Have you ever thought that what you see is sometimes different from what you are really seeing?
The famous Arcimboldo's "Vegetables In A Bowl Or The Gardener" painting is a clear example ....
U.S. consumers face "serious" inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Walmart's U.S. operations warned speaking to USA Today.“We're seeing cost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate."Simon said that as the country’s largest retailer, Walmart must get back to its roots as the lowest priced one-stop shop for its customers.“We’re in a position to use scale to hold prices lower longer, even in an inflationary environment. We will have the lowest prices in the market,” he said.
The inflation results are based on field studies from Customer Growth Partners (CGP) of 30-item baskets at Walmart, Target and Aldi stores in four states. According to CGP, commodity cost increases and higher energy and freight costs brought significant food inflation in the first quarter of the calendar year.
According to a study of Mintel, 33% of U.S. consumers who have never purchased food at a convenience store haven't done so because they believe the food is of low qualityConvenience stores are most popular for their beverage options: 58% of consumers say they purchase fountain beverages, 52% purchase coffee drinks and 44% purchase "slushies" or other frozen beverages.Those who do buy food at convenience stores are most apt to buy hot dogs (38%) and pizza (33%). In addition, 28% buy made-to-order sandwiches, 26% nachos, and 25% chicken wings and tenders.
According to 2010 Census Bureau figures, Hispanics now account for one in every six Americans. Furthermore, the population segment accounted for more than half of the U.S. population increase in the past 10 years.
Publisher Packaged Facts' "Latino Shoppers: Demographic Patterns and Spending Trends among Hispanic Americans, 8th Edition" predicts that Hispanics will continue this trend and will be responsible for more than half of the growth in the country between 2010 and 2015.Packaged Facts estimates that in 2009 Latinos accounted for more than 9% of total buying power, compared to less than 4% in 1980. The buying power of Hispanics exceeded $1 trillion in 2010, and the population includes a significant number of high-income households. With an estimated buying power of $616 billion, Latinos of Mexican heritage represent the single most influential segment of the Hispanic market.By 2015, Packaged Facts forecasts the buying power of the Latino population as a whole will reach $1.3 trillion.
U.S. retailer Target is expecting to add produce departments to 380 stores this year, almost doubling the number of stores that handled fresh produce at the end of 2010.Approximately 450 stores offered the expanded fresh food layout at the end of 2010.
By the end of 2011, approximately 850 stores will have the expanded fresh food layout. In addition to our expanded fresh food layout stores, there are more than 250 SuperTarget stores.
Walmart in Mexico is looking to cut its supply chain costs, Chief Executive Scot Rank said at the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit in Mexico City: lowering supply costs would help the retailers margins during a time when customers remain wary of price increases.Rank noted that Walmart de Mexico had learnt from the recent acquisition of Walmart Centroamerica and was considering ways of improving its supply chain in Mexico."Here in Mexico we transport sometimes very perishable goods over large distances," he said. "We're looking into ways that we might be able to buy closer to our stores, or invest in training and support to communities so that they can focus on a certain type of product."
U.S. grocer Winn-Dixie has seen a 5.45% stake bought by a Beijing-based investor, Zhengxu He.
According to a recent national telephone survey of 1,100 employed adult Hispanic consumers conducted by Newlink Research on behalf of management consulting firm Garcia Trujillo, more than 66% of Latinos in America would be more inclined to buy products and services from companies and 64.7% would be even more loyal to companies that demonstrate a strong and visible commitment to the Hispanic community.The survey also revealed that, although Hispanics would like to see companies develop or adapt more products and services that are culturally relevant to them, greater community involvement and increasing the number of Hispanics in key management positions are far more important.A copy of the full study is available at www.garciatrujillo.com.
Arizona-based retailer Bashas' celebrated March is Nutrition Month with the roll-out of a new, digital nutrition labeling system that’s customized to Arizona residents’ health concerns.According to Supermarket News, the family-owned chain is aiming to make it easier for its customers to find the products they are looking for, particularly as they relate to their health maintenance.When new labels are generated to show price changes, the nutrition information is on there, too. So, there’s no way a customer doesn’t see the nutrition information. It’s directly underneath the price, on a colorful background.
