UK: Sainsbury’s brings a new flagship store to the market
Sainsbury’s has opened the doors to its relaunched Hempstead Valley supermarket in Kent, showcasing its latest product offer and format design. After 8 months of redevelopment works, the 62,000 sq. ft supermarket has been transformed into a next generation state-of-the-art Sainsbury’s store.
Source: about.sainsburys.co.uk
Carrefour Taiwan completes acquisition of Wellcome, Jasons and Market Place stores
Carrefour Taiwan finalized the purchase of Wellcome Taiwan Co, bringing all Wellcome supermarkets and Jasons Market Place stores nationwide under its brand, the hypermarket chain operator said as the first converted Wellcome store reopened as a Carrefour outlet in Taipei. The company expects to convert Wellcome stores to Carrefour supermarkets at a rate of 36 to 40 a month and complete the conversions nationwide by August, Carrefour Taiwan president Wang Chun-chao said.
Source: taipeitimes.com
Ireland: Musgrave Group undertakes energy upgrade, supports local communities
Musgrave Group has teamed up with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) to carry out energy upgrade works across several SuperValu, Centra, and Musgrave MarketPlace outlets across Ireland. The partnership aims to enact environmental change in the Irish retail sector and in local communities, through the ‘Building Sustainable Communities’ initiative, with this year's collaboration marking the 9th consecutive year of the 2 groups working together.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Battle for retail space escalating in Uzbekistan - Carrefour or Makro?
The administration for the shopping and entertainment centre Samarkand Darvoza in Tashkent, Uzbekistan announced a power outage in both the retail space and warehouse of the Makro supermarket. An official representative of Makro (Darvoza Savdo LLC) told Kun.uz that, firstly, this incident undermines the company’s credibility, and secondly, the company suffered financial losses. “This situation, according to Uzbek law, directly violates the requirements of the lease agreement”, says the Makro spokesperson.
Source: east-fruit.com
US: Food supply chain Teamsters vote to strike third largest grocery chain in the Southwest
Teamster drivers and warehouse workers at a critical Albertsons grocery distribution center have overwhelmingly voted by 98% to authorize a strike to protest the company's failure to address workers' COVID-19 safety concerns and to demand that the company stop violating federal labor laws. The roughly 900,000 square foot distribution center, just outside of Phoenix, services approximately 175 Albertsons, Safeway and Vons grocery stores throughout Arizona, New Mexico, Southern Utah, Las Vegas, Nevada, and El Paso, Texas.
Source: prnewswire.com
US: Raley’s Food Lab to serve as startup incubator for food entrepreneurs
West Coast regional grocery chain Raley’s will sponsor the Raley’s Food Lab at the upcoming Lab@AgStart incubator in Woodland, California. The Raley’s Food Lab will be a certified food facility where innovators can develop new food products, ingredients and recipes for taste testing, sampling and small-volume sales. The facility will be fully outfitted with kitchen and food preparation equipment and will be reservable for use by established and aspiring food entrepreneurs. Raley’s will also provide entrepreneurs with mentorship and support to help scale their businesses to prepare to sell at retail.
Source: supermarketnews.com
US: E-commerce shines for Costco in January
Fresh food and e-commerce sales surged at Costco in January, contributing to a 16.4% same store sales increase. For the 4 weeks ended January 31, e-commerce increased 106.7% year over year. For the 22 weeks ended January 31, e-commerce increased 79.5%. Costco also reported net sales of $13.64bln the 4 weeks ended January 31, 2021, an increase of 17.9% from last year. For the 22 weeks ended January 31, the company reported net sales of $79.11bln, an increase of 15.4% from $68.56bln during the similar period last year.
Source: progressivegrocer.com
US: Stop & Shop launches walk-up grocery locker pickup service
Stop & Shop has introduced a walk-up grocery Locker Pickup option at a Boston store. Located at 1620 Tremont Street in Brigham Circle, the convenient offering enables customers to order their groceries online and pick them up from safe, secure and temperature-controlled lockers at a time that they choose.
Source: progressivegrocer.com
Canada: Goodfood launches unlimited same-day delivery service in Toronto
Goodfood Market Corp. (“Goodfood” or “the Company”), a leading online grocery company in Canada, is proud to announce the launch of Goodfood WOW in Toronto, providing GTA members with its new unlimited same-day delivery service. The first deliveries are scheduled to reach members on February 6.
Source: globenewswire.com
US: New GreenWise Market opens in Fort Lauderdale
GreenWise Market opened its newest location, this time in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on the ground floor of The Main Las Olas building on Southeast Third Avenue. “We took all of the things our customers love about GreenWise Market and put them in a centralized downtown location”, said Publix President Kevin Murphy. “We look forward to sharing our unique atmosphere and products with our customers who live and work in this busy urban neighborhood”.
Source: businesswire.com
US: Ingles posts higher Q1 sales, net income
Thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has had “a significant impact on [its] operations”, Ingles Markets Inc. reported higher sales and net income for the 3 months ended December 26, 2020, its first quarter of fiscal year 2021. The company’s net sales came to $1.19bln for the quarter ended December 26, 2020, a 10.4% increase compared with the $1.08bln logged for the year-ago period. Its gross profit for the first quarter of fiscal 2021 was $314.2mln, or 26.4% of sales, versus $257.5mln, or 23.9% of sales, last year.
Source: progressivegrocer.com
US: Dollar Tree’s Family Dollar taps Instacart to make same-day deliveries
Third-party delivery company Instacart said that it will start making same-day deliveries for Dollar Tree-owned Family Dollar, a discount retailer that’s seen growth during the pandemic. The company will deliver online purchases to customers’ homes from the dollar store chain’s over 6,000 locations in as quick as an hour.
Source: cnbc.com
Sharp rise in profits for eBay
In the final quarter of last year, turnover at eBay rose from 2.3bln US dollars (1.9bln euros) to 2.9bln US dollars (2.4bln euros). Profit totalled 781mln US dollars (651mln euros), compared to 469mln US dollars (391mln euros) the year before. Gross trade volume grew by more than a fifth in the same period to 26.6bln dollars (22.2bln euros).
Source: retaildetail.eu