Supermarket/Grocery

Growth opportunities in new geographies prompted Kroger to realign its organizational structure and place four executive in new roles.

Just two days after reporting strong first quarter results, the nation’s second largest food retailer established two new supermarket divisions in Nashville and Louisville.

New York  -- Los Angeles is on the fast track to becoming the largest city in the nation to move toward a ban on “single-use” plastic bags after the City Council passed a resolution barring their use in supermarkets, convenience stores and any big retailer, which would include Target and Walmart, that sells groceries.

LONDON — U.S. retailers can look across the pond to Tesco for some digital inspiration. The retailer is launching a new tablet app that will allow shoppers to sign up for its Tesco Clubcard. 

Tesco is looking to recruit more customers to sign up for the retailer’s loyalty card and join the 17 million who already have it. 

The app, built by mobile marketing specialists Incentivated, is hosted on dedicated iPads located in specially created branded cases attached to the walls of stores.

Cincinnati -- The Kroger Company reported better-than-expected net income of $481 million during the first quarter of this year, up nearly 10% from $439 million in the first quarter of 2012. The company also raised its forecast for annual earnings.

Total sales increased 3.4% from $29.1 billion to $30 billion and a 3.3% increase in same-store sales beat analyst projections of a 2.8% increase.

Now that Walmart U.S. derives more than 66% of its sales from food, consumables and health and wellness related categories, Kroger is more of an immediate threat than Amazon.

Amazon.com and Walmart.com both sell products online, but that’s where the similarities end despite frequent efforts to compare the two.

New York -- Loblaw Cos., Canada's largest grocer, is testing a small-store discount under the Box by No Frills banner. 

The company debuted the concept in Calgary, in a 10,000-sq.-ft. store. The store everyday low price" on groceries and other merchandise, Sarah Davis, Loblaw's CFO said in a conference call Wednesday, The Canadian Press reported.
 

With an ongoing investigation into alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the last thing Walmart would want to do is enter a market like Russia. Nevertheless, a Bloomberg report this week linked the company to a retailer few Americans have ever hear of.