Walmart has announced plans to set up a new Eastern business unit headquartered in Atlanta, GA. The new division will be led by Rosalind Brewer, President of Walmart East and Executive Vice President of Walmart U.S.The eastern business unit comprises nearly 1,600 stores in 20 states spanning from Florida to Maine with approximately 560,000 associates, the company said in a press release.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will put $158 million into the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program in the 2011-12 school year, an increase of $48 million compared with the 2010-11 school year.Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the USDA will expand assistance in line with mandatory spending authorized by the 2008 farm bill.
U.S. retailer Supervalu is training workers at its 1,100 Albertsons, Acme Markets and Jewel-Osco stores to pack more items into shopping bags, a move that shaves costs by a few pennies per customer and adds up to millions in annual savings, the company says.The efforts carry risks, as Northeast grocer Wegmans Food Markets Inc. discovered in 2009 when it tried its own bagging switch. The Rochester, N.Y., chain of 77 stores adopted a bigger, sturdier bag to boost the average number of items per bag, but customers complained that the filled bags were too heavy, says spokeswoman Jo Natale.Last year, Wegmans returned to a smaller bag, and this year it is testing a smaller bag that includes 40% recycled plastic.Based on a Wall Street Journal Story
Survey results from the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) found that food, beverage and consumer products manufacturers anticipate that they will eliminate 4 billion lbs of packaging waste in the U.S. from 2005-2020. The 4 billion lbs represent a 19% reduction of the reporting companies' total average U.S. packaging weight.The study found that more than 1.5 billion lbs have already been avoided since 2005, and another 2.5 billion lbs are expected to be avoided by 2020.The 1.5 billion lbs of packaging avoided since 2005 includes more than 800 million lbs of plastic and more than 500 million lbs of paper.The greenhouse gas emissions avoided by a 4 billion pound packaging reduction have the equivalent impact of removing 815,000 cars from the road or 363,000 homes from the energy grid for one year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's Greenhouse Gas Equivalency Calculator.The report is based on the findings of two surveys conducted for GMA by McKinsey & Company and Georgetown Economic Services. To download the report, go to http://www.gmaonline.org/.
U.S. discounter Dollar General has reported like-for-like sales increased 3.8% in the fourth quarter ended January 28, while for the full year, also ended January 28, like-for-likes increased 4.9%. Fourth quarter net sales increased 9.4% to $3.49 billion. Adjusted operating profit increased 19% to $413 million while net income totaled $223 million, compared to $87 million for the fourth quarter of 2009. Full year net sales increased 10.5% to $13.04 billion. Dollar General attributes the increase in profit to higher net mark-ups due to the company’s focus on category management and increased volumes. This has allowed Dollar General to reduce purchase costs from vendors. The company also expects continued growth in 2011 driven by sales, increased private label penetration, development of more direct sourcing opportunities, continued shrinking improvement, and creating more efficient plans for distribution and transportation. Source: Planet Retail
Walmart Canada announced it will implement a record number of price Rollbacks this year to help meet the needs of the growing range of value-focused customers across Canada.The retailer confirmed it plans more than 100,000 individual price Rollbacks in 2011, crossing all major categories from groceries to general merchandise. Combined, these Rollbacks are expected to translate into customer savings of more than $55 million over the course of the year.Examples include the grocery area where Walmart expects to implement more than 12% more Rollbacks than last year.Research shows nine out of 10 Canadians shop at Walmart for at least some of their needs.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, in an effort to improve transparency and accountability, began publicly releasing information regarding its compliance and enforcement activities regarding food safety on March 16.The information being made available to the public includes food imports that have been refused entry into Canada; federally registered plants whose licenses have been suspended, cancelled or reinstated; and notices of violations with warnings and penalties.
