7-Eleven becomes first retailer to employ drone delivery
Morrisons grocery price war, slashing cost of 800 products
Morrisons has kicked started a fresh supermarket price war by slashing the price of hundreds of “everyday” household items in a bid to win customers. It has cut the cost of 800 products including potatoes, meat, fish fingers and avocados. The supermarket said it was crunching prices by an average of 19 per cent to help customers who are feeling the pinch financially after a costly Christmas.
The price cut includes reducing the price of a a 2.5kg bag of King Edward Potatoes from £2 to £1.67. As well as chopping the cost of a pineapple to 92p, down from £1. Morrisons has also reduced the cost of a two-pack of avocados from £1.80 to £1.47. However, the price is still 45p than Tesco which offers the same product for just £1, according to mySupermarket.com – reminding customers to compare prices across all shops before they buy.
Supermarkets to make shopping 'easier' by culling food product offering
Struggling to find your favourite brand at the supermarket? Get used to it. In a massive dumbing down of Australia's pantries, Coles, Woolworths and wholesaler Metcash are shrinking the number of products in supermarkets by around 10 per cent to cut costs, improve on-shelf availability, clear space for fresh foods and make the weekly grocery shop simpler for consumers. Known in the trade as assortment reduction, the cull has been under way since the number of packaged food and grocery products peaked in 2014. But it will pick up pace this year as major retailers attempt to reinvigorate sales and cut costs amid margin-sapping grocery price deflation.
Largest distribution centre for Carrefour to open in Dubai
Majid Al Futtaim, a leading shopping mall, retail and leisure pioneer, will open a major new distribution centre for Carrefour at the National Industries Park (NIP) in Dubai, UAE. The centre, once operational, will be the largest and most advanced distribution hub of its kind for Carrefour in the region, said a statement from the company. The facility is constructed on a land area of 1.5 million sq ft and offers a built-up area of over 800,000 sq ft, almost four times the size of Carrefour’s current largest distribution centre building in the region, it said.
Italy’s Crai Codè takes over 70 Prestofresco stores
Italian grocery retailer Crai Codè has acquired 70 stores belonging to the Prestofresco supermarket chain in the Piedmont, Lombardy and Liguria regions, from the Sapino family. Crai Codè is a unit of local retail group Crai, covering northwest Italy with around 290 stores. The former Prestofresco stores will now be branded Crai and will benefit from all the services of the retailer’s distribution centers. In addition, they will now sell all product lines of the Crai private label brand.
Turkey inflation accelerates in December on food, alcohol, tobacco
Turkey’s consumer price inflation climbed more than estimated in December, led by a surge in food, alcohol and tobacco prices. The annual inflation rate was 8.53 percent last month, compared with 7 percent in November, Turkey’s statistics institute said on Tuesday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists was an increase to 7.60 percent, with 8.5 percent the highest prediction. Food prices rose an annual 5.7 percent, compared with 3.6 percent a month earlier. Alcohol and tobacco prices rose 7.33 percent in the month and 32 percent over the previous year.
UK consumer rise in disposable income slowing: Asda
The latest Income Tracker report from UK retailer Asda reported that November was the third consecutive month of single digit spending power growth for UK families. Disposable income grew by 4.5%, with families enjoying an average of £202 per week in discretionary income. However, the growth could slow due to high fuel prices and increasing inflation, the retailer said.
7-Eleven becomes first retailer to employ drone delivery
7-Eleven, the world’s largest convenience store chain, shared new numbers from its drone delivery experiment today. Seventy-seven customers in Reno, Nev., have now received items ordered from 7-Eleven delivered to their doorsteps via drone. All 77 flights were from one store to a dozen select customers who live within a mile of the shop. 7-Eleven has partnered with the drone maker Flirtey for its delivery pilot. It marks the first regular commercial drone delivery service to operate in the United States, flying ahead of other, potentially bigger drone delivery projects that haven’t yet been able to take off in the U.S. — like Alphabet’s Project Wing and Amazon’s Prime Air, the latter of which only demonstrated its first delivery to a customer last week.