Episodes

  • Shrinkflation (and how it’s affecting loyalty)
    Oct 6 2022
    Consumers are hyper aware of inflation, which is also translating to a hypervigilance around shrinkflation too. So writes Emily Moquin, food and beverage analyst at data intelligence firm Morning Consult, in a recent report on the phenomenon, common in the grocery industry. According to the study, a majority of U.S. adults perceive shrinking packages and portion sizes, resulting in choosing alternative brands and products. The ultimate takeaway? Food & beverage companies need to ensure they maintain positive consumer perception or risk losing goodwill permanently.  SN Off the Shelf sat down with Moquin to dive in further on what this means for grocery.  In this episode, you’ll find out: What category consumers perceive as the biggest shrinkflation culprit How repeat purchases are being affected What effect shrinkflation has on loyalty  Have a pitch for the podcast? Contact SN Executive Editor Chloe Riley at chloe.riley@informa.com, or reach out and say hi on LinkedIn. Thanks so much for listening. 
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    18 mins
  • Meet Instacart's new “Shoppable Recipes” partner, Pepper
    Sep 29 2022
    Back in March, Instacart announced its new “Shoppable Recipes” integration, with Tiktok being the main juicy partner announced at that time. Creators can share their content and engage with fans in new ways, allowing home cooks to make online recipes a reality by quickly getting all the ingredients they need, and Instacart’s retail partners are able to tap into new addressable audiences via integrations with best-in-class content creators and entertainment brands. Everyone wins.  Now, Instacart has tapped into a new partner who will make use of that same integration: Pepper, a social cooking app that caters to the home chef community. It’s been just over a year since launching, and the company already has more than 380,000 users and has been named the App of the Day by the iOS App Store. Starting at the end of September, Pepper users will be able to use the “Shoppable Recipes” feature to order ingredients from verified chefs on Pepper and have them delivered directly to their door.  SN off the Shelf sat down with the C-suite of Pepper: CEO Jake Aronskind and COO Matt Schkolnick. In this episode, you’ll find out: What the integration says about how a percentage of the population now wants to get their groceries The demographics of a Pepper user What grocery should take away from the launch  Have a pitch for the podcast? Contact SN Executive Editor Chloe Riley at chloe.riley@informa.com, or reach out and say hi on LinkedIn. Thanks so much for listening.
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    22 mins
  • Breaking down wellness with Campbell
    Sep 22 2022
    Wellness. It’s a much-used buzzword these days, but with good reason, according to Leslie Waller, vice president of marketing at Campbell Soup Company. Supermarket News met up with Waller at the recent Groceryshop convention to talk with her about how Campbell’s strategy around wellness has evolved, in addition to what consumers are searching for online in this category.  In this episode, you’ll find out: The importance of omnichannel and the digital shelf What generations are most interested in wellness as a concept (according to Campbell) What wellness search terms Campbell is paying attention to Contact Chloe Riley at chloe.riley@informa.com, or reach out and say hi on LinkedIn. 
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    17 mins
  • How grocers are helping consumers navigate inflation
    Sep 15 2022
    This week on SN Off the Shelf, a Supermarket News podcast, SN editors Chloe Riley and Russell Redman discuss two top stories from the week: 1. Grocery pricing was still high in August, even despite relaxed inflation and 2. Instacart’s making a lot of moves as it gears up for an anticipated IPO — including partnering with the musician Lizzo. Here’s why it matters to grocery. In this episode, you’ll find out: Tangible ways stores can be alleviating price pain for consumers Takeaways for grocery around the launch of Instacart’s Carts feature Details around the debut of a new weekly SN news roundup, “5 things” Sign up for our daily newsletter to get “5 things” delivered to your inbox every Friday  You can contact SN Executive Editor Chloe Riley at chloe.riley@informa.com (or reach out and say hi on LinkedIn), and likewise, say hi to SN Managing Editor Russ Redman at russell.redman@informa.com. Thanks for listening.
