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☆ Walgreens profit tumbles, slashes guidance amid significant drop in Covid vaccine demand
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Parija Kavilanz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Walgreens Boots Alliance on Tuesday reported earnings that tumbled from the same time a year ago amid softening consumer spending and a pullback in demand for Covid vaccines. Its pharmacy sales increased 6.3% in the period versus a year ago, while comparable pharmacy sales increased 9.8%, boosted by higher prices of branded medication. But the volume of Covid vaccines administered in the quarter plummeted to 0.8 million, compared to 4.7 million a year ago. Outside of pharmacy products, Walgreens reported retail sales fell 1% and comparable sales decreased 0.2% in the quarter. Excluding tobacco, comparable retail sales increased 0.2%, led by purchases of grocery, household and beauty items.

Persons: Rosalind Brewer, Neil Saunders, ”, Saunders Organizations: New, New York CNN, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Walgreens, U.S . Healthcare, Roosevelt, Global Locations: New York, Chicago

☆ UK grocery inflation edges lower for third straight month -Kantar
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( James Davey | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Market researcher Kantar said annual grocery inflation was 16.5% in the four weeks to June 11, down from 17.2% in its May data set. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's key pledge to halve inflation in 2023 has been undermined by persistently high food inflation. "Price rises are now being compared to the increasing rate of grocery inflation seen last summer, which means that it should continue to fall in the coming months," he said. Market leader Tesco (TSCO.L) said on Friday food inflation was starting to ease and it was hopeful it would moderate through the year. The Kantar data for June provides the most up to date snapshot of UK grocery inflation.

Persons: Kantar, Rishi Sunak's, Fraser McKevitt, Price, James Davey, Cynthia Osterman Organizations: Reading, Bank of England, Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, Thomson

☆ Jim Cramer says the Fed needs to slow down before making a rash decision
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Julie Coleman | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

CNBC's Jim Cramer told investors on Wednesday that the Federal Reserve needs to calm down before it makes a rash decision about rate hikes that could make the market even worse. With two weeks to go before its next meeting, Cramer stressed the need for prudence, not recklessness, in times of market confusion. "There are plenty of Fed heads who believe they need to keep raising interest rates, rather than take their time to assess the situation," Cramer said. Maybe the Fed needs to tighten more, but would it kill them to wait another month or two?" Cramer stressed that many industry giants are sending out warning signs that the central bank should not ignore, especially brick-and-mortar retailers, which are seeing "discouraging earnings and almost uniformly tepid forecasts."

Persons: CNBC's Jim Cramer, Cramer, —, I'm, Patrick Harker Organizations: Federal Reserve, American Airlines, Philly Fed, Costco, Meta

☆ How the 'water bed effect' is costing you at the grocery store
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

But that habit creates a "water bed effect," putting pressure on small grocers, an NYT opinion says. For the food industry, the consequences of the water bed effect have included consolidation and less competition, Mitchell wrote. Walmart commanded about one-quarter of US grocery sales in 2021, according to Euromonitor. The subject of grocery consolidation was a concern to small grocers before the most recent merger proposal. Independent grocers represent up to one-third of US grocery sales, according to a 2021 estimate from the National Grocers Association.

☆ Annual inflation cooled off slightly in April
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Minneapolis CNN —Annual inflation continued its slow-but-steady deceleration in April, according to the latest Consumer Price Index released Wednesday. The CPI climbed by 4.9% for the 12 months ended in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, representing a slightly slower pace of increase than the 5% in March. It’s the 10th consecutive month that the headline CPI rate has slowed, and it’s at its lowest rate since April 2021 — when this bout of painfully high inflation started to spike. Excluding food and energy costs, which tend to have more volatility, core CPI was unchanged at 5.5% for the 12 months ended in April. A welcome decline — albeit a slight one — came in the category of grocery prices, which fell 0.2% over the month, helping bring the annual rate of inflation there to 7.1%.

Students with a limited credit history are unlikely to be approved for the best credit cards, and even some student credit cards require good to excellent credit. Step is a secured credit card that has a dynamic credit limit that is attached to the bank account balance -- it operates like a debit card but it is a credit card, which is what enables the unique credit building feature. Best Credit Cards for Students With No Credit of 2023Methodology: How we chose the best credit cards for students with no creditInsider's credit cards team looked at dozens of student credit cards, secured credit cards, and starter credit cards and narrowed down the list by choosing only those that students with limited or no credit have a good chance of qualifying for. Credit Cards for Students With No Credit Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)Which credit card is best for students with no credit? US Bank Altitude Go Secured Credit Card ReviewBest for Students Under 18Step Secured Visa CardWhile credit card accounts are only available to those aged 18 and over, the Step Secured Visa Card offers a solution for students looking to build credit who haven't yet reached legal adulthood.