In the U.S., Walmart has rolled out a new, competitive coupon strategy, as reported by the Salt Lake Tribune. The new policy means that shoppers can redeem coupons that are worth more than the item being purchased but can also claim the difference if there is one.For example, shoppers with a coupon for $3 off any size package of a particular brand can still buy the smallest pack size priced at, for example, $1.88 and Walmart will still refund them with $1.12 in cash. Walmart is one of the first stores to accept ‘coupon overage’.
"For the past 17 months food retailers have been feeling the pinch of higher food prices more than consumers, and it looks like that will continue even longer," stated Brian Todd, president & CEO of The Food Institute, a trade association that delivers food industry information.That said, February marked the tenth straight month in which retail food prices increased over prior year levels, with the February Consumer Price Index for food-at-home up 2.8% from 2010. Wholesale food prices jumped 3.9% in February alone, bringing the Producer Price Index for finished consumer foods 7.3% above last February.
Wholesale food prices have been on the rise since October of 2009 and retail food prices have been rising since December of that year. Those retail increases, however, averaged 3.2% points less than increases seen at the wholesale level over the16 months prior to February, according to The Food Institute."Retailers have been very reluctant to pass along all of the higher costs they have been facing to consumers," notes Todd.The Food Institute utilizes two government reports in its analysis: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) which is a survey of products purchased at retail outlets in the U.S.; and the Producer Price Index which is a survey of food manufacturers.The Producer Price Index (PPI) is a family of indexes that measures the average change over time in selling prices received by domestic producers of goods and services. This contrasts with other measures, such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI), that measure price change from the purchaser's perspective.
The leading U.K. retailer Tesco has launched an official Facebook page as part of its strategy to expand its social media community.
Marketing activities tailored to Facebook fans are in the pipeline including exclusive offers and promotions. The Facebook pages will also be used to communicate Clubcard promotions, promote charity activities and to answer customer service enquiries.Tesco is also working to drive personalization of its Clubcard offers, and is planning to personalize offers to individual members of the loyalty scheme, rather than tailor to consumer groups divided by type.
The U.S. flexible packaging industry is expected to see sales grow to over $27.5 billion or about 8.1% in 2011, according to a state-of-the-industry presentation by the Flexible Packaging Association.
Walmart reported today that it has eliminated more than 80% of the waste that would go to landfills from its operations in California. The company’s comprehensive waste reduction program that produced these results is now being implemented across Walmart’s 4,400 stores, Sam’s Club locations and distribution centers in the U.S., moving it closer to its global goal of creating zero waste.Achieving a similar 80% reduction in its landfill waste across the country would help Walmart prevent more than 11.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. This is equal to taking more than 2 million cars off the road for a year. “We are proud of the progress we are making toward our zero waste goal, but realize we still have more work to do,” said Bill Simon, president and CEO of Walmart U.S. “We are committed to actively finding and developing solutions that are both good for the environment and good for business.” “We do everything with the customer in mind. We are committed to buying, operating and selling for less, and our waste program is a great example of developing new ideas that help us save our customers money,” continued Simon. “Through this program we are able to provide the raw materials needed to make new products, recycle millions of pounds of commodities and reduce the environmental impact of landfills.”Beginning in 2009, Walmart created a nationwide infrastructure of landfill alternatives that could open new opportunities for municipalities and other businesses to reduce the amount of solid waste they send to landfills. The Walmart zero waste program has three main components:- Recycling cardboard, paper, aluminum, plastic bags and roughly 30 other items through the super sandwich bale (SSB) program. Items not eligible for the SSB, including wood pallets, polystyrene plastic and apparel, are sent to Walmart’s return centers for reuse or recycling.- Donating healthy, nutritious food to food banks around the country. In 2010, Walmart donated 256 million pounds of food to hunger relief organizations, the equivalent of 197 million meals.- Creating animal feed, energy or compost from expired food and other organic products following the EPA’s food waste hierarchy.
