French supermarket chain Carrefour wants to open 100 local shops under the name ‘Easy’ in Belgium. In terms of size and offer, the shops will fit between the existing Express and Market store concepts and focus on fresh products. (investinflanders.be)Priorities for European fruit and vegetable working party
Copa-Cogeca, the organisations representing European farmers and agri co-operatives, will be working to support producer organisations (POs), such as co-operatives, in the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy post-2020. Announcing his top priorities as the new chair of Copa-Cogeca’s Fruit and Vegetable working group, Philippe Appeltans highlighted the contribution of co-ops in enabling producers to earn more from their products. “Fruit and vegetable POs, such as co-operatives, have played a positive role in helping producers to get a better price for their fruit and vegetables during the agricultural crisis,” he said. (Co-operative News)Amazon profit misses expectations
Amazon’s third quarter sales increased by 29.0% to $32.7bn, with net income rising to $252m from $79m in Q3 last year. This was the sixth consecutive quarter of profit growth for the retailer, although it was below the $857m recorded in Q2, and behind analysts' expectations. Sales were up by 25.8% in North America, and by 28.3% in its international markets, while Amazon Web Services saw a 55.0% increase in net sales. Product sales increased by 21.0% to $22.3bn, while service sales grew by 50.5% to $10.4bn. (igd.com)Walmart builds a giant tower
Walmart has built a giant tower inside one of its stores that acts as a vending machine for online orders. Here’s how it works: When a customer orders something online for in-store pickup, the customer gets an order number. When the person arrives at the tower, he or she enters the order number into the machine. Then the machine spits out the customer’s package the way a vending machine can do with a bottle of Coke. (businessinsider.nl) Woolworths sales edge up on heavy discounting
Supermarket giant Woolworths is finally showing some traction in its turnaround plans, with a slight rise in quarterly sales driven by a flurry of promotional activity. Woolworths reported first quarter like-for-like (LFL) sales, with the effect of new stores stripped out, up 0.7% on a year ago. It represents the first time comparable sales have grown at Woolworths in almost two years. Overall food quarterly sales across all stores rose 1.7% over the year to $9.3bn. (abc.net.au)Colruyt still Belgium's cheapest supermarket
The consumers' organisation Test-Aankoop says that Colruyt remains Belgium's cheapest supermarket, though rival Albert Heijn is hot on Colruyt's heels. Test-Aankoop noted the highest prices at Intermarché, Match and Smatch, where the price difference with the cheapest stores reached up to 15%. (expatica.com)Woolies’ share continues to fall and Coles and Aldi split the proceeds
Australian grocery buyers spent almost a billion dollars less at Woolworths over the past year, and took it across the street to Coles and down the road to Aldi, Roy Morgan Research shows. The latest quarterly Supermarket Currency report from Roy Morgan Research shows Australia’s grocery buyers spent $89.8bn at supermarkets during the 12 months to September 2016—87% of the total $103bn was spent on groceries overall. Roy Morgan Research estimates Australians spent $32.6billion at Woolworths in the past 12 months—36.3% of all supermarket expenditure nationally. This is down $825million compared with the previous year, representing a decline in market share of 1.4 percentage points. (roymorgan.com)Please, click here to enlarge the image.
Mexico: Sariona's sales up 40%
Soriona has released results for the third quarter of 2016. Soriana's net sales were up 39.5% against the same period in 2015. Operating income grew by 87.4% for Soriana. The retailer said same store sales growth was an important factor in its third quarter performance. (igd.com)AWG completes Affiliated merger
Associated Wholesale Grocers said Tuesday it had completed its merger with Affiliated Food Midwest, saying the combination would allow for more services to its member owners and the opportunity for further geographical expansion. (supermarketnews.com)UK consumers worry as weaker pound raises prices
British consumers turned less optimistic this month as sterling's slump began to eat into their disposable income, according to two surveys (GfK and YouGov) on Friday, which will raise concerns about the strength of future spending growth. (Reuters)US: Wakefern annual sales top $16bn
Wakefern Food Corp.’s sales climbed 4.2% to $16bn in the 52 weeks ending Oct. 1, 2016. The results were announced at Keasbey, N.J.-based Wakefern’s annual shareholder meeting in East Brunswick, N.J. The member-owned cooperative said it opened 15 stores in the past year, including 11 ShopRites, two The Fresh Grocer stores, one Price Rite and one new format store, Dearborn Market. Those openings include some of the 12 stores acquired during A&P’s bankruptcy auction last year. (supermarketnews.com)Key Food launching Urban Meadow private brand
Key Food Stores Co-operative on Thursday announced it was launching a new private brand called Urban Meadow that could replace specific store brand private items across its 240 stores following a test period. (supermarketnews.com)China: SPAR opens first new stores in Meizhou
The city of Meizhou in the Chinese province of Guangdong has welcomed its first two SPAR stores – bringing the brand to the local Meizhou community for the first time. (eprretailnews.com)
Sonoma county’s G&G supermarkets sold to Safeway
G&G Supermarkets, a landmark family-owned Sonoma County grocery business for over a half century, has been purchased by Safeway stores, the two companies said Thursday. (northbaybusinessjournal.com) Instacart expands into Tampa Bay to deliver Publix groceries
After a successful pilot program with Publix in Miami this summer, the online delivery company Instacart is expanding into Tampa Bay. Shoppers can use the Instacart smartphone app to order and deliver goods from stores like Publix, Costco, Total Wine & More, Petco and others across the Tampa Bay region. (tampabay.com)Walmart caught trashing ‘perfectly good food’ in Canada
A number of Walmart stores in Canada toss large amounts of food in the trash before they’ve expired, sometimes merely because the items don’t look perfect, according to an in-depth investigation by Canada’s CBC News. Please, click here to read more. Spar unveils fruit, nuts and seeds snack range
Spar has announced the launch of a new fruit, nuts and seeds snacking range, due in Spar stores from 3rd November. The own-label range offers a choice of dried fruit, seeds, nuts and chocolate in ‘eat now’ and sharing bags. The eat now range is price-marked at £1 and comprises: Berry mix, Brazil nuts, Fruit, nut & seed mix, Unsalted cashews, Mixed nuts, Almonds, Dried mango, and Chocolate, fruit & nut mix. (talkingretail.com) 
Germany’s Lidl could shake up crowded U.S. grocery sectorPlease, click here to read the article.
