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June 14, 2018
admin
In Secretary-Treasurer's Report

How you can respond to anti-union myths

While anti-union groups across the country often present themselves as “pro-worker,” they are really front organizations backed by enormously wealthy individuals and companies.

They think it’s okay for wealthy folks to band together as corporations and trade groups, while regular working people should be kept weak and divided, without strong unions to represent their interests.

They are committed to making sure that workers’ voices are silenced. They want employees to accept whatever is handed to them without complaint.

To advance their anti-worker agenda, these groups promote certain myths that are pushed by their sponsored media outlets. As a result, many of these falsehoods are accepted without question by large numbers of Americans who should know better.

You may have a family member, a friend or even a co-worker who repeats these anti-union myths in casual conversation. What can you say in response to affirm union beliefs and principles?

Here are a few examples of what anti-union people say and how you could respond to them:

Anti-union myth: “Unions are no longer necessary.”

This claim is beyond false, to the point of being ridiculous. Nationwide, the decline in union membership over the past few decades has corresponded with widespread stagnation of wages and a decline in real incomes for middle class families.

The middle class is shrinking and college graduates are putting off buying homes and cars because of low salaries. Meanwhile, productivity is higher than ever and corporate profits are through the roof.

So, where is the money going? It’s not going to the worker. It’s going to CEOs and wealthy investors, leading to increasing income inequality.

This in itself, is a great argument for workers to have a union.

We all know people in our industries who worked under a union contract, left to work another job that wasn’t union, and can’t believe how much they have to pay for medical benefits. They also get no pension or guaranteed raises.

Corporations won’t fix these problems on their own and neither will government. Unions exist to put power in the hands of workers themselves so they can act in their own interests and restore their footing in the middle class.

Anti-union myth: “Unions are undemocratic.”

Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, unions are among the most democratic organizations anywhere.

As opposed to corporations, which make top-down decisions dictated by their CEOs, directors and investors, unions are bottom-up organizations where the members approve their bylaws and vote on their contracts. Each union has member committees and member meetings that help ensure opportunities for participation are available to all.

Anti-union myth: “Unions increase labor costs, leading companies to send jobs overseas.”

This allegation is completely refuted by history.

If a highly unionized workplace was, as the argument goes, the cause of companies sending jobs overseas, then the absence of high union density should lead to very few jobs going overseas, right?

Well, union density in the private sector has been declining for decades. Yet in the last few decades, American businesses have shifted millions of good paying jobs overseas, despite huge increases in productivity at home and stagnating wages.

Consider these non-union corporations that have exported jobs in recent years: Home Depot, Walmart, Nike, Hewlett-Packard…

It’s not unions that lead to job loss. It’s greedy corporate executives who simply don’t want to share the fruits of higher productivity and profits with American workers — unionized or not.

It is 100 percent greed to increase salaries for CEOs and dividends for shareholders while leaving their workers behind to struggle.

Anti-union myth: “Unions lead to lower productivity and worker laziness.”

No. Not even close.

Studies show that productivity in unionized American workplaces is higher, with a meta-analysis noting that “a positive [association between unions and productivity] exists for the United States in general and for U.S. manufacturing in particular.”

Union workers continually set the highest standards in job performance and quality.

Keep these thoughts in mind whenever someone you know bashes American unions.

June 14, 2018
admin
In President's Report

#RedforEd: A labor victory in Arizona

The power of solidarity was on display for everyone to see as the teachers of Arizona stood together to demand justice. Our union, UFCW Local 99, stood with them.

Across the state, teachers wore red and took to the streets to seek better pay and adequate funding for their mission to educate our youth.

The great Arizona teacher’s strike ended just before dawn on May 3, when the state legislature passed, and Gov. Doug Ducey quickly approved, a much-needed 20% funding increase. They also agreed to invest an additional $138 million into Arizona’s public schools.

“We will return to our schools, classrooms and students knowing that we have achieved something truly historic,” Arizona Education Association President Joe Thomas and National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García said in a joint statement.

“We should take pride in what we have accomplished, and in the movement that we have created together.”

