Retail Intel Weekly: CVS, Amazon, Walmart & More

AMAZONJeff Bezos (pictured at right) will step down as chief executive officer of Amazon this summer. Andy Jassy, the chief of Amazon’s cloud computing division, will become chief executive, while founder Bezos will become executive chairman. The company revealed the news alongside its fourth quarter and year-end financials. Fourth-quarter revenue of $125.55 billion put the company over the $100 billion mark for the first time. Sales were up 44% year-over-year on holiday and pandemic-driven e-commerce demand. North American revenue totaled $75.35 billion. Full-year sales increased 38% to $386.1 billion, with the North American business contributing $236.2 of that total.Amazon is returning to the Super Bowl for the sixth consecutive year with a 60-second TV spot imagining what life would be like if Alexa looked like Michael B. Jordan — People magazine's sexiest man alive of 2020. (See video below.)Amazon is testing electric vans it designed and built in partnership with manufacturer Rivian on delivery routes in Los Angeles, with a plan to expand to up to 15 additional cities in 2021. The Rivian investment is part of Amazon’s Climate Pledge to be net zero carbon across its entire business by 2040.Sustainability also plays a big part in the design of the second headquarters Amazon began building last January in Arlington, VA. The company just unveiled the design for the next portion of the build, and one building stands out far from the rest: a swirling glass tower that Amazon calls “the Helix." The 350-foot-tall building's outside will have two sets of spiraling paths dotted with local plants that people will literally be able to hike up.The University of Southern California and Amazon are creating a joint research center focused on the development of new approaches to machine learning, privacy, security and trustworthiness. According to Amazon, the new Center for Secure and Trusted Machine Learning will unleash a new line of fundamental research on privacy and security aspects of machine learning — a timely and critical effort given the proliferation of artificial intelligence across all aspects of society from education to finance, transportation, healthcare and many others.Amazon is continuing to expand the availability of its Amazon One contactless payment device at Seattle-area stores. The retailer has added the device to an additional Amazon Go store in Seattle, and will expand the technology to two more Seattle Amazon Go locations in the coming weeks. Currently, Amazon also provides Amazon One payment at five select Amazon Go, Amazon Go Grocery, Amazon Books and Amazon 4-star stores in and around Seattle.WALMARTA Walmart Neighborhood Market store in Texas has become the retailer’s 3,000th location to offer delivery of online grocery purchases. The discounter, which introduced store-based grocery delivery in 2018, has been rapidly expanding the scope of the offering since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Walmart is partnering with Nationwide to offer the pet insurer's members savings on prescription pet medications and an expedited, in-store claims experience. Interested pet owners will need to log into my.petinsurance.com to sign up for the Nationwide Pet Rx Express program. At any Walmart pharmacy during checkout, the member presents their digital pet insurance ID card and pays for the prescription. The members’ claim is automatically submitted by the pharmacy, and the reimbursement process (based on the member’s plan) is started by Nationwide. With this in-store program, Nationwide pet insurance members will no longer have to submit a separate claim for covered pet prescriptions. Preferred pricing and the opportunity to have claims for covered drugs processed at the counter of a major retail pharmacy is a first for the pet health insurance industry.Retail Media: Walmart has acquired the technology behind Thunder, an ad-tech solution focused on creative automation, according to a company blog post. Thunder's ad tech is a key part of a new self-serve display advertising platform that Walmart plans to roll out later this year to make launching and adjusting campaigns seamless and more accessible to a wider range of advertisers, including smaller suppliers. The acquisition directly follows an overhaul of Walmart's media network, Walmart Connect.Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are distributing $14.3 million in grants to 16 different nonprofit organizations that are tackling racial inequities as part of a five-year $100 million commitment made last summer in the wake of the George Floyd killing to address racial disparities in the U.S. through a Center for Racial Equity. The mission of the center is to complement and extend the societal impact of Walmart business initiatives to advance racial equity in the nation’s financial, health, criminal justice and education systems.DRUGOn Feb. 1, CVS Health’s new chief executive officer and president Karen Lynch officially took the reins from her predecessor Larry Merlo, who will serve as a member of CVS’ Board of Directors until the company's next annual meeting of stockholders in May and as strategic advisor to assist with the transition until his retirement on May 31. Lynch, the former executive vice president of CVS Health and president of Aetna, wrote in a LinkedIn blog post on Feb. 1, “As the new president and ceo, I’m energized by the opportunity to lead CVS Health and reimagine health care in this country." Former evp of commercial business and markets of Aetna, Daniel Finke, replaces Lynch as evp and president of Aetna.SUPERMARKETAhold Delhaize’s Giant Co. has launched its latest ready-to-eat meal solution aimed at busy families. Available at all Giant-Carlisle and Martin’s stores, All Set in a Box is a hot meal option comprising a main course such as taco kits, eight-piece chicken meals, ribs, rotisserie chicken and chicken tenders, as well as sides for four people including mashed potatoes, mac and cheese and coleslaw. Most varieties cost less than $5 per serving. Shoppers can call in advance or order their meal in-store from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. daily, with the box ready within 15 minutes. All Set in a Box is available in-store only from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. daily.Southeastern Grocers is celebrating February’s designation as Black History month with a community donation program through its SEG Gives Foundation benefiting the Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity Grant Program. The grant program, which is named after 101-year-old Winn-Dixie associate Romay Davis, aids nonprofit organizations working toward racial equity and social justice, and addresses racial disparities in education, food insecurity and health care. Through March 2, shoppers at all Bi-Lo, Fresco y Mas, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie stores can make donations to the program by rounding up their grocery bills at checkout. SEG Gives will contribute an additional $100,000 donation to the campaign total.Kroger and English online grocer Ocado named Phoenix the site for the companies' latest U.S. automated customer fulfillment center (CFC). The new 200,000-square-foot CFC – an automated warehouse facility with digital and robotic capabilities – will be used to serve shoppers across the region. It is expected to become operational 24 months after the site breaks ground.Kroger is blaming mandated pandemic hazard pay for the upcoming closings of two supermarkets it owns in Long Beach, CA, Path to Purchase Institute-sister-publication Progressive Grocer reported. “As a result of the City of Long Beach’s decision to pass an ordinance mandating Extra Pay for grocery workers, we have made the difficult decision to permanently close long-struggling store locations in Long Beach,” said a company spokesperson. “This misguided action by the Long Beach City Council oversteps the traditional bargaining process and applies to some, but not all, grocery workers in the city.”Ahold Delhaize’s Stop & Shop is piloting walk-up grocery pick-up lockers at a Boston store as a way to better accommodate shoppers that arrive on foot or bike versus in a vehicle. The temperature-controlled lockers are located in the store’s main entrance and automatically unlock by entering a designated code, with the pre-bagged groceries inside. The retailer plans to roll out the offering to more locations if the pilot goes.DOLLAR STORESFollowing in the footsteps of retailers such as Target and CVS Health, Dollar General is joining the Center for the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag as a "value sector lead partner." The Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners launched the initiative to replace the current retail bag in July 2020 and currently has multiple work streams to spur innovation, identify best practices for policy and engage consumers. As a sector lead partner, Dollar General will direct priorities and activities for the initiative in the context of the value sector of retail, according to a media release from the dollar store chain. DG will explore viable solutions resulting from the Beyond the Bag Challenge and recommend ways in which these solutions can align with the operations of existing stores and customer needs.

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