US: Ultrafast grocery service Buyk doubles presence in New York to 20 dark stores
Buyk, a real-time retail service that promises grocery delivery within 15 minutes, announces its expansion into Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, following a successful launch in Manhattan in September. The move brings the Company’s total number of dark stores to 20, making Buyk one of the largest and fastest-growing ultrafast grocery delivery services operating in New York City.
Source: businesswire.com
US: Publix debuts Instacart-powered virtual convenience store
Publix Super Markets has formally launched an Instacart-powered online convenience store across its 7-state Southeastern market area. Called Publix Quick Picks, the virtual storefront enables customers to shop Publix’s assortment of groceries, fresh foods, pantry items and household essentials, as well as meals and snacks, and have their orders delivered in as soon as 30 minutes via Instacart Priority Delivery, Instacart and Publix said.
Source: supermarketnews.com
Costco extends double-digit sales growth in October
Costco Wholesale built on sequential and year-over-year sales growth with more double-digit gains in October. For the 4 weeks ended October 31, net sales advanced 19.2% to $16.47bln from $13.82bln a year earlier, Costco reported. That compared with upticks of 15.8% for September and 15.9% in October 2020.
Source: supermarketnews.com
Amazon brings Just Walk Out tech to Greater Chicago Area
Amazon Fresh has opened the doors to its newest store at 30 W. 63rd St. in Westmont, Illinois, about 25 miles west of Chicago.The location is the 1st in the area to offer the Seattle-based e-tailer’s Just Walk Out technology and the 5th Amazon Fresh store to open in Illinois. The approximately 35,000-square-foot store is the largest Amazon Fresh store with Just Walk Out technology to-date.
Source: winsightgrocerybusiness.com
US: Farmstead’s Grocery OS helps grocers launch dark-store operations
Online grocer and technology firm Farmstead announced that it has partnered with national real estate companies and multiple national last-mile delivery services to create the first end-to-end same-day e-commerce operations solution for grocers. According to the company, Farmstead’s Grocery OS solution now includes everything a grocer or retailer needs to get a dark-store delivery operation up and running in just 2 weeks.
Source: supermarketnews.com
US: Kroger is taking on Publix in Florida without opening a single grocery store - and building a blueprint for its future
Kroger is using a giant, robot-powered warehouse - instead of opening stores - to break into Florida, a new market for the country’s largest supermarket operator. It plans to use the same strategy in the Northeast, where it will deliver online orders to homes and serve customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut for the 1st time. The automated sheds are a key piece of the company’s growth strategy and an effort to turn e-commerce into a bigger, more profitable business in a notoriously low-margin industry.
Source: cnbc.com
US: Here’s how Kroger is using robots to get groceries to customers’ doorsKroger is opening automated warehouses across the country with U.K.-based Ocado to build a larger and more profitable online grocery business. Inside of its giant sheds, robots help retrieve totes of items such as bananas, milk, meat and more to speed up fulfillment of customers’ grocery orders. A fleet of delivery drivers drop off bagged groceries at customers’ doors.
Source: cnbc.com
Carrefour Argentina launches Bringo, a new online shopping experience
With sales on its e-commerce platform growing exponentially, Carrefour Argentina announces the launch of Bringo, a new online shopping app offering rapid delivery (under 60 minutes), personal assistants for each order and special discounts in participating stores.
Source: carrefour.com
Australia: Bondi IGA launches artificially intelligent checkout system
A trendy Sydney supermarket has adopted new checkout technology which negates the need for shoppers to scan produce before checking out. IGA supermarket The Fresh Pantry, in the city’s eastern suburb of Bondi, recently installed AI (artificial intelligence) check-outs equipped with computer vision image analysis technology. The hi-tech feature means fresh items can be automatically recognised by built-in cameras, removing the need for items to be manually scanned or looked up. “The solution automatically identifies fresh produce in real-time, without the need for long lookup menus,” Tiliter, the company behind the technology, said.
Source: news.com.au
France: Groupe Casino sees sales return to growth in 3rd quarter
French retailer Groupe Casino has said that sales momentum gradually improved in the 3rd quarter, as easing COVID-19 restrictions helped its performance in France, while sales growth in Brazil, the group's second-largest market, remained robust. Casino, which has been selling assets to reduce its debt burden, confirmed it was pressing ahead with a disposal plan aimed at raising €4.5bln, with €3.1bln of deals signed or secured to date. Sales at the group, which controls Brazil's Grupo Pao de Acucar, totalled €7.7bln in the 3rd quarter.
Source: esmmagazine.com
France: Gorillas signs quick commerce deal with Groupe Casino
Groupe Casino has announced the signing of a strategic memorandum of understanding with Gorillas, which will see the quick commerce provider undertake packing and fast delivery of orders for its Monoprix and Franprix online platforms. Through the agreement, Gorillas will offer Monoprix and Franprix branded products as well as national brands within minutes, to customers in Paris, Lille, Bordeaux, Lyon and Nice.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Australia: Coles, Woolworths respond to major plastic change in Aldi stores
Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths have responded to in-store changes to plastic use being embraced across Europe and by competitor, Aldi. The response comes after the environment ministry in France announced that it will ban plastic packaging for nearly all fruit and vegetables from January 2022. Coles spoke to Yahoo News Australia about their own plans to reduce plastic packaging of fruit and vegetables and said that they are continually looking for alternative packaging options.
Source: au.news.yahoo.com
Poland's Allegro buys Czech online retailer Mall for $1bln
Polish e-commerce group Allegro has agreed to buy Czech online retailer Mall Group for 881mln euros ($1.02bln) to create a regional platform in what would be its first significant international deal.
Source: reuters.com
Indonesia: MPPA will close the year 2021 as leading food retailer with widest presence at most online platform through latest collaboration with HappyFresh 
Approaching toward the 2021 yearend and Christmas & New Year seasons, PT. Matahari Putra Prima Tbk (“Company/MPPA”), continues to strengthen its O2O omnichannel as one of the leading food retail companies with widest presence at most online platforms in Indonesia through the announcement of its latest collaboration with HappyFresh. The 2 companies are expanding their operational reach across Java, Bali, Sumatra and Sulawesi to cover 39 virtual stores.
Source: mppa.co.id
Romanian consumer protection authority slaps more sanctions on big retailers
Romania’s National Consumer Protection Authority (ANPC) announced new sanctions against some of the biggest retailers in Romania after controls carried out at some of their stores. After the Cora and Auchan hypermarkets in Bucharest, ANPC went to 4 of the biggest supermarkets operated by Belgian retailer Mega Image in Bucharest and fined them RON93,000 (EUR18,800) for several irregularities, including bugs found in some store sections, improper fresh fruits and vegetables on sale and improper showcases for fresh food. ANPC also proposed that all 4 supermarkets be closed for up to 6 months until they fix the problems.
Source: romania-insider.com