Arizona’s week-long #RedforEd walkout began almost spontaneously in the aftermath of similar actions in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kentucky, where educators rebelled against decades of budget cuts and “pension reforms” that demonstrated the low priority lawmakers had given to the professionals who teach at public schools.

The same trends were evident in Arizona, where misguided legislators have over the years dramatically cut taxes for wealthy individuals and corporations, in turn reducing revenues and putting the squeeze on students and teachers.

Many teachers in the state are forced to take second and third jobs to support themselves and their families. Still more of them routinely buy school supplies out of their own nearly-empty pockets.

This is not the way we should treat our teachers, who are entrusted to nurture, educate and inspire our children in their journey to adulthood and taking on the responsibilities of work, family and civic participation.

UFCW Local 99 has always been a strong advocate for education for our members, just as we have supported the struggles of educators to get the respect they deserve. This is why it is important for our union to support efforts to pass an initiative to create a permanent funding stream to ensure we live up to the commitments to fund education properly.

It’s also why I was grateful for the opportunity to address a rally for 50,000 people in support of the teachers’ cause.

As I looked out on a sea of people dressed in bright red and holding aloft signs of solidarity, I couldn’t be more proud of the Labor Movement and its potential for positive social change.

I spoke both as a labor leader and as a father of three. I also repeated what I said in a letter I wrote to Arizona’s educators a few days earlier:

“Make your demands. Again. And again. Know that you have friends all over this state. They, as am I, are proud to call you our Brothers and Sisters.”

See you in November!

June 4, 2018
admin
In News

Walmart’s grocery pickup is free, but how is the service?

According to the Time Use Institute, the average grocery shopping trip takes 41 minutes. But this varies dramatically based on factors, like the day and time you visit the store and the number of items in your grocery basket. Services like Instacart and Walmart Grocery make it so you can avoid grocery shopping in a brick-and-mortar store by doing your shopping online via an app or website.

Walmart Grocery offers delivery, pickup, or both options, depending on the market where you live. Walmart’s grocery pickup service is free to use, which makes it rather attractive for those looking to save money and time meandering around a crowded grocery store. All you do is drive up to the store, get your groceries loaded by employees, and leave.

We decided to give Walmart’s grocery pickup service a try. Looking at factors like the quality of the groceries when compared to an in-store grocery trip, customer service, cost, and time savings, we aimed to find out if the service is as great as it sounds.

walmart grocery pickup app

Ordering groceries on the app

Overall rating: good

We used the Walmart Grocery app to place our order, and found it to be, for the most part, user friendly and easy to navigate. To locate an item, you simply type it into the search box, and a variety of selections appear on the screen. It should be noted that some items require more extensive searching than others. For instance, it was more difficult to find specific brands of gluten-free items, even when typing the exact name and brand of the item into the search box. For some items, we had to try a few different searches like “gluten free granola bars,” “Annies gluten free,” and “gluten free Annies” to get the item we were looking for.

Our grocery order was substantial; the total for our order was $547.57, but this got us a lot of groceries (enough to feed a family of six for at least two weeks). We ordered a variety of items, ranging from produce and meats to foods for those with dietary restrictions (gluten free and lactose free). The available food selection was impressive, and ordering groceries via the app was relatively painless. It took us 58 minutes to input our order. However, you could input a smaller order in a few minutes (the app indicated the minimum order amount was $30).

You can reserve your pickup time in one-hour intervals either before or after you make your grocery selections. If you reserve your time beforehand, the app tells you a time period, and you have to check out to keep that time slot. Depending on when you order, there may be time slots available on the same day. There were no available time slots on the same day we were ordering, but there were many the following day and each day after. We selected 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. on the following day.

During checkout, you also indicate whether or not it’s OK for the store to make “substitutions.” This means, if the store is out of an item on your list, they can substitute it for a similar item. We marked no substitutions for our “dietary restriction” foods, but allowed substitutions for the remainder of our items.