☆ The world's 12 wealthiest people got richer by $36 billion in a day - and have now gained $264 billion in net worth this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and their peers have added $264 billion to their fortunes this year. The surge in their companies' stock prices this year has added $46 billion and $42 billion to their respective fortunes. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and L'Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt-Myers have gained around $27 billion, $25 billion and $23 billion each. The billionaire best friends have added $13 billion and $7 billion to their respective fortunes since the start of January. Meanwhile, the $36 billion of wealth they gained on Thursday rivals the the market values of grocery giant Kroger and Taco Bell-owner Yum!

☆ Amazon could buy 100s of grocery stores being divested by Kroger and Albertsons, according to a top research firm
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Gloria Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Amazon has also shut some Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh locations. In a note published this week, the firm suggested Amazon could buy some or all of the divested stores from the planned Kroger and Albertsons merger. "Buying the divested Kroger/Albertsons stores should definitely be on the table at Amazon," the analysts wrote. That presents an opportunity for Amazon, Bernstein analysts wrote. The authors described several scenarios for the company, such as quickly rebranding stores or focusing on stores in particular regions.

☆ The rapid grocery app bubble, inflated by the pandemic, is nearing its endgame
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Grocery apps exploded during the pandemic and attained wild, multibillion-dollar valuations. European market leader Getir and smaller rival Flink are both set for big valuation haircuts. That's against a backdrop of grocery startups quitting markets, being acquired, delaying IPO, and going bankrupt. Grocery startups took massive hits as they chased usersWhat happened? Consolidation has come quickly, as smaller startups run into the realities of a low-margin model and find they can't keep up the requisite spend to chase consumers.

☆ DoorDash-backed Flink is in talks to raise around $100 million at a haircut to its earlier $2.85 billion valuation, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Callum Burroughs | Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Flink is raising around $100 million at a haircut to an earlier valuation, sources said. The startup most recently raised funding in 2022 at an estimated $5 billion valuation. Any prospective funding is mooted to be at a down round valuation of around $1.5 billion, two sources said. Discussions around fresh funding remain at an early stage and figures are subject to change. These firms, often only months old, raised funding rounds in rapid succession, hitting billion-dollar and multibillion-dollar valuations fast.

☆ Workers returning to offices could mean more trouble for Instacart and other grocery delivery services
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Ordering groceries online is losing appeal for busy workers returning in-person to offices. About 37% of remote workers and 32% of hybrid workers said they did all of their grocery shopping online, Morning Consult reported. Forty percent of in-person workers said that they did "some" of their grocery shopping online. It asked consumers about their online grocery usage, including both delivery and pick-up orders. At first glance, it might seem that remote workers have more flexibility to make a weekday errand run like grocery shopping, Moquin said.

☆ Here's what's getting cheaper at the grocery store
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Grocery prices finally dipped in March, falling for the first time since September 2020, according to data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The meats, poultry, fish and eggs index fell 1.4%, pulled down by another month of large decreases in egg prices. In the year through March, grocery prices jumped 8.4%, outpacing overall inflation of 5%. Grocery prices finally fell in March. But more recently, egg prices have been coming down.

☆ Walmart is cheaper than Dollar General for groceries
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Dollar General has hiked food prices more than Walmart and Kroger, Bank of America analysts found. The study documented prices on a range of grocery items in February at retailers in Dallas, including Walmart, Kroger, Target, Dollar General, and Aldi, among others. At Dollar General, prices rose 36%, the steepest increase of all the retailers, Bank of America analysts Robert Ohmes and Kendall Toscano wrote. A comparable selection at Target totaled $194.15, while the cost at Dollar General was $201.14. Do you work or shop at a Dollar General and have a story to share?

☆ Fidelity's latest valuation markdowns of companies like Stripe and Instacart paints a grim picture for late-stage startups
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Over the last year, Fidelity's mutual fund has cut the value of its late-stage startup investments. Stripe, one of the biggest startups that was handsomely rewarded during this funding peak, has now lost its luster among investors, including Fidelity. The asset manager, which has invested in Stripe through its mutual fund, marked down the value of its Stripe investment by nearly 20% in February compared to the previous month, according to new data released by the mutual fund. Fidelity has invested in recent funding rounds of Stripe and other high-profile startups via its $55 billion Growth Company Fund. Since January 2022, Fidelity's per-share valuation of Stripe has dropped by more than 40%.

☆ Walmart is cheaper than Dollar General for groceries, as the dollar chain hikes prices faster than its rivals
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Dollar General has hiked food prices more than Walmart and Kroger, Bank of America analysts found. At Dollar General, prices rose 36%, the steepest increase of all the retailers, Bank of America analysts Robert Ohmes and Kendall Toscano wrote. At Family Dollar, another chain of dollar stores, it was $203.67." Consumers have also turned to Dollar Stores, given their reputation for inexpensive stuff, CNBC reported in February. Do you work or shop at a Dollar General and have a story to share?

☆ Oil and gas companies are investing billions to make energy from waste but some climate groups call it greenwashing
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Canadian gas company Enbridge pledged up to $1 billion to a US firm turning food waste into energy. Oil and gas companies see a green opportunity from food waste like rotting spinach but some climate advocates say it's more like greenwashing. The company's software tracks retailers' food waste and Divert then recovers what can be donated to food banks. The plan is to build 30 plants, enough to manage 5% of US food waste; Divert now handles about a half percent. Making gas from waste can avoid greenhouse gas emissions that seep out of landfills.

