China: Pinduoduo beats quarterly revenue estimates 
Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo Inc beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue on Monday, helped by COVID-related lockdowns in the country that forced consumers to shop online. Intermittent lockdowns and a recovery in consumer spending helped Pinduoduo and other Chinese online retailers gain business in the July-September quarter. Pinduoduo said its revenue jumped 65% to 35.50 billion yuan ($4.99 billion) in the quarter ended Sept. 30, surpassing estimates of 30.94 billion yuan, according to Refinitiv data.
Source: Reuters
UK: Asda has made a major change to its loyalty scheme – and customers are happy
The Asda rewards scheme allows customers to earn points which they can then transfer into cash. After building up enough points in their cash pot, customers can transfer those points into a voucher. Initially, shoppers were given the option to transfer their cash pot into a £10 voucher. However, as of November 25, they'll be able to transfer up to £100 of their cash pot into a voucher. Shoppers can transfer their cash pot into vouchers in increments of £5 - so, £5, £10, £15 and all the way up to £100.
Source: ScottishSun
YourGrocer goes head to head with major supermarket chains
Australia has one of the most concentrated food supply chains in the world, with two thirds of the population’s grocery spend ending up at either Coles or Woolworths. Morgan Ranieri, the 33-year old founder of YourGrocer, plans to change that. He started the company in 2013, frustrated by the lack of choice and convenience he had when trying to get fresh, quality groceries after work when only the supermarkets were left open. “Independent shops and producers know how to handle fresh food in a way that can’t be done by a $30bn supermarket,” he said.
Source: Foodmag
UK: Co-op expands its army of robot delivery carts
The Co-op is expanding its fleet of robot delivery trucks, self-driving machines that take groceries from store to door. Co-op, Starship Technologies and Leeds City Council have partnered to bring autonomous grocery delivery to the streets of Leeds. The service will be available to 20,000 residents initially, with groceries picked fresh in local Co-op stores for delivery quickly and conveniently in the community. Orders are made through the Starship food delivery app, with residents able to choose from a range of grocery items, schedule their delivery, then drop a pin where they want their delivery to be sent.
Source: WalesOnline
Poland: Aldi planning 600 store openings in Poland over next five years
Aldi Nord plans to open as many as 600 stores in Poland over the next five years, according to Wojciech Łubieński, who heads up the discounter's operations in the country. Within ten years, the group is aiming to have a thousand outlets in Poland, according to reports, having already opened several dozen outlets over the past couple of years. Capital expenditure on network development in Poland increased by 50% last year, money.pl reported. Currently, the group operates 233 stores in Poland, employing approximately 4,000 people. The discounter is targeting openings in both large and small cities over the coming months, including Rawicz, Świdnik, Lublin, Kraków, Sosnowiec, Białystok, Żyrardów, Suwałki and Poznań.
Source: ESM Magazine
UK: Tesco launches surplus marketplace to help suppliers slash costs and cut food waste
Tesco has launched a new online marketplace to allow suppliers to slash costs and tackle food waste by selling or donating surplus stock to other manufacturers. The Tesco Exchange service, which is available to more than 3,500 Tesco suppliers, matches suppliers who have too much of a product, with other suppliers at the grocery giant who can make better use of the excess. In the same way that consumer marketplaces work, suppliers can advertise surplus stock for sale on Tesco Exchange, post requests for things they need and agree sales between each other.
Source: RetailGazette
Canada: Movement to boycott Loblaw gains steam as Canadians angered over corporate greed
Basic living costs are skyrocketing amid historically high inflation rates, to the point where food bank usage has reached an all-time high across Canada. Loblaw Companies Ltd. — Canada’s largest food and drug store retailer — has positioned itself quite perfectly to be the “bad guy” in the story, emerging in recent months as the very poster corporation for grocery store gouging.
Source: DailyHive
US: Amazon again edges out Walmart as lowest cost online retailer
Walmart may claim to be the low-cost leader on food and consumables, but a recent study of e-commerce prices in 15 major categories from July 11 to Oct. 2 found Amazon has the lowest online prices when measured against 13 U.S. retailers, including Walmart and Target. Profitero compared the everyday online prices on nearly 15,000 items in the study and found Amazon had the lowest online prices that were on average 13% below competitors.
Source: TalkBusiness
US: Costco Wholesale Corporation reports November sales results
Costco Wholesale Corporation reported net sales of $19.17 billion for the retail month of November, the four weeks ended November 27, 2022, an increase of 5.7 percent from $18.13 billion last year. For the twelve-week first quarter ended November 20, 2022, the Company reported net sales of $53.44 billion, an increase of 8.1 percent from $49.42 billion last year. For the thirteen weeks ended November 27, 2022, the Company reported net sales of $58.36 billion, an increase of 7.9 percent from $54.10 billion last year.
Source: Ein
US: Indie gives Senate testimony on Kroger-Albertsons merger
Michael Needler Jr., a National Grocers Association (NGA) member and CEO of Fresh Encounter Inc., which operates almost 100 grocery stores in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Florida, testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights on the impact of increased consolidation and buyer power in the marketplace. During the hearing, “Examining the Competitive Impact of the Proposed Kroger-Albertsons Transaction,” Needler offered the independent grocer perspective on competition in the grocery sector and the potential effect of the Kroger-Albertsons merger.
“Our view is this: America’s grocery sector is getting less competitive from increasing concentration and unchecked buyer power due to a lack of enforcement of the Robinson-Patman Act,” Needler said.
Source: ProgressiveGrocer