Amazon Japan and Life supermarket tie up to sell fresh foods online, starting in Tokyo
Amazon.com Inc.’s Japanese unit and Life Corp., one of the country’s major supermarket chains, said they will join forces to sell fresh foods online starting later this year, aiming to attract elderly and busy customers. In Amazon’s first tie-up with a Japanese supermarket operator, Life will supply a range of products, including those from its in-house brand, to members of Amazon Japan’s Prime Now service, which touts delivery times as fast as two hours for orders. The service will start in parts of Tokyo later this year, with Amazon Japan handling delivery and processing payments. It hopes to cater to growing demand from the elderly and people who have difficulty getting to physical stores while also targeting busy professionals, especially in dual-income households, who have little time for grocery shopping.
Source: japantimes.co.jp
UK's 'Big Four' grocers lose market share - Kantar
Britain’s “Big Four” supermarkets all lost market share in the 12 weeks to May 19, market research company Kantar said, as like-for-like sales flatlined at leader Tesco and fell at Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons. Tesco’s share fell to 27.3% from 27.7% a year ago, while Sainsbury’s and Asda had equal shares of 15.2%, after sales fell by 1.7% and 0.2% respectively, Kantar said. Sales at Morrisons fell 0.4%, giving it a share of 10.4%. German discounters Aldi and Lidl continued to record strong growth, with sales up 11.1% and 8.5% respectively, giving them a record combined share of 13.8%, Kantar said.
Source: reuters.com
Poland: Grupa Muszkieterów's Q1 turnover exceeds PLN 1.65bln
Grupa Muszkieterów, the Polish arm of the Les Mousquetaires business, has generated a turnover of more than PLN 1.65bln (€380mln) in the first quarter of its financial year. Grupa Muszkieterów operates Intermarché and Bricomarché in the country. Turnover in its Intermarché supermarket chain and petrol stations amounted to PLN 1.2bln (€280mln) during the period.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Romania: Profi opens 1,000th store
Romanian retail chain Profi has become the first retailer in the country to open its 1,000th store, reports Romania Insider. The retailer has opened around 500 outlets in cities, small towns and villages in Romania, and is one of the fast-growing retail chains in the country. The retailer operates three formats which include the standard supermarkets, the Profi City proximity shops in urban areas, and Profi Loco shops in rural areas.
Source: esmmagazine.com
New store concept: 7-Eleven Australia opens checkout-free store in Melbourne
7-Eleven Australia has removed the physical checkout from the store at its head office in Melbourne. Now, customers there can pay only via mobile app. Located in Melbourne’s inner suburb of Richmond, the store provides a more enjoyable and convenient shopping experience, 7-Eleven said, with more space and no queues. “Nobody likes to wait, so eliminating queues was part of the mission for this mobile checkout”, Angus McKay, 7-Eleven’s CEO, said in a statement about the new store concept.
Source: insideretail.com.au
Israeli supermarket chain Shufersal Q1 profit, sales dip
Shufersal, Israel’s largest supermarket chain, reported lower quarterly profit, weighed down by weaker sales and costs related to the launch of a drugstore chain. The company said it earned 48mln shekels ($13mln) in the first quarter, compared with 67mln a year earlier. Revenue dipped 0.6% to 3.15bln shekels, while same store sales slipped 3.8% due to the timing of the Passover holiday.
Source: reuters.com
Grupo Éxito delivers 2.5% sales growth in Colombia in Q1
In the first quarter Grupo Éxito reported net sales of COP2.64tln (US$788.9mln) in Colombia, a growth of 2.5%. Same-store sales (SSS) grew by 2%, which was mainly due to strong like-for-like performance of stores under its Éxito banner, as well as higher volume and traffic. At a group level Grupo Éxito reported a consolidated net revenue of COP14.3tln (US$4.19bln) in Q1, which represents a 3.9% increase on Q1 2018. This was predominantly driven by strong net sales performance in Colombia (+2.7%) and Brazil (+12%).
