Word: wal
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...just 10 less than a year ago. "We found it's having a profound effect," says Andrew Kramer, Albertson's director of ethnic marketing and specialty foods. Sales in his category more than doubled last year, led by growth in low-carb lines. Meanwhile, the central action alley at Wal-Mart SuperCenters crammed some 200 low-carb products into a 16-ft. run during prime dieting season after New Year's. The company is considering launching its own line of low-carb foods, which would surely narrow the price premium that many of these items carry...
...Grocery Gamble Battered by Wal-Mart, the supermarket industry is rapidly revamping to survive...
Cocky. Ruthless. Vicious. Mean. Those are some of the ways Jerry Davis, CEO of Affiliated Foods Southwest, describes the supermarket juggernaut that is Wal-Mart. He could have added hyperefficient, low cost and customer focused. The megachain's rapidly expanding grocery business--which now accounts for a fifth of U.S. food sales--has left a trail of shuttered supermarkets in its wake. This year in particular, the damage is piling up. Winn-Dixie, once a Southern power, suspended its dividend indefinitely, causing its stock to drop 28% in January, and is expected to close more than a hundred stores. This...
...Blaming Wal-Mart is a common industry response, but it's also misguided. The grocers have contributed enormously to their own problems. Their inefficient supply chain, for instance, provided Wal-Mart with a golden opportunity. And their initial response to the new threat was fairly myopic. Like too many of his fellow grocers, Davis thought getting bigger himself would make things better. Before Wal-Mart, he says, "we tried to limit our distance from our warehouses to 300 miles. Now we're going 500 miles" to reach stores as far as the Gulf Coast. Kroger, Albertson's and Safeway each...
...There really is a crisis in the industry," says Gary Giblen, head analyst at boutique Manhattan research firm CL King & Associates. The sky started falling--along with same-store sales--in 2001, as alienated shoppers began steering their grocery carts not only toward Wal-Mart's food-laden Supercenters but also toward warehouse clubs, discount chains, drugstores, dollar stores and, on the high end, trendy salutes to organic produce. "Conventional supermarkets really have no reason to exist anymore," says Giblen. "They're basically becoming convenience stores...