US: Coborn's scales back grocery delivery in Twin Cities
Coborn's is scaling back its CobornsDelivers grocery delivery at most of its Twin Cities locations to focus on curbside pickup service, according to a company press release. The grocer operates 62 stores across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin under banners including Coborn's, Cash Wise, Marketplace Foods and Hornbacher's. Coborn's will transition its home delivery business in the Twin Cities area to Cub Foods, which will begin serving CobornsDelivers customers next week. Shoppers who visit the service's webpage will be redirected to shop.cub.com. First-time users will get $20 off their delivery order. Coborn's will continue home delivery for select Minnesota locations and for some Cash Wise customers in Owatonna, Fargo and Bismarck, North Dakota. CobornsDelivers has operated in the Twin Cities since 2008, when the company purchased SimonDelivers to build out its grocery delivery and rebranded it under Coborn's.
Source: grocerydive.com
US: Blue Apron ends Jet.com partnership
Blue Apron is terminating its pilot with Walmart’s Jet.com in the coming weeks to focus on its "core business" of direct-to-consumer sales, president and CEO Linda Findley Kozlowski said on the company's Q2 earnings call. Kozlowski said Blue Apron’s serviceable market is approaching $9bln and identified trends toward fresh food, eating at home and convenience as favorable opportunities for the meal kit company. Blue Apron posted a net loss of $7.7mln for Q2, an improvement compared to the $32.8mln loss it posted for the same quarter in 2018. Its subscribers now total 449,000, down 717,000 from last year. The company's Q2 revenue was $119.2mln, a drop from $179.6mln the year prior.
Source: grocerydive.com
US: Ingles Q3 sales rise, but net income drops
Ingles Markets reported net sales of $1.06bln and net income of $23.5mln for the third quarter ended June 29, compared with $1.03bln and $24.5mln, respectively, for the year-ago period, while net sales came to $3.13bln and net income was $60.7mln for the nine months ended June 29, versus $3.03bln and $78.9mln, respectively, last year. The grocer noted that its Q3 2019 benefited from extra Easter sales, as the holiday occurred in April this year. In 2018, Easter occurred in March, during Ingles’ Q2 2018. Ingles’ 2018 Q3 and nine-month net income benefited from lower income tax expense caused by the December 2017 drop in income tax rates and by changes in certain tax calculation methods.
Source: progressivegrocer.com
US: Costco posts 7.9% increase in net sales in July
Costco Wholesale Corp has posted a 7.9% year-on-year growth in net sales to $11.43bln (€10.2bln) in the four weeks ended 4 August 2019. The company's overall comparable sales increased 5.6% in July, while e-commerce sales witnessed a 21.3% growth. Over the four weeks, comparable sales in the US and Canada grew by 6.5% and 4.8% respectively, while other international markets saw a 1.3% growth. The wholesale giant's net sales grew 8% to $137.56bln (€122.8bln) in the forty-eight weeks ended 4 August 2019 from $127.40bln (€113.7bln) in the same period in last year. Comparable sales in the e-commerce segment grew 23.1% during the same period.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Spain: Carrefour replaces the plastic with a cotton mesh for fruits
Cotton meshes will replace plastic bags for the purchase of fruit in the Carrefour food distribution chain from Monday, with the aim of avoiding and reducing the use of containers and packaging, especially plastic. Customers can purchase 100% reusable cotton meshes from the greengrocers section of their stores, the company said in a statement. Carrefour thus becomes the first company to adopt this type of initiative in Spain, after being the first to enable its buyers to use their own containers or bags for their purchases of fruits and vegetables, delicatessens, fishmongers, butchers and prepared dishes. According to the note, this Carrefour initiative complements the plan of measures that it is progressively carrying out for the reduction and elimination of plastic from its establishments and as a direct suggestion of its customers. Among other measures, the company has eliminated the plastic in the fruit and vegetable section of its BIO stores or has replaced this material and the alveoli in fruits such as apples, pears and oranges with sustainable materials.
