Supermarket/Grocery

In October, Walgreens announced plans to acquire Rite Aid in a deal that had been widely anticipated. The deal is most certainly going to reshape the retail market by creating a drug store giant with nearly 13,000 stores in the United States; as well, it foretells of the significant changes occurring in the healthcare market.

Various technology analysts, retail industry pundits, and economists of all stripes, have long predicted the demise of paper and coin currency along with the dawn of a cashless society.

And it is true that over the last few years, we’ve seen a big acceleration in the drive towards large-scale consumer adoption of new digital payments technologies, especially in the mobile category.

Walmart is the only chain retailer to fully meet a goal it made related to an initiative of opening stores in “food deserts,” the Associated Press reported. [Associated Press]

While mobile technology has changed the way people shop, consumers — including the most tech-savvy — still do the vast majority of their shopping in shopping centers.

At least that’s according to a new survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers, which found that 83% of U.S. consumers visit a shopping center at least once a week, including 92% of 18 to 24 year olds. Overall, the young consumers visit shopping centers on average 10.8 times a week.

Brookshire Grocery Co. is undertaking an ambitious omnichannel transformation plan, and focusing it on the wants and needs of the consumer.

“We know everything there is to know about our customers,” said John D’Anna, senior VP and CIO of Tyler, Texas-based Brookshire, in an interview with Chain Store Age. The regional chain operates 152 stores under the Brookshire’s, Super 1 Foods and Fresh by Brookshire’s banners.

The latest autumn migration involves grocery chain Giant Eagle.

The Pittsburgh-based, 420-plus-store retailer is in the initial stages of overhauling its IT infrastructure with a hybrid cloud solution from IBM Cloud. The new solution, based on IBM Cloud's SoftLayer Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), is designed to provide Giant Eagle flexible, consumption-based pricing, as well as faster procurement and customized deployment of applications.

H-E-B is blazing another new trail in the online grocery market with a special holiday promotion.

The Texas-based grocery chain is hosting 12 Days of Deals, online only, Dec. 5 through Dec. 16. Each day, HEB says, it will feature a doorbuster deal with something for everyone, from TVs and toys, to crockpots and coolers.

One well-known technology provider takes the top spot in installed worldwide revenue for both retail software and retail software-as-a-service (SaaS).

According to a new study from IHL Group, “Total Retail Software Market,” Microsoft is ranked number one in both categories. IHL estimates the total worldwide retail software market is currently worth $44 billion and will grow 48% in the next five years. Microsoft’s share of retail software is estimated at $5.98 billion in installed revenue.

The nation’s largest supermarket operator reported profit that surpassed Wall Street expectations and raised its annual forecast.

Kroger Co.’s third-quarter earnings rose 18% to $428 million.

Revenue inched up 0.4% to $25.08 billion for the quarter, ended Nov. 7. missing Street forecasts of $25.22 billion. Kroger cited lower fuel prices as impacting sales.

Same-store sales, excluding fuel, rose 5.4%, more than expected. It was the chain’s 48th consecutive quarter of positive same-store sales growth (excluding fuel.)

The nation’s largest supermarket operator reported profit that surpassed Wall Street expectations and raised its annual forecast.