Retail Intel Weekly: COVID-19 News & More from Amazon, Ahold Delhaize

COVID-19According to a recent post to the company’s corporate blog, Best Buy employee volunteers (who were already sewing face coverings for employees across the country) made masks with a clear vinyl window so their mouths would be visible to accommodate a hard of hearing, Easton, PA, store associate who wears a hearing aid but still relies on reading lips to communicate with his team.Costco will slowly begin bringing back in-store sampling mid-June after suspending it in March and cutting ties with the contracting company it used in April, chief financial officer Jack Galanti said during the company’s May 28 earnings call with analysts. Without revealing much, Galanti noted it will not be sampling as usual: “it’s not going to be where you go and just pick up an open sample with your fingers."Ahold Delhaize’s Stop & Shop has extended its 10% pandemic pay bonus for employees (originally instituted in March) through July 4, the company revealed in a recent media release. The extension applies to some 56,000 workers at more than 400 stores in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey. In related news, the retailer has hired about 8,000 workers during the pandemic.Amazon has repurposed the second location of its new unnamed supermarket into a dark store to fill online grocery orders, this time located in Irvine, CA. The first one is in Woodland Hills, CA.Autonomous DeliveryAs originally reported by the Wall Street Journal, Amazon and self-driving vehicle provider Zoox are in advanced negotiations for a purchase that would be less than Zoox’s most recent $3.2 billion market valuation.CVS Pharmacy has partnered with robotics company Nuro to pilot self-driving vehicle delivery of prescriptions and essential items across three zip codes in Houston, beginning in June. Shoppers in the market can place orders on cvs.com or the CVS mobile app by selecting the autonomous delivery option. One of Nuro’s autonomous Prius vehicles will deliver the order to the shopper’s home within three hours. Shoppers will be required to verify their identity in order to unlock the vehicle. CVS will not charge delivery fees during the pilot. This comes one month after CVS launched a drone delivery pilot in a retirement community in Florida.FinancialsBJ’s Wholesale Club reported that its “digitally enabled” sales skyrocketed 350% in its first quarter of 2020, ended May 2. During the 13 weeks, shopper behavior quickly shifted and the retailer saw comparable club sales jump 19.9%, compared to Q1 2019. BJ’s also noted a “strong increase” in the number of new members in Q1 and revealed plans to lean into membership investments going forward.During its latest earnings call, channel rival Costco reported a stunning 66.1% rise in e-commerce sales for the third quarter ended May 10, a new record for the company, as well as an 8% increase in same store sales. Net sales for the quarter increased 7.3%, to $36.45 billion from $33.96 billion last year. Net sales for the first 36 weeks of the fiscal year increased 7.8%, to $110.94 billion from $102.90 billion last year. Target experienced a 10.8% increase in sales in the first quarter of 2020 (ended May 2), driven by a 141% in digital sales. 80% of those sales were based on store fulfillment options, with shoppers turning to click & collect and same-day delivery via Shipt during the COVID-1i pandemic.Dollar General opened 250 stores during the first quarter of 2020 (ended May 1) and experienced a 21.7% increase in same store sales during the period. The discount retailer saw growth in average basket size led by purchases in the consumables, seasonal, home products and apparel categories. Total sales increased 27.6% to $8.4 billion, an uptick attributed to both the new stores and an increase in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.PersonnelAhold Delhaize’s Giant Food has officially named Ira Kress (pictured at right) president. Kress has served as interim president of the banner since June 2019, when Gordon Reid left the position to lead Stop & Shop. Kress has been with Giant-Landover since 1984, beginning his career in store operations management and holding various leadership roles at both Giant-Landover and its parent company. He most recently served as senior vice president of operations.Nancy Wine, who co-created Amazon’s consumables advertising vertical, has been hired to lead advertising sales at Kroger Precision Marketing. Part of Kroger’s 84.51°, the retail media advertising solution uses the supermarket chain’s loyalty data to offer brands targeted ways to reach customers and measure program success.GroceryAccording to the Daily Herald, Amazon has confirmed it is opening a nearly 43,000-square-foot grocery store at the site of a former Babies ‘R’ Us store in Schaumburg, IL, in 2020. The store will include an 862-square-foot dine-in restaurant area and a traditional checkout experience.Ahold Delhaize's the Giant Co. is testing out the Toronto-based Flashfood app – which enables shoppers to buy fresh food including produce, meat, deli and bakery products that are nearing expiration dates at heavily discounted prices – at Giant stores in Lancaster, PA as part of its efforts to reduce food waste.Publix is bringing back eight past limited-edition ice cream flavors from its Publix Premium line, according to a recent post to its Publix Checkout blog. Quarts of the "spring flavors" including Southern Banana Pudding and Pecan Turtle Fudge are available through August.Southeastern Grocers will expand its Florida footprint after finalizing deals to acquire four Lucky’s Market stores (in Fort Myers, Gainesville, Lake Mary and Melbourne) and four Earth Fare stores (in Boynton Beach, Jacksonville, Lakewood Ranch and Viera). Each store will be remodeled and converted to the Winn-Dixie banner. All eight locations are projected to open this year.After a successful pilot, Aldi plans to expand its curbside grocery pickup service to 600 stores across 35 states by the end of July. Currently operated by Instacart at 100 stores, the service allows shoppers to place orders on shop.aldi.us or via the Instacart mobile application and then park in a designated area, where an employee will load the groceries into their car.DrugstoresProcter & Gamble’s Gillette has launched a line of facial grooming products branded King C. Gillette that are exclusive to Walgreens stores and walgreens.com. Named after Gillette founder King Camp Gillette, the products are also sold direct to consumers, individually and via subscription, on the brand’s website, kingcgillette.com.

P2PI MEMBERS

JOIN P2PI

You May Also Like

Retail Radar: Retailers Release Sales Numbers; Walmart Boosts Efficiency

Meijer Media Adds Closed-Loop Measurement