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Canada: Supermarket’s grocery shopping video game earns customers discounts
Canadian supermarket chain No Frills, which recently re-branded its discount shoppers by naming them “haulers,” is launching an integrated campaign with an online, digital shopping video game. Hosted on the NoFrills.ca website, the retro-style game is called Hauler: Aisles of Glory, and is based on the in-store shopping experience, inviting shoppers to collect points hauling groceries and avoiding blocks like diamonds and expensive speed boats. The hauler runs through the aisles to collect groceries and then reward points, starting each game with three lives.
Source: psfk.com
US: Peapod teams with famed food writer on exclusive meal kit
Peapod has formed a partnership with influential food writer Mark Bittman, author of the new cookbook “Dinner for Everyone”, in which the e-grocer is spotlighting several of Bittman’s recipes in a shoppable, click-to-cart format, in addition to an exclusive meal kit, Fast Pho, a Vietnamese-inspired dish with pre-measured fresh ingredients, available in serving sizes for two or four. “The inevitable, daily question: ‘What's for dinner?’ is one that everyone has asked themselves more times than they can count”, noted Bittman. “I want cooking dinner at home to make people happy, not stressed, and Peapod gets that, too. Cooking - and likewise shopping for the ingredients - doesn't have to be tedious or time-consuming, and I'm excited to share this Fast Pho meal kit in partnership with Peapod that proves exactly that.”
Source: progressivegrocer.com
US study: Store pickup, small formats have a lot to offer
Adding online grocery pickup and learning from innovative small-format stores can help food retailers tailor the omnichannel shopping experience to their customers, according to an analysis from Brick Meets Click. Shoppers’ demand for new offerings that meet their personal lifestyles continues to fragment the mass market in terms of distribution and retail channels as well as in products and communication, Brick Meets Click said in its report “Capitalize on the Growing Appetite for Customization and Personalized Shopping Options”, released last week. “Grocers and suppliers who fail to respond to this growing demand for products and services that are customized to satisfy the personal preferences of shoppers can get left behind”, noted Steve Bishop, managing partner of the Barrington, Illinois-based strategic advisory firm.
Source: supermarketnews.com
US: Stop & Shop to pilot high-tech dog house
Stop & Shop announced a 12-week summer pilot with DogSpot, a pet-tech startup on a mission to make the world dog-friendlier. Stop & Shop’s Port Washington store, located at 65 Shore Rd. in Port Washington, New York, will be home to DogSpot’s app-connected dog houses, which are lockable, self-sanitizing, camera-monitored, and temp-controlled. The houses provide dogs with a safe and comfortable place to wait while their owners grocery shop, giving Stop & Shop customers an alternative to the practice of leaving dogs unattended in cars - which can be particularly dangerous during the hot summer months. “We know our customers love their pets, so we’re excited to introduce this innovation to our Long Island shoppers as another way to help make their grocery shopping easier and more convenient”, said Stop & Shop Senior Vice President Bob Yager. “Depending on the success of this initial pilot, we may roll out more DogSpots in other communities that we serve across the Northeast.”
Source: globenewswire.com
Canada: Metro grocery chain's $400mln Etobicoke expansion clears hurdle
The Metro grocery chain's plan to replace and expand its distribution centre on Vickers Road is one step closer to becoming reality. Etobicoke York community council has endorsed city planning recommendations for a zoning bylaw amendment that will allow for a new one-storey warehouse distribution centre to be built at 17, 25 and 75 Vickers Rd. City council will vote on the recommendations on June 18. Once complete, the development would include a refrigerated warehouse, a distribution centre and administrative offices, totalling just over 540,000 square feet.
Source: toronto.com
US: Wegmans ends Wkids babysitting service
Wegmans Food Markets is closing all of its Wkids locations, which offered free in-store babysitting for children ages 3 to 9 while the parents shopped. The Rochester, New York-based grocer told The Buffalo News that the service was not used as much as it once was, so they plan to reinvent the space. "Wegmans really wants to be the most fun place to shop for families with kids," Michele Mehaffy, the chain's consumer affairs manager in Buffalo, New York, told the newspaper. “Certainly, we’re finding space in our current store footprint to bring more services that are now in greater demand.”
Source: progressivegrocer.com