Picking up groceries

Overall rating: fair

Our order was ready at approximately 2:15 p.m., which was right on time. An app alerted us and we also received an email that our items were ready. The email and the app instructed us to check in when we were on our way by pressing a button in the email or app notification. We checked in and headed to the store to pick up our order shortly thereafter.

When we arrived, we parked in the designated pickup area on the side of the Walmart store. The app told us it knew we were at the store, but we had to wait 18 minutes for someone to come out and greet us. The staff was friendly, but they didn’t say much to us. Overall, it took 33 minutes from the time we parked to the time we drove away with our groceries. According to the Walmart Grocery website, the associates cannot accept tips for pickup orders.

walmart grocery pickup lettuce

Grocery quality

Overall rating: fair

Upon unloading our order, we found out they had made several substitutions. Some of the substitutions made sense, like swapping different brand names, while others were a bit strange, like giving us fresh cauliflower instead of the fresh broccoli we ordered.

The produce and fresh food looked decent overall. The bananas were not overripe, the potatoes were fresh, and the green peppers weren’t damaged or dented. Two of our items were damaged, though. Our lactose-free milk was dented, and our leaf lettuce was badly wilted. One of our items — split chicken breast — was expiring the following day, but no items were past their expiration date.

Twelve items were missing from our grocery order. When we looked at the receipt, we noticed they did not charge us for two of the items, but they did charge us for the remaining 10 missing items — that’s $31.48 in groceries we were charged for.

Customer service

Overall rating: poor

We contacted the phone number provided in the email regarding the missing groceries, but getting the problem corrected was very difficult. It took us 10 calls back and forth to the Walmart store where we ordered to correct the issue. The store associates did not argue with us or deny the groceries were missing, but they sounded like they were too busy to handle the problem. We were asked to call back several times, or an associate would ask if they could call us back in five minutes and then 20 minutes would go by with no return call.

The associate hung up on us on two different occasions (we are unsure if this was an accident or not). The additional phone calls back and forth took us a total of 71 minutes from the first time we called to the time we had a resolution. To get the missing groceries, we had to make another trip to the same Walmart store to pick them up. On our second trip, the associate was friendly, but this time it took an additional 20 minutes for associates to bring the missing groceries to the pickup area.

So, is Walmart Grocery Pickup as convenient as it sounds?

When we added up the time it took to place our order, make two separate trips to Walmart, and make phone calls to correct the problems with our order, it took slightly more than three hours to complete the process. That seems like a lot of work, although hopefully not everyone will have to make a second trip to the store for missing goods.

Verdict? If you’re buying a large amount of groceries or you have very specific dietary needs, you may be better off going to a grocery store and purchasing your groceries or using another service.

This is not to say this service isn’t useful. With a few kinks worked out, this service could be valuable. For those with smaller grocery orders, the service may be a time saver.  So, is Walmart Grocery Pickup as great as it’s cracked up to be? That depends on what you value. You probably won’t get the same quality of groceries as you would if you were to search for the best dates on meats and the best looking produce when you pick them out yourself. You may not save a ton of time. But, this service does allow you to look in your fridge and pantry while you shop, preventing excess or impulse purchases. It also prevents having to actually grocery shop yourself, and to some people that’s priceless.

Source: Digital Trends

June 4, 2018
admin
In News

The Race Is On For Grocery Delivery, But Most Customers Still Want To Shop In Stores

In grocery retail, all eyes are on the prize of capturing the online grocery shopper. The Food Marketing Institute estimates online grocery sales will reach some $100 billion by 2025, or about 20% of the grocery retail market, though today only about 2% to 4.3% of industry sales originate online.

Target, Kroger, Vons/Safeway, Ahold-Delhaize (Giant and Stop & Shop), Foodtown, Harris Teeter, Trader Joe’s, H-E-B, Costco, Walmart and Sam’s Club are answering the call, as are services like Instacart, Peapod, FreshDirect, Google Express and Yummy.com.