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    13 mins
  • CIO Yael Cosset explains Kroger’s ‘seamless ecosystem’
    Sep 8 2022
    In driving its “lead with fresh, accelerate with digital” strategy, The Kroger Co. — the Supermarket News 2022 Retailer of the Year — aims to build a seamless ecosystem in which customers can move easily between channels and get the same high-quality experience. That includes shifting between brick-and-mortar stores and digital, and among in-store shopping, pickup and delivery.   “Our aspiration is to be the destination for our customers for their food needs,” Yael Cosset, senior vice president and chief information officer at Cincinnati-based Kroger, told SN in a podcast discussion. “At the heart of our vision for a seamless ecosystem is the precise understanding of our customers.”   Unsurprisingly, technology is playing a central role. On the e-commerce side, Kroger has opened six customer fulfillment centers (CFCs) and nine supporting “spoke” facilities under its more than four-year-old partnership with Ocado Group. These high-tech facilities use Ocado’s automation and artificial intelligence technology to fill online grocery delivery orders, including in markets where Kroger doesn’t have physical stores.   But that’s not all. Kroger, which serves more than 60 million households annually, is leveraging the vast stores of data from across its physical and virtual properties and brands to create more personalized experiences and value for customers. The company also is using tech-based solutions and its data and analytics capabilities, for example, to hone its supply chain to improve product freshness, expedite pickup and delivery service, and introduce new, on-trend items in its Our Brands portfolio.   According to Cosset, Kroger is seizing “the opportunity to leverage data to really understand what matters to every single customer — what they want, from the freshest product for a simple meal they cook at home to a quality fresh meal solution when they’re on the go; when they want it, whether they’re doing their weekly shop or looking for an immediate solution delivered to them in 30 minutes; and also how they want it. Do they want to go to the store, pick it up or get it delivered to their home? All of this without having to compromise on the freshness, quality or value they get from Kroger.”   Overall, The Kroger Co. operates 2,723 supermarkets and multi-department stores under more than 20 banners. More than 2,250 stores have pharmacies, and over 1,600 have fuel centers. Eighty-two percent of Kroger’s customers within five miles of one of its stores, with most living within two miles.   On the digital side, as of the fiscal 2021 year-end, 2,257 stores provided online grocery pickup, and over 2,500 stores offered delivery. Including click-and-collect and delivery via Kroger Delivery, third-party partners such as Instacart and Kroger’s Ship direct-to-home service, the company covered 98% of households in its trade area with e-commerce services. Digital represents a more than $10 billion annual business for Kroger. About 18.5 million households engaged online with the retailer in 2021.   “Our seamless ecosystem is about bringing all of our assets together — our stores, our dedicated facilities, leveraging technology, our partners, petabytes of data about customer preferences — ultimately to bring that seamless experience to life to fit the context of your day, your need,” Cosset said. “So data and technology is present across the entire ecosystem.”
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    24 mins
  • Why marketing may be your friend when fighting the effects of inflation
    Aug 29 2022
    Inflation is a major concern for Americans, according to recent survey data, and it’s starting to affect their grocery shopping habits.   Some 76% of U.S. consumers say their food buying habits have shifted, and nearly half (45%) feel like they can’t afford their previous lifestyle, according to data from advertising technology company NCSolutions. We sat down with the CEO of NCSolutions, Alan Miles, to drill down into just how deeply inflation is affecting consumer habits, and additionally: what the grocery industry can be doing about it.  In this episode, you’ll find out: The risks (and opportunities) that come with shifting consumer purchasing habits due to inflation  Which products have seen the highest percentage increases  Why marketing can be your friend when it comes to communicating brand value Contact Chloe Riley at chloe.riley@informa.com, or reach out and say hi on LinkedIn. 
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    14 mins
  • Dollar General’s Charlene Charles bullish on retail media potential
    Jul 21 2022
    Amid the expanding use of digital channels and the rise of omnichannel shopping, CPG brands are looking to connect with consumers in new ways and measure those interactions.  To that end, Dollar General last month announced what it called an “evolution” in its media platform, DG Media Network (DGMN). The Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based discount store giant launched DGMN in 2018. “DG Media Network is here to deliver our brand partners an up-close and personal view of the Dollar General customer in a way that really no one else can,” Charlene Charles, head of DG Media Network operations, said in a podcast interview with Supermarket News. “We do this by creating more meaningful intersections between our partners and customers — essentially making it easier to reach the hard-to-reach and hard-to-measure [consumers] with the brands and products they want and need.”  Dollar General said the DGMN upgrade includes a spate of new advertising partners from major CPG companies — Unilever, General Mills, Hershey’s and Colgate-Palmolive, to name a few — plus new strategic partners to expand DGMN’s technology, analytics and media capabilities. Dollar General certainly has a lot to offer CPG brands, with nearly 18,400 stores in 47 states. The chain noted that three-quarters of its stores serve markets of 20,000 people or fewer, a segment of customers often overlooked under current media strategies. The retailer’s mobile app also has 4 million monthly active users. “We very much pride ourselves in the fact that we can reach more than 90% of our active DG customers through paid media,” Charles said. “Building on that, we have speed in our reporting through a self-service dashboard showing near-time real attributable sales, and we’re focusing on striving to provide measurement to demonstrate performance for every dollar in and dollar out.”
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    13 mins
  • Save A Lot’s Tim Schroder sees ‘big opportunity’ for value grocer
    Jun 30 2022
    High food prices have shoppers hunting for savings and embracing store brands.
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    17 mins