Supermarket/Grocery

Soaring customer expectations are creating an increasingly challenging environment for brands seeking engagement.   That’s according to the 22nd annual Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, which recognizes the brands that receive the highest loyalty and engagement assessments and surpass competitors for "delighting" customers.  

American consumers are ready to celebrate the Super Bowl, but they don’t plan on spending as much as they did last year.      Consumers will spend an average of $75 for a total of $14.1 billion as an estimated 188.5 million watch the Atlanta Falcons face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI on February 5, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual Super Bowl Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.  

Washington Prime Group has announced a $33 million renovation plan of Pearlridge Center in Aiea, Hawaii, near Pearl Harbor. The 1.2 million-sq.-ft. property is the largest retail center in the state, consisting of Uptown and Downtown complexes joined by a monorail.  

Albertsons appointed Narayan Iyengar as senior VP, digital marketing and e-commerce.   Iyengar will be responsible for leading all aspects of digital marketing, including loyalty programs, shopper marketing and the company’s overall digital presence, as well as Albertsons’ e-commerce business, including home delivery.   

An historic department store building that closed its doors and has been empty for 30 years — long enough for a tree to start growing inside it — has been given a brand new lease on life.  

Every year after the holidays the same topics seem to dominate media coverage of the retail industry. The numbers are in, who’s closing stores? Who’s going out of business? Who are this year’s casualties in the great Clicks vs. Bricks War? This focus on post-holiday attrition is part of a larger conversation about the future of retail, one often tinged by notes of panic, dire predictions, and dramatic pronouncements such as: Online retail is damaging brick-and-mortar. Malls are dead! Retailers are shuttering hundreds of stores! 

DDR has purchased a new Chicago center anchored by a Mariano’s supermarket for $81 million. The 137,618-sq.-ft. property is located on 3030 North Broadway in the Lakeview section of town.   XSport Fitness, PNC Bank, and Starbucks are tenants in the center along with Mariano’s, a chain Chicagoland founded by former Dominick’s deli worker Bob Mariano, who grew it to nearly 48 stores. The chain is now owned by Kroger.  

The Kroger Co. is hiring to fill an estimated 10,000 permanent positions in its supermarket divisions.   The company also announced that its total active workforce grew by more than 12,000 associates in 2016. Over the last eight years, Kroger has created more than 86,000 permanent, new jobs. (The total does not include jobs created as a result of capital investment, such as temporary construction jobs, nor do they include increases due to the company's mergers. Kroger and its subsidiaries today employ more than 443,000 associates.