As Albertsons works to rejuvenate its performance, the grocery chain is investing heavily in improving its store fleet and strengthening its technological capabilities.
The supermarket operator devoted more than $1.8 billion to capital expenditures during its most recent fiscal year, with a significant portion of that investment going to modernizing stores and adding new locations, President and CFO Sharon McCollam said during Albertsons’ fourth-quarter earnings call on Tuesday. The company upgraded 94 stores last year and added nine locations — and intends to accelerate that pace during fiscal 2026, she said.
Asked how many new stores Albertsons plans to open during the coming year, McCollam declined to provide a precise number but said the company expects the figure to be “up 50%” from 2025. The grocer also has its sights set on “amplifying our remodels materially in that number,” she said.
“Assuming that we see those kinds of returns that we’re expecting based on the work we did in 2025, we would likely remain in this range,” McCollam said, adding that Albertsons expects its capital expenditures to be between $2 billion and $2.2 billion in 2026.
Albertsons believes investing in its stores will play a central role in maintaining shopper engagement and encouraging people to direct their business its way, CEO Susan Morris said during the earnings call.
“If we’re giving our customers what they need at prices they’re willing to pay in their neighborhood, that’s how we think about stopping that second trip [to another retailer],” she said. “That’s why the investment in our store fleet is so important to us. That’s why we’re thinking about this customer-centric experience.”
Albertsons is also looking to technology to help it grow. The grocer has seen benefits from its efforts to create “long-term structural initiatives designed to drive growth and expand margins” by investing in the digital customer experience, merchandising intelligence, and labor and supply chain optimization, Morris said.
Morris said those initiatives — which she called Albertsons’ “four big bets” related to technology — paid off in multiple ways. For example, the company’s intelligent pricing tools are improving category decision-making, and its AI-powered demand-forecasting systems are improving quality and freshness while reducing inventory and fulfillment costs.
Albertsons also said Tuesday that its loyalty program membership expanded in fiscal 2025 by 12%, to 51 million members. That growth is paying off by increasing the number of transactions the grocer sees while also encouraging customers to boost their spending, the company said in a blog post.
“As loyalty engagement deepens, it fuels a flywheel that benefits customers, brand partners and the business. Because these experiences are built and operated within our own first-party ecosystem, we’re able to learn faster, improve continuously, and apply AI responsibly while preserving trust and service quality,” Albertsons wrote in the post.
