The Friday Checkout is a weekly column providing more insight on the news, rounding up the announcements you may have missed and sharing what’s to come.
The announcement on Tuesday that the family that owns regional supermarket chain Schnuck Markets has agreed to buy 51 grocery stores builds on an acquisition-driven growth strategy that extends back to the company’s early years. But while the St. Louis-based retail icon has long looked to grow its presence by folding newly acquired supermarkets into its existing fleet, this time around the family plans to run its newly purchased stores separately under a just-established holding company that will also own Schnucks.
The Schnuck family plans to run the Skogen’s Festival Foods and Hometown Grocers stores it is set to acquire through a holding company named the 1939 Group rather than as an extension of its 113-store Schnucks fleet. This approach comes as the grocery industry appears ripe for continued consolidation.
The 1939 Group represents the latest example of a regional grocery ownership group expanding by assembling separately run supermarket chains under a centralized umbrella. Think of Raley’s, which created an entity known as The Raley’s Companies in 2021 that includes the Raley’s and Bashas’ grocery chains. Or the merger that year that brought Price Chopper/Market 32 and Tops Markets under a single ownership structure.
As traditional supermarket chains face mounting pressure from enormous chains like Walmart on one hand and specialty food retailers on the other, it would hardly be surprising if other smaller retailers also decide their best option is to combine with a larger grocery company that has deeper resources.
There’s no way to know if the Schnuck family has additional expansion plans in mind, of course, but the 1939 Group would certainly facilitate its ability to build further economies of scale. Could a mini Albertsons or Kroger — with stores arranged under separate names but controlled by a central executive team — be in the works?
In case you missed it
Walmart isn’t lost in translation
In a blog post this week, Walmart discussed its in-house translation platform that assists customers shopping online. By working with linguists and incorporating artificial intelligence, the retailer is able to recognize searches for products like T-shirts and yogurt across a range of languages and dialects.
The retailer said its Walmart Translation Platform saves the company $20 million annually.
H Mart opening first Florida location
The Asian grocery chain will open its first store in the Sunshine State next Thursday. The grand opening in Orlando, Florida, will include traditional dances and other festivities.
Since opening its first store in the Woodside section of the New York City borough of Queens in 1982, H Mart has grown to nearly 100 stores across 16 states.
Ahold Delhaize joins sustainable dairy partnership
The East Coast grocery operator has joined with Danone North America and The Nature Conservancy in an initiative aimed at reducing methane emissions involved in the production of select products supplied by the dairy giant.
Dairy farms that provide Danone products to Ahold Delhaize USA’s banners will implement measures like manure spreaders and compost turners with a goal of reducing Scope 3 emissions across the value chain.
Impulse find
All the eggs are in the wrong basket
A Hannaford employee did a double-take earlier this week when they opened a shipment that contained private label eggs apparently intended for rival grocery chain Market Basket. The employee posted a TikTok of themself wearing their Hannaford polo that also shows a box of egg cartons sporting the Market Basket name and logo.
More than 200 comments poured in, saying things like “even the eggs are boycotting after Artie T got sacked,” — a reference to the leadership drama that has recently enveloped Market Basket — and “Can you sell them for $2.99 like market basket does?”
The creator didn’t follow up to say how the egg mix-up ended, but they did include a caption that said “Lowkey wanted to put them on the shelf but I was told no.”
@tai_is.a_jellyfish Lowkey wanted to put them on the shelf but I was told no ???? #hannaford #marketbasket #newengland #fypシ #work ♬ File Select (From "Super Mario 64') - Arcade Player
