United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI), Providence, R.I., announced plans to acquire SUPERVALU INC., Minneapolis, for approximately $2.9 billion. The transaction will greatly expand UNFI’s customer base and exposure across channels, including those where demand for “better for you” products is increasing.
Category Archives: RETAIL
Retail is in the midst of a stressful transformation that’s producing plenty of collateral damage. As customers’ shopping habits evolve and brands rush to meet them, the end-game for physical stores is taking shape. Stores have suffered — there’s no need to belabor the point. Declines in foot traffic and the convenience of e-commerce have taken their toll. But many of the best advances come from times of great stress and brands are learning to adapt to the new normal.
Imports at the major retail container ports in the US are expected to grow steadily throughout the summer despite the prospect of heavy tariffs on goods from China, the National Retail Federation said.
The fall of the Toys “R” Us chain, with more than 700 U.S. stores, shows how much retail real estate has changed in just the last decade. When KKR & Co., Bain Capital, and Vornado Realty Trust took over the company in 2005, the buyers justified the $7.5 billion price, in part, because of the supposedly valuable properties that came with the deal.
A handful of Toys “R” Us stores will go on the block this week — and they are generating attention among retailers and real estate firms, alike.
Walmart proved to be the victim of its own success on Tuesday. The discount retailer’s shares plunged 10% (shedding $31 billion in market cap) after it unnerved investors by reporting a sharper than expected decline in online sales growth. (Most of that was to be expected as it come a year after its 2016 $3 billion acquisition of Jet.com.) Walmart said that online U.S. sales had risen 23% during the holiday quarter, a far cry from the 50% clip in the preceding quarter and the 63% quarterly gain of not that long ago.
Chinese e-commerce and technology company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and U.S. grocer Kroger Co have had early discussions on working together, including a meeting in which U.S. executives traveled to China, a source familiar with the matter said.
Retailers and brands convened in New York City last week to experience the National Retail Federation’s Big Show, and once of the biggest topics on attendees’ minds was technology. From automation to personalization to social marketing, the growing importance of technology in the shopping experience was definitely top-of-mind for retailers and brands, including those in the food and beverage space.
People will take a more active role in what they eat, have more opportunities to interact and know more about how food impacts their bodies, a pair of futurists said
ReFED, in partnership with the Food Waste Reduction Alliance, has released a new Retail Food Waste Action Guide aimed at expanding voluntary food donation and organics recycling. “Food waste is an $18.2 billion opportunity for grocery retailers,” ReFED Executive Director Chris Cochran told Waste Dive. “There’s a business case here.”