News Briefs

The fourth-largest U.K. supermarket chain is building on its partnership with Instacart to streamline online order management and fulfillment.

Morrisons is leveraging technology from Instaleap, a company owned by Instacart that provides software for e‑commerce fulfillment and last‑mile operations, to manage orders across its marketplace channels. Utilizing Instaleap, Morrisons manages online orders across third-party delivery platforms including Uber Eats, Just Eat and Deliveroo.

In addition, the retailer will use the Instaleap in-store picking app to help store associates more efficiently manage the picking and fulfilment process for online delivery orders. 

“We’re constantly looking for ways to make online grocery shopping easier and more convenient,” said Charlotte Exell, group online director at Morrisons. “More of our customers are choosing to shop from us through one of our immediacy partners and they expect an efficient, dependable service every time. Working with Instaleap powers our online operations behind the scenes, helping us deliver fresh groceries directly to our customers’ doors quickly and reliably.”

Following up on an implementation project first announced in September 2025, Morrisons began rolling out the artificial intelligence-based Instacart Caper Carts smart cart solution in August.

[READ MORE: Morrisons first U.K. grocer to deploy AI-enabled Instacart smart carts]

“We’re proud to partner with Morrisons, one of the UK’s most respected grocery retailers, as they continue to strengthen their omnichannel offering,” said Antonio Nunes, head of Instaleap. "Consumers now increasingly expect ordering from their local supermarket to be as easy as ordering take-away. Meeting that demand at scale - efficiently, reliably - takes technology built specifically for grocery."

Founded in 1899, Morrisons operates roughly 500 grocery stores and 1,700 convenience stores across the U.K. Based in San Francisco, Instacart partners with more than 2,200 retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from nearly 100,000 stores across North America.

E-commerce is expected to make another strong showing this holiday season.

Retail sales are expected to increase 4.0% to 4.8% year over year during the November through January holiday period, totaling $1.70 trillion to $1.71 trillion, according to Deloitte's annual holiday retail forecast. Retail sales between November 2025 and January 2026 (seasonally adjusted and excluding automotive and gasoline) grew 4.1% and totaled $1.63 trillion according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Holiday e-commerce sales are forecast to grow 7.5% to 8.4% compared to the 2025 holiday season, reaching $316.1 billion to $318.9 billion. Deloitte noted the forecast reflects the continued role of digital tools, promotions, and comparison shopping in the holiday purchase journey.

"Disposable personal income (DPI) remains an important input to our holiday retail forecast," said Akrur Barua, economist at Deloitte Insights. "We project DPI to grow between 4.5% to 5.2% during the holiday season, which we believe to be a strong predictor of retail and e-commerce sales. The continued growth in e-commerce sales is also expected to be aided by consumers' ongoing use of digital tools to research, compare and complete purchases across all categories."

Earlier this month, Bain & Company forecast holiday sales growth of 4.5% year over year.

Costco Wholesale Corp. is expanding its U.S. footprint.

The membership warehouse club giant is opening a total of 14 locations in October and November across the U.S. and Canada. The openings are part of Costco’s plan to add 30-plus new stores annually during the next decade, with half in the U.S. and the rest internationally.

Below are the locations for Costco’s upcoming clubs.

Opening in October:

•Missouri: Lee’s Summit;

•Texas: The Colony;

•New York: Amherst;

•Kansas, Lawrence; and

•California: Camarillo.

Opening in November:

•Idaho,South Meridian;

•California: Vallejo;

•Arizona, Chandler;

•Virginia: Newport News; and

•Wisconsin, Franklin.

In addition, Costco is opening four locations in Canada in November: Northeast Edmonton and Lloydminster in Alberta; and East Windsor and Wasaga Beach in Ontario.

[READ MORE: Costco August sales up 9.9% amid higher gas prices, digital growth]

Costco currently operates 939 warehouses, including 647 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 115 in Canada, 43 in Mexico, 37 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 20 in Korea, 15 in Australia, 14 in Taiwan, seven in China, five in Spain, three in France, two in Sweden, and one each in Iceland and New Zealand. 

Francesca’s amended Chapter 11 wind-down plan has been approved by a New Jersey bankruptcy court judge, but the brand may live on.

The Houston-based young women’s clothing and accessories chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February with plans to close its 400-plus stores and liquidate. (All the stores have since gone dark.)

In its amended disclosure statement and joint plan of liquidation, Francesca’s detailed its success in recent months in resolving objections from landlords and other creditors regarding its store closing sales. The plan also details the retailer’s sale of its IP to Stand Out For Good, the parent company of Alterd’ State and other brands, for about $7 million.  

The IP deal includes all trademarks, copyrights, and domain names, as well as social media accounts, brand and product design collateral and more. 

Francesca’s, which was founded in 1999, previously filed for bankruptcy in 2020 and was sold in January 2021 to Francesca’s Acquisition LLC, an affiliate of private equity firm TerraMar Capital, for $18 million. The retailer cited several factors leading to its most recent filing, including a data breach on Jan. 31, 2023 that impacted sales, a disruptive e-commerce upgrade, the underperformance of non-core brands and spending on marketing and promotion efforts to drive sales, and the failure of an anticipated capital infusion in December 2025. 

CBRE has announced the sale of four CVS Pharmacies in Upstate New York owned by Feinberg Development Corp. and JMM Property at West Corners LTD.

CBRE handled the sale and sourced the buyer, Blue Zone Capital.

“This transaction demanded a targeted buyer search,” said Karly Iacono senior VP of investment properties at CBRE. “We identified the right capital, structured the transaction, and delivered a successful closing on assets the Feinberg family had held for years.”

Two of the CVS locations are in Binghamton. The other two are located in Owego and Endicott.

“The portfolio offers the new ownership the opportunity to own a collection of established CVS locations with durable cash flows and long-term tenancy,” said Iacono.

Global ransomware incidents continued a sharp upward trend from the first half of 2026 into July and August.

During August 2026, attacks recorded by the Comparitech ransomware tracker reached a record-breaking high of 32 incidents globally per day, up from 26 per day the previous month. Comparitech recorded a total of 997 ransomware attacks in August, up 23% month-over-month and exceeding the previous record of 988 logged in February 2025.

Comparitech previously tracked 4,217 ransomware attacks during the first half of 2026, an 11% increase from the second half of 2025 (3,809). The U.S. saw the most attacks (417), followed by Germany and Italy (48 each), the U.K. (36) and Canada (35). Ransomware attacks on retailers increased by 30% from the prior month and manufacturers saw a 23% increase. These two sectors also saw the most confirmed attacks (incidents where the targeted organization publicly acknowledged the security breach) in August 2026 with eight and 12, respectively.

Attacks in the U.S. increased by 28% from July, which Comparitech says is likely due to the increase in attacks by leading global ransomware gang Qilin. One-third (34%) of the cybercrime group’s claims were on U.S. companies.

[KPMG: Cybersecurity spending rises as attacks increase]

"Ransomware threats are escalating across most sectors and continue to have a devastating impact on those affected,” Rebecca Moody, head of data research, Comparitech, said in commentary emailed to Chain Store Age. “Critical infrastructure remains a key target for hackers, (who) are not only causing mass disruption by encrypting systems but they're also gaining access to highly sensitive data, including personal data and information about critical systems and infrastructure."