Of course, Amazon is way out in front with an estimated 18% share of the online grocery market at the end of 2017, with full integration of its Whole Foods arm (acquired end of August 2017) pending. Most recently Amazon introduced free two-hour grocery delivery from Whole Foods for its Prime members in some trial markets and plans to expand to San Francisco, Atlanta and Los Angeles. In the first quarter 2018, One Click Retail estimates Amazon’s grocery sales grew by $200 million, nearly a 50% YoY increase.

Yet while no one disputes that online grocery is a growth market and will take more share away from brick-and-mortar retail, the biggest opportunity today (96-98%) and tomorrow (80%) remains in the physical store.

With everyone working overtime to get the last-mile delivery logistics working, they are overlooking the bigger opportunity right in their store aisles–make the in-store grocery shopping experience better.

Most Americans still like to shop in-store for groceries

A new study by Morning Consult reveals that a majority of American consumers are resisting the siren call for online shopping convenience in favor of the in-store shopping experience. Further, they are resistant to changing their habits anytime soon. Some 65% of consumers say they have no interest in buying food or beverages online, even when their options improve.

In the survey conducted in May 2018 among 2,200 American consumers, Morning Consult found that only one-third had ever purchased food or beverage products online. Early-adopters of online grocery shopping were men (38% have purchased groceries online), millennials (37%), GenXers (39%), urbanites (36%), middle-income ($50,000-$100,000 at 38%) and high-income shoppers ($100,000+ at 45%).

As for the few consumers who have clicked for their groceries, a majority (56%) have only done so a few times per year. Only 16% of those surveyed purchase packaged food or beverage online every week, with men (23%) and consumers aged 45-54 years (28%) more likely to be regular online shoppers.

“Among those consumers who have never purchased food and beverage products online, most (65%) say it’s because of a general preference for in-store shopping, as opposed to something specific like cost, convenience, or options available,” said Morning Consult cofounder Michael Ramlet. He goes on to note that fewer millennials (54%) have a general preference for in-store shopping, but that is still a majority of millennials.

Surprisingly, middle-income shoppers are way out in front of the high-income shoppers in weekly online grocery purchases, 20% to 10% among those with incomes over $100,000. By contrast 74% of affluents shop in physical stores weekly for groceries.

Delving deeper into the affluents’ feelings about online grocery shopping, the study finds that 59% of them have no interest in buying food and beverage products online, as compared with 21% who simply haven’t done so yet and 21% who are holding out until the available options improve. Since the typical affluent household spends about 75% more on food than average, these are the grocery store shoppers who really matter. They remain loyal to shopping in person.

Fish where the fishes are

As much as Amazon, Walmart, Kroger and all the rest hope that they can capture the loyalty of shoppers by providing at-home grocery delivery, the future for growth in the grocery business is and will remain for the foreseeable future in the store.

The fact is consumer habits are hard to break and their feelings even harder to change. Why not make their habits and feelings work for grocery retailers rather than trying to change them? Enhancing the in-store shopping experience is the bigger opportunity retailers are overlooking in their race to home delivery of online orders.

And just given the differences between the way people shop online versus in-store, grocery stores have a much greater chance to entice shoppers to add more products to their carts that aren’t already on their shopping list. Shoppers spend upwards of $5,400 more annually on impulse purchases, according to study done by Slickdeals.net, with over 70% of consumers saying food is the category they are most likely to splurge on when shopping. Impulse purchases for a sensory-stimulating products like food are much harder to resist in-store than online.

By trying to push more grocery sales online, retailers are depriving themselves of the opportunity to entice shoppers to spend more in-store through attractive displays, strategic merchandising, helpful and friendly personnel and mouth-watering sight, smell and taste experiences that can only be found in-store. Just go to any Wegmans to see how exciting and fun grocery shopping can be. This is where grocery stores can really clean up.

Source: Forbes

June 4, 2018
admin
In News

Walmart and Target are spending like crazy to stop Amazon

Walmart, Target and Kroger are opening their wallets to fend off Amazon.

They’re raising minimum wages to retain and attract workers. Stores are being remodeled to encourage customers to add a few extra items to their baskets each time they visit — and convince them to return. All three have lowered their prices.