Food prices in America soared at their fastest rate since the 1970s last month, a sharp reminder of the pressures facing the majority of consumers in the U.S.The cost of producing finished foods jumped 3.9% last month from a year earlier, as harsh winter weather exacerbated the already increasing price of many basic ingredients used in food. The increase was the steepest since November 1974.
Walmart today announced two new Chicago stores that will help put the company well on its way to creating 10,000 jobs in the city by 2015. Walmart's investment in Chicago now includes the following projects:- Supercenter in Pullman at 111th St. and South Doty Ave. (opening spring 2013)- Supercenter in West Chatham at 83rd St. and Stewart Ave. (opening spring 2012)- Walmart Market in the West Loop at West Monroe St. and South Jefferson St. (opening fall 2011)- Walmart Market in West Englewood at West 76th St. and South Ashland Ave. (opening spring 2012)- Walmart Express(TM) in West Englewood at South Western Ave. and West 71st St. (opening winter 2012)- Walmart Express(TM) in West Chatham at 83rd St. and Stewart Ave. (opening summer 2011)
Chicago's Walmart Express(TM) stores will be less than 30,000 sq. ft and will focus on a broad assortment of brands at everyday low prices, selling grocery, pharmacy and limited general merchandise. Walmart Market - previously called Neighborhood Market - will range in size from 30,000 to 60,000 sq. ft. and provide a wider assortment of fresh grocery, as well as a bakery and delicatessen. The Walmart Supercenter will continue to serve as a one-stop destination, offering full service grocery as well as a wide range of general merchandise.
Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market prefers suppliers that share its environmental standards.With the opening today of a store in Oceanside, Calif., Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market here now has eight stores certified by the Environmental Protection Agency's GreenChill Partnership — the most of any grocer in the country.
“We make a very strong effort to look at suppliers who share common ideals and objectives with us,” said Steve Hagen, director of national procurement, Fresh & Easy, a division of U.K. -based Tesco, during a session on “green sourcing” at the Natural Products Expo West here on March 13.When Fresh & Easy executives visit suppliers’ facilities, they don’t just examine products, manufacturing processes and delivery capabilities. “We also look at their building and ask them what they do to give it a low carbon footprint or low energy usage and where they are recycling,” Hagen said. “It’s always a little shocking to some suppliers that we show as much interest in that side of the business as we do in the products they are going to provide us.”One supplier of energy services whose environmental policies caught Fresh & Easy’s eye is Melink, Milford, Ohio. “Their buildings are LEED certified, they’ve converted their fleet to hybrid vehicles, and they will give their employees money to offset the incremental cost of purchasing a hybrid electric vehicle,” noted Hagen. “That’s the kind of environmental responsibility we look for in a supplier.”Source: Supermarketnews
After two years in the making, Albert Lea (Minnesota) Hy-Vee rolled out its Blue Zones checkout lane in January. The Blue Zones Lane contains healthy snack, such as granola bars and dried fruit, rather than candy, which is sold through the other checkout lanes.While most checkout lanes are stocked full of candy bars, gum and sweet treats attractive to children and adults, the Blue Zones lane features a variety of healthy snacks, including granola bars, carrots, dried fruits, string cheese and flavored water.Hy-Vee dietitian Amy Pleimling said since the Blue Zones lane opened, the store has seen an average of a 42% increase on sales of items featured in the lane.Source: AlbertLeaTribune
Delhaize Group in the U.S. has revised its strategy for the Food Lion banner, to strengthen its price position after its sales in 2010 dropped by 1% to $18.8 billion and its profit fell by 1.8% to $998 million. More price investments are among a number of “concrete initiatives” slated for Food Lion this year, which officials said would capitalize on improving sales trends at the chain during the second half of the 2010 fiscal year. Although Delhaize declined to provide specific details, it includes “an even bigger focus on sharpening Food Lion's price position as well as improving other attributes of the brand”, Delhaize CEO Pierre Oliver Beckers said.In addition to that, Delhaize US is going to launch a new private label brand called My Essentials in the second quarter of 2011. The My Essentials line is priced to be competitive with value private labels at discounters, while touting healthy attributes, including putting nutritional information on the front of the package. The line will replace the opening price point Smart Options label, officials said, and offer 500 products. The former label offered around 100. The move marks the beginning of a strategy to grow US revenues from private labels to 35% of sales by the end of 2013, up from around 27% today.Additionally, Food Lion will add more of its MVP savings centre kiosks to its stores. The kiosks, which are part of Food Lion's MVP customer loyalty card program, were introduced in stores last year, and generate and print out coupons for customers based on their shopping habits.Users can swipe their MVP loyalty card at a terminal which then searches for available offers based on past purchases. According to the retailer, since their introduction, kiosk coupons have up to five times the redemption rate when compared with coupons delivered via traditional distribution channels.Source: Planet Retail
The West Virginia Legislature resurrected and swiftly passed a 1% reduction in the food tax Wednesday.
