl France’s hold of market share went up by 0.3 per cent to take it to 4.6 per cent overall, while that of Casino was boosted by 0.2 per cent, taking it to 11.6 per cent. The Casino group’s performance owes primarily to that of its discount arm, Leader Price, LSA says.