The companies are optimizing stores and warehouses for speedy curbside pickups and grocery deliveries. Walmart is plowing cash into updating its website.

They’re also going on a buying spree.

Target bought grocery startup Shipt for $550 million last year, and Walmart bought e-commerce platform Jet.com for $3 billion in 2016.

On Wednesday, Kroger said it was scooping up meal-kit company Home Chef in a deal worth up to $700 million.

Last week, the grocery chain paid $250 million for a stake in British online supermarket Ocadoto help manage automated warehouses and leverage its digital technology in the United States.

Growing pains

The moves signal how far brick-and-mortar grocers and retailers today are reaching beyond their stores to fight off Amazon and adapt to online shopping.

“They are relying on acquisitions, which are proving to be very expensive, in order to catch up quickly or risk completely being outrun,” said Tom Gehani, director of client strategy and research at consulting firm Gartner L2.

Renovations, raises, supply chain optimizations, and acquisitions and demonstrate the high costs of slogging ahead with a long-term plan — one often at odds with Wall Street’s impatience.

Spending a ton of cash to ramp up digital operations, while slashing prices, has cut into profit margins at Walmart, Target and Kroger.

“Managing margins for an online business is very difficult,” said Cowen analyst Oliver Chen. “It’s a journey.”

Walmart is down 16% this year and Kroger has lost 10%. Target is up 9%, but shares fell sharply after it missed profit expectations.

Playing the long game

Despite Wall Street’s hesitancy about the companies’ near-term prospects, Walmart, Target and Kroger are plowing ahead, determined to stem the tide of fleeing customers by adapting to the digital age and changing consumer habits.

For example, Target CEO Brian Cornell said last year that the company would embark on a three-year, $7 billion effort to reposition it for the future. The strategy includes opening smaller stores in urban markets and rolling out more private label brands.

“We’re investing in our business with a long-term view of years and decades, not months and quarters,” he said.

Walmart is also rapidly searching for new growth opportunities.

The company admitted that Jet has failed to resonate with shoppers in the middle of the country, but it has acquired niche brands such as Bonobos, Modcloth. Walmart paid $16 billion last month for India’s Flipkart, its largest deal ever.

Kroger hopes the Ocado deal “will allow [it] to react to how the customer may want to change their shopping habits over time in a big way,” chief financial officer John Schlotman said at a conference last week. Many Kroger customers have defected to Whole Foods after Amazon lowered prices at Whole Foods.

Pick up or delivery?

All three companies hope to use their massive network of physical stores to their advantage in their battle against Amazon. They are all focusing efforts on so-called click-and-collect, where shoppers order items off their computers or phones and then drive to pick them up outside stores.

Walmart believes that its 4,760 US stores within 10 miles of 90% of Americans will allow the retailer to transition its real estate into shopping centers that can easily fulfill online orders, too.

It will have 2,100 pickup locations by the end of the year. Target plans to have 1,000 pickup spots by the end of 2018 for clothes, home appliances and groceries. And Kroger said in March that it has more than 1,000 collection sites. Expanding pickup can help these companies keep down expensive shipping costs.

“They need to use their core assets to drive relevance and connection with shoppers,” said Laura Kennedy, vice president of retail insights at Kantar Consulting. “Whether you are an apparel retailer, Walmart, or Kroger, Amazon has changed shoppers’ perception of convenience and speed.”

For customers who don’t want to pick up items at stores, the companies are ramping up their effort to deliver items quickly from stores to customers’ doors — despite the limited profitability shipping goods to your home.

Walmart will have grocery delivery available at around 800 stores by the end of the year, and Target will have same-day delivery for its stuff at close to all of its 1,822 US locations by then.

Investing in groceries is crucial for Walmart and Kroger to stay ahead, but they’re fighting to keep control of an already low-margin business. “Amazon has caused them to chase the wrong end of the profit spectrum,” Gehani said.

Walmart and Target have shown they’re capable of making the shift to digital. Walmart’s online sales grew 33% and Target’s jumped 28% last quarter from a year prior. Store upgrades are also helping: Same-store sales grew 2.1% at Walmart and 3% at Target last quarter.

