Understandably, the retail food industry has been consumed with responding to current events. With a global pandemic rocking the market, we have seen an unprecedented impact on the retail industry in general and the food industry in particular. For years, I have focused on the…
Like many, I first want to say how proud I am to be associated with the retail food industry. The efforts on the part of everyone in the industry to keep stores in stock, associates safe and customers served as best as possible is nothing…
A long wait is not the typical experience at Starbucks. But waiting is part of the journey at Starbucks’ newest Roastery on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. On a recent Friday – nearly three weeks after the Roastery opened – lattes were delivered six minutes after they…
As I’ve written several times before, there are multiple reasons why the grocery category is well under-penetrated relative to other e-commerce categories. Multi-temperature products, awkwardly sized and shaped products, product and SKU proliferation, delivery challenges, combined with razor-thin margins have kept e-commerce penetration today to…
Adding foodservice to a retail environment is hardly new. Department stores have married retail and restaurants for well over a century and drugstores routinely had soda fountains. Brands like Ikea have become almost as well known for their meatballs as their dressers and have contemplated having…
Beyond Meat and other plant-based substitutes have made placement in or near the fresh meat case a major part of their marketing message, so much so that Beyond Meat’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission point out that proximity to the meat case has…
Grocery Outlet, the extreme value grocery chain you have likely never heard of, made its debut as a public company today and provided insight into the discount grocery business. While ALDI and Lidl receive endless news coverage, Grocery Outlet has flown somewhat under the radar….
2018 was another banner year for private label. In a report issued by the PLMA utilizing Nielsen data, store brand sales across all outlets grew to $128.6 billion, up 4.4% from a year prior. Total market share from a dollar perspective grew to 18.5% in…
GETTY Online retail behemoth Amazon is at it yet again. Announced today, Amazon is said to be pursuing their own stand-along grocery stores with aggressive growth plans over the next coming years. The first location is slated to open in Los Angeles potentially before the…
Disruption is here and taking over the retail industry. Retailers who are winning deliver on one of three extremes: extreme value, extreme convenience or extreme experience. Value-driven retailers are taking ‘cheapest’ to the next level. Convenience focused retailers are removing friction from the buying process….