The food tax will pass from 3 to 2% beginning January 1, 2012.
The U.S. organic food and beverages market is the second largest in the world behind Europe. It is expected to grow from $21.1 billion in 2010 to $36.8 billion in 2015, with an expected CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 11.9%, according to new study from MarketsandMarkets.
California tops the leader board of American states that show the greatest investment potential for organic foods, according to one expert who has authored a new report on the global organics market.
Walmart is considering acquiring retailers with smaller stores, the company told investors at a Bank of America conference. The retailer last month reported it would open 30-40 small stores this year at an accelerated pace, since sales in its home market have been sluggish. Yesterday the location for the first ‘Express’ outlet was revealed as a site in Arkansas near the retailer’s Bentonville headquarters.President and CEO of Walmart’s U.S. division, Bill Simon said: “We don't like anybody else's business enough to acquire it right now; what we really want to do is to get our business in the right shape so that we can roll it out with gusto... And once we've got it in the right shape, an acquisition could certainly be a way to accelerate that."Source: Planet Retail
Belgian Delhaize Group’s U.S. operation is reinforcing its private label assortment through the launch of a new line called My Essentials. The private label, which comprises 500 products, will be introduced in all of the retailer’s U.S. stores by the end of the second quarter of 2011.The retailer is aiming for its U.S. private labels to reach 35% of total store sales by the end of 2013, compared to approximately 27% at the end of 2010.The new private label is targeted to beat competitors' private labels and is priced comparably to those of Walmart, Target and Aldi, Delhaize Group-owned Sweetbay Spokeswoman Nicole LeBeau told Supermarket News. The items are free of trans fats with limits on sugar and sodium and will include nutritional labeling on the front of the packaging. Shoppers will be offered a double money back guarantee if they don’t like the products.
Hot pizza in the morning and breakfast ingredients all day long are among the top 10 breakfast trends for 2011, according to The Food Channel. Other top trends cited in the survey include oatmeal as a mainstream staple; chocolate for breakfast; fast-food restaurants battling over breakfast; home coffee brewing; global influences in the morning meal; expanding breakfast drink menus; combining caffeine and protein; and an egg “comeback.” “In our breakfast survey of Food Channel readers, one thing quickly became clear,” said Kay Logsdon, editor of The Food Channel.“Most of us still recognize breakfast as the most important meal of the day. It’s all new, though. Now it’s okay to eat chocolate for breakfast, and we are eating our morning meal in two parts, grabbing that first cup of coffee at home and adding to it with something at the office.”
Morrisons, the U.K.'s fourth-largest food retailer, has snapped up a stake in U.S. on-line grocer FreshDirect.The UK firm has paid $51.6 million for a "circa" 10% stake in FreshDirect, which supplies customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.Morrisons said that the investment in FreshDirect would "play a key role" in the development of its on-line food business in the U.K. Under the plans, FreshDirect is also set to receive a "minority economic interest" in the London on-line operation that Morrisons is planning.Morrisons said FreshDirect shared its "strong focus" on "quality fresh foods, outstanding customer service and competitive pricing."