[1/5] An employee prepares online grocery orders in the storage area of Czech online grocer Rohlik Group in Prague, Czech Republic February 1, 2023. HUGE GROWTH POTENTIAL Rohlik, founded in 2014, leads the Czech market by mainly targeting customers in big cities through its string of distribution warehouses. "Competition is still mainly driven by stationary retail but a small number of online grocery players are gearing up in each market to become leading e-grocery platforms." KOSIK TURNS EASTAs Rohlik bets on Germany, Kosik is looking eastward, entering the Slovak market and expanding in Bulgaria. CEO Ivan Utesil said the company would also seek to cut into Czech market share by capitalising on its tie-in with German wholesaler Metro (B4B.DE) in some regional areas.

☆ British supermarkets are rationing fruit and vegetables as shortages bite
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON — Britain's biggest supermarkets are limiting purchases of certain fruit and vegetables as supply shortages lead to empty shelves. It said the move was due to poor weather conditions overseas and was working with suppliers to "get things back to normal." The U.K. government has not stated Brexit as a factor, blaming weather conditions. EU member Ireland is also experiencing fruit and vegetable shortages. U.K. Food Minister Mark Spencer said Monday he had spoken to retailers about how they are responding to shortages and asked them to build preparedness for future incidents.

☆ Target Investing $100 Million to Expand Next-Day Delivery
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Liz Young | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Target is one of several retailers using stores to fill orders to help manage inventory and the high costs of last-mile delivery. A Target worker loads packages for last-mile delivery at the retailer’s Minneapolis sortation center. Despite slowing growth, online orders make up a substantial portion of Target’s sales. The sortation centers are meant to relieve stores of the burden of sorting packages for final delivery, speeding shipments up in the process. The facilities handled 26 million packages last year, and Target expects that number to double this year.

☆ Companies Are Slow to Adopt Robot-Operated ‘Dark’ Warehouses
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Liz Young | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

More companies are exploring ways to staff warehouses with robots but may have to wait a few years for the technology to catch up. It makes the automation much easier to justify,” said Sean Wallingford, president and chief executive of the Americas region for warehouse technology company Swisslog Holding AG. A robotic arm picks and packs orders at online pharmacy company Apo.com’s automated warehouse in the Netherlands. Photo: RIGHTHAND ROBOTICSAbout 20% of warehouses in 2022 used some form of robotics, up from 15% in 2018, according to research firm Interact Analysis. Mr. Jensen said the company made changes after the first fire in 2019, limiting damage from later fires.

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☆ You might not find as many chocolates in that last-minute Valentine's Day gift box as you did last year — blame 'slack-filling'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Aidan Pollard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Federal regulations prohibit slack filling, but some claim its happening with Valentine's Day candy, the Washington Post reported. Valentine's Day candy prices have gone up nearly 10%, according to the Post. Federal regulations prohibit companies from over-packaging goods, and even refer to the practice of slack-filling by name. Still, some consumers say the practice of slack-filling chocolates seems to continue unabated in the Valentine's Day candy aisles of grocery and convenience stores. "You used to get a box of candy and it was packed with the candy, one right next to the other."

☆ Eggs are crazy expensive. Plant-based alternatives think you should check them out
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Egg prices are still high at the grocery store — so plant-based egg alternatives are using this moment to make their case. Brands like Just Egg and Zero Egg, which make egg alternatives, say they’ve seen momentum in January. For them, turmoil in the traditional egg market is the perfect opportunity to try to reach potential new customers and highlight the advantages of plant-based eggs. But they’re not interested in plant-based eggs — the texture and flavor is just not there for their needs, Tim Lu said. In the grocery store, egg prices remain elevated, Rispoli noted: “Grocers are not yet passing along those savings.”

Amazon has long viewed grocery as a key to unlock more consumer spending. Despite Amazon's large business from packaged food and other goods, it has yet to win significant market share in perishables, Jassy said. Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, said Amazon has itself to blame, having drawn consumers to online shopping decades ago. "They are flushing money down a toilet pursuing Amazon Fresh stores" and thinking "they can brand a new concept and capture share from retailers who have been successful for decades." The company has a few dozen Amazon Fresh stores so far, Jassy said.

☆ The art of the buffet: Cruise chef of two decades explains how ships feed thousands of passengers at sea
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Hannah Towey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Marco Goetz has worked on some of the world's largest cruise ships as an executive chef. "On land, your daily routines are more organized — you know what is coming," Goetz told Insider. The art of the buffetGuests are served food in the Marketplace buffet onboard the cruise ship MSC Virtuosa. Throughout the cruise, buffet options are adjusted in accordance with guests' nationalities, Goetz told Insider. But, cruise ship workers receive living quarters (most chefs have their own cabin) and meals for free.

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