“I like what Target’s doing,” Cowen analyst Chen said. “It takes a little time.”

Source: CNN Money

June 4, 2018
admin
In News

Walmart To Offer Personal Shoppers Via Text Message, Launch Jetblack Service For Express, Same-Day Delivery

After an annual meeting held by the retail giant in Arkansas, Walmart has publicly announced their intention to start a premium text-message-based personal shopping service, Forbes reports. Targeting a more upscale consumer who, in the words of the parent company, are “time-strapped urban parents” – Jetblack is the solution on offer.

For a prospective price of $50 per month, Jetblack members have the ability to text items they would like to purchase to working agents who would courier the item, delivering it the same day. Customers looking for more general advice on, say, birthday or anniversary presents would be eligible to receive free suggestions and follow-up delivery from personal shopping specialists.

Notable items that Jetblack has gone on-record as not being eligible for delivery are alcohol products and groceries, feasibly for legal reasons, as well as for reasons of direct competition when it comes to grocery delivery.

Jetblack was honed to a precision point in focus testing at Walmart’s in-house incubator, Store No. 8, as CNN Money reports. Led by Rent the Runway co-founder Jenny Fleiss, the new texting service will likely be supported nationwide after rolling out to smaller test markets. The focus will be on a more harried, time-sensitive customer who wants high-quality goods delivered to their home or office on the double.

“With Jetblack, we have created an entirely new concept that enables consumers to get exactly what they need through the convenience of text messaging and the freedom of a nearly unlimited product catalogue,” Fleiss said in a prepared statement. Her experience with Rent the Runway, a successful service offering rental of haute couture designer dresses, apparel, and accessories, lends itself seemingly well to the curation of a personal shopping set-list.

Revolutionizing retail seems to be the battlecry du jour in an uncertain sector facing massive competition to traditional strongholds embodied by large malls and enormous supercenters. Brick and mortar sales are struggling across the board with thousands of store closures over the past few years coinciding with titanic bankruptcies having been filed by the likes of Toys R’ Us, and Sears Canada, as reported by CNN. Sears Holding Corp., the American side of the business and parent to many other divisions, could be liquidated as early as this year, according to The Street.

Should Jetblack succeed, it will be the first among many services looking to give extremely personalized, customized, and individualized delivery to customers, according to Martech Today. No longer content with idly browsing store shelves looking for a generic, catch-all product, today’s consumers demand more choice. Walmart has not been resting on their laurels in this regard, having recently acquired indie-clothing favourites ModCloth, as Forbes reported, online-based outdoor equippers Moosejaw, as reported by the Detroit Free Press, and menswear brand Bonobos, as the New York Times reported.

Adding these stars to a constellation reinforced by the absolutely enormous acquisition of the massive Indian online-retailer Flipkart for about $16 billion, as CNN recently reported, the sky certainly does look very bright indeed for Walmart and their most recent experiment in the form of Jetblack.

Source: Inquisitr

June 1, 2018
admin
In News

Walmart’s New High Tech Small Supermarket

Walmart’s store will stock more than 8,000 items ranging from stir-fried clams to fresh fruit, 90 percent of which will also be available online.

Items shopped can be delivered to customers within a 2 kilometer radius from JD.com as quickly as 29 minutes, said Walmart in a statement.

Walmart also said that customers at the new supermarket will be able to use a mini program on WeChat as they shop to bypass traditional checkout counters by paying via their mobile device.

As the war between Amazon and Walmart heats up and both companies make heavy investments in technology and experiment with new store formats, it is critical for traditional grocers to up their game as well. Today Amazon leads Walmart in online food sales by double, however its important to note that those who shop Walmart online are doing a full grocery shop including fresh, frozen and refrigerated, while Amazon shoppers do not. Yet.

Source: Supermarket Guru

June 1, 2018
admin
In News

See where Aldi will be opening around metro Phoenix

We are starting to see where German discount grocer Aldi will be opening up shop around the Valley.