A new report released by Produce Marketing Association (PMA) in conjunction with Western Growers Association (Western Growers) provides valuable insight into produce-specific food safety research findings presented at the Center for Produce Safety’s (CPS) first-ever Research Symposium in June 2010. The report lays out key findings from - and real-world applications of - CPS’s first 11 research projects in practical and comprehensible terms.
The projects range from looking at movement of E. coli O157:H7 in field-inoculated lettuce to examine its survivability in real field production environments. Other research also looked at enhancing the effectiveness of and evaluating pathogen testing systems. The role of different pathogen vectors and their food safety risk was examined in projects looking at fly reservoirs and leafy greens, sheep grazing in vegetable stubble fields, and how to minimize pathogen transfer during lettuce harvesting.Download the report here
According to data from SPINS - the first company to offer Fairtrade sales data across natural, specialty and mainstream channels - sales of Fairtrade-certified products at grocery stores in the U.S. increased by 24% during 2010.The 2010 data from SPINS indicates that sales of Fairtrade-certified products at mainstream channels grew faster (26%) than those of specialty grocers (22%) and natural grocers (16%).
Safeway plans to become more aggressive in opening new stores now that its lifestyle remodeling effort is nearly complete, Steve Burd, chairman, president and chief executive officer, said.
Safeway expects to open 26 new stores this year and to complete 30 remodels, at a cost of $1 billion. That compares with $800 million spent in 2010 to open 14 new stores and remodel 60, which brought the number of lifestyle stores up to 85% of the store base.
According to new survey released by retail business software company CTS Retail, U.K. retailers should be wary of the lure of out-of-town store locations because young consumers still primarily shop on the high street.Consumers aged 14 to 21-year-olds are more dependent on public transport than older shoppers and more likely to be in town centers due to spending time at places typically found in these locations such as schools, colleges and leisure centers.Despite the rise of on-line retail in the last few years, young people still see high street shopping as a regular leisure activity and deserting the town retailers could be hiding themselves away from their best customers.
Latest version of United Fresh's 'FreshFacts on Retail' report points to quarterly year-on-year increase in U.S. fresh produce salesConsumers in the U.S. have remained dedicated to including fresh produce in their diets despite the ongoing economic difficulties, with the outlook positive for further sales growth in the country.That is the verdict of the latest edition of United Fresh Produce Association's FreshFacts on Retail research report, covering the fourth quarter of 2010, which revealed a year-on-year increase in weekly dollar sales and per-store volumes of fresh produce.Produced in partnership with the Perishables Group and sponsored by Del Monte Fresh Produce, the report measures price and trends for the top 10 fruit and vegetable commodities, as well as value-added, organic and other produce categories.According to the report, there was an increase in weekly dollar sales of 3.1% for fruit during the fourth quarter, with growth of 11.6% in volume and 8.4% in sales for the value-added fruits category.The report also pointed to a yearly increase of 1.6% in volume terms and 4.1% in sales for the value-added vegetable segment, while there was weekly volume and dollar sales growth for six of the top 10 items in the vegetable category.In addition, the latest FreshFacts report also spotlights the organic produce segment, which has seen an increase in dollar sales, volume per store and average retail price in the fourth quarter.Within the segment, organic apples, berries, grapes, citrus and avocados have all seen double-digit percentage growth in sales, while berries, grapes, citrus and avocados have seen the same double-digit percentage growth in weekly volume.According to United Fresh, organic growth was lead by the prepared fruit category, with weekly dollar sales up 83.4% and volumes up 46.2%.Source: Fruitnet
The U.S. and Mexico have announced that they have reached a proposed agreement for resolving the 20-year dispute over trucking between the two countries, which could reopen access to the U.S. for Mexican trucks.
The Board of Directors of Walmart has approved an annual dividend of $1.46 per share, a 21% increase from the $1.21 per share paid during fiscal year 2011. For the current fiscal year ending January 31, 2012, the annual dividend of $1.46 per share will be paid in four quarterly installments of $0.3650 per share.
U.S. consumers face "serious" inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Walmart's U.S. operations warned speaking to USA Today.