Source: internationalsupermarketnews.com
France: Casino uses unmanned tills to avoid Sunday's rest
French retailer Géant Casino will trial a with a staff-less hypermarket in Angers. The law on Sunday's rest would be avoided by only employing security personnel, but trade unions fear this will precipitate the end of the job of cashier. The hypermarket currently closes its doors at half past twelve, but would now remain open until nine in the evening. By adding eight new payment terminals and paying an external company to have three security officers on site, the extended Sunday opening would "not require our staff to work longer on Sundays". As consumers' needs change, "we have to evolve with our offer to match that change", management says.
Source: retaildetail.eu
Portugal: Rivals beat Mercadona in pricing, study finds
While Mercadona recently arrived in Portugal to much fanfare, the retailer still has much to do to compete on pricing, a new study by the Portuguese Association for Consumer Protection (DECO) has found. In the district of Matosinhos, where Mercadona opened its first four stores, Auchan-owned Jumbo was found to offer the lowest prices, according to the study, for its store at Av. Dr. Óscar Lopes. Other stores that were also found to be cheaper than Mercadona in the Matosinhos area were Pingo Doce (at both R. Brito e Cunha and R. João Pedro Ribeiro), Lidl (at Av. António D. dos Santo and R. Roberto Ivens), Mini Price at Av. Menéres and Intermarché at R. Gil Vicente. In the Canidelo district, meanwhile, Jumbo was also found to be cheapest, for its store at R. Issuer, as well as Continente stores (at R. Alto das Torres, Av. dos Escultores and Av. dos Descobrimentos), Intermarché (R. Prof. Bonaparte) and two Lidl stores (at R. Nova de Alvites and Av. dos Descobrimentos).
Source: esmmagazine.com
"Belgian supermarket chains see profit shrink"
The major Belgian supermarket chains have lower profit margins than five years ago, and that is before Dutch Jumbo is set to disrupt the market even more. The reason is clear: the competition gets tougher and discounts, meant to lure more customers, cut the profitability. The trend is universal, but exact figures differ a bit. Aldi is the biggest loser, says Belgian business newspaper De Tijd: its margin dropped from 4.2 % to 2.4 %. Three of the other 'big five' also see their margins decrease: this is the case for Colruyt (6.9 % to 5.8 %), Delhaize (3.9 % to 2.8 %) and Carrefour (2.2 % to 1.9 %). The only exception is Lidl, but that is only because no exact figures for its Belgian branch are known. However, analysts are certain that this chain too is under a lot of pressure. Finding an explanation is easy: "Belgians still spend the same on groceries as five year ago, but those spendings have to be divided over a larger number of stores, causing the costs of supermarkets to go up. Discounts, designed to gain customers from competitors, put further pressure on them margins, as do the changing shopping habits of modern consumers."
Source: retaildetail.eu
Asda signs up its fridges to keep the UK warm this winter
Hundreds of Asda supermarket stores will help power the UK’s electricity system this winter by using their fridges as a virtual battery pack for the energy grid. Britain’s third-largest supermarket chain has signed up 300 stores and 18 distribution depots to schemes which can earn the grocery giant extra revenue while helping to balance the electricity grid. Under the long-term deal with National Grid the supermarket’s nationwide networks of freezer aisles and storage fridges will make up a 13-megawatt power source - enough energy to power about 8,500 homes. Asda has also signed up to a trial which could mean its fridges are called on at only 10 minutes’ notice to act as a safety net if there is an unexpected power station outage.
Source: theguardian.com
Japan: Aeon to glean Chinese customer data with online groceries
Japan's Aeon will launch its own online grocery business in China as early as 2020 to amass and analyze customer data for developing new products and services, with hopes of eventually bringing know-how back home. Customers will order groceries via a smartphone app developed by Aeon, with the items to be delivered from roughly 70 of its stores nationwide. It will initially deliver items within a 3 km radius in as little as an hour but could expand operations later.
Source: asia.nikkei.com