ABC 15 and theArizona Republic have both published lists of where Aldi could be opening stores, based off permits and building plans filed with the individual cities. Between the time ABC 15 and the Arizona Republic published their stories, more Aldi permits were filed.

The Phoenix Business Journal reached out to Aldi this week seeking confirmation on any of these reported locations. A company spokeswoman said there was nothing to share yet, and earlier this year, Aldi told the PBJ that it would not share any information on expansion areas or potential store location until plans were solidified.

In a recent report published by commercial real estate services company CBRE Group Inc. Aldi finalized three new locations during the first quarter of 2018. The CBRE report shows that Aldi purchased buildings in Tempe and Glendale and executed a lease in Chandler. Aldi could start opening stores in Phoenix in 2019, according to CBRE.

The Maricopa County Assessor’s website shows that Aldi (Arizona) LLC has purchased these three buildings in metro Phoenix.:

1715 E Southern Ave. in Tempe

16880 N 59Th Ave. in Glendale,

1401 E Bell Road in Phoenix

Based off these reports and public records, there are 11 known future Aldi locations going up in the Valley and the previously reported regional distribution center that is being built in Goodyear.

Some expect Aldi could open as many as 40 stores in metro Phoenix. The company, which also owns specialty grocer Trader Joe’s, is in the middle of a $3.4 billion expansion, trying to have 2,500 stores across the U.S. by the end of 2022.

“We pioneered a grocery model built around value, convenience, quality and selection and now Aldi is one of America’s favorite and fastest-growing retailers,” Aldi CEO Jason Hart said in a statement. “We’re growing at a time when other retailers are struggling.”

Obviously, Aldi sees itself as a disruptor in the supermarket industry. With Phoenix already being one of the most competitive grocery markets in the country, adding a new store into the mix could really throw traditional players like Fry’s, Safeway and Bashas’ for a loop and add further competition in the cutthroat market.

Source: Phoenix Business Journal

June 1, 2018
admin
In News

Family ‘Meal Solutions’ Yield the Best Ideas in Grocery

HomeChef founder Pat Vihtelic believes in the staying power of the grocery store.

And why not?

His five-year-old startup, which sells meal kits, is about to merge with one of the country’s largest grocers, Kroger Co. in a $700 million deal expected to close this year. HomeChef will also be shepherding Kroger’s other meal kit offerings for customers, too.

HomeChef will continue to sell its meal kits on Walmart Inc.’s website, he said.

As for the future of grocery stores 10 years hence, which TheStreet has covered, Vihtelic had this to say when he popped into our offices on Thursday, May 31:

“It will continue to evolve,” he said. “The most innovation in a grocery store is happening in the fresh, prepared and meal solutions category. This [deal] is the sign that Kroger believes in it. [In a decade], I can see the perimeter of the store being more important.”

Source: TheStreet
June 1, 2018
admin
In News

Target Is Morphing Into Amazon in One Important Area

The same-day grocery-delivery battle heats up.

Target Corp. announced Thursday, May 31, it will expand its same-day delivery service, Shipt, into the Midwest. Customers in Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Michigan and Ohio metro areas can start placing grocery orders starting June 14.

The Minneapolis-based retailer acquired Shipt for $550 million last December. By year’s end, Target expects to have same-day deliveries in 180 markets.

“Target’s rollout of Shipt to more stores through 2018 is all about the table stakes of retail today,” said David Shick, director of research for research equity firm Consumer Edge Research, about the move by Target. “Customers always want choice. Now choice is still about items that appeal to a consumer but with a variety of ways to browse, buy and get those items to the consumer. This is a powerful consumer trend and retailers must invest around that or risk losing relevance.”

Target, which has amped up its grocery offerings in the last year and lowered prices, is, like most grocers, going up against Walmart Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.

Amazon announced Tuesday, May 30, it would offer discounts for its grocery store chain, Whole Foods, in 12 more states. Both Amazon and Target are playing catch-up to Walmart, which is the largest grocer and already partnered with Uber, Deliv and Postmates in more than 100 metro areas.

For same-day deliveries, customers will have to purchase a Shipt membership.

Source: TheStreet