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.
When Grocery Outlet prioritized expanding its assortment to cover a fuller grocery shop for customers, the discounter seemingly took its eye off one very important measure of success: price perception.
This critical error, coupled with increasing pressure on consumers’ wallets, especially those receiving SNAP benefits, weakened Grocery Outlet’s fourth-quarter financial results, with comparable-store sales slipping by nearly 1%.
“Our push to improve in-stocks and add assortment to ensure the availability of everyday items squeezed our supply chain, impacting our ability to deliver high-quality, opportunistic product that drives value in this business,” President and CEO Jason Potter said on a Wednesday earnings call, calling the Q4 results “unacceptable.”
Adding insult to injury, Potter admitted Grocery Outlet “needed to address value more holistically.”
“Customer survey and third-party research showed that while our base pricing was competitive, our leadership position on value perception had eroded,” Potter told investors.
As a result of its dismal earnings, which included a nearly $235 million operating loss and a more than $218 million net loss in Q4, the grocer announced a new restructuring plan — its second within a year’s span. It also announced plans to close 36 stores.
Grocery Outlet executives noted that the company will bolster its opportunistic buying, since its steeply discounted products drive customers’ perception of value. The discounter’s woes are a stark reminder to fellow grocers that they can’t take their eye off their pricing strategies — or value perception — as they ramp up other areas of their businesses.
In case you missed it
Amazon adds Cub Foods to delivery platform
The e-commerce company said Tuesday that it has started offering two-hour delivery service to Cub Foods customers in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Grocery pickup for Cub orders through Amazon will also be available at participating locations, per an emailed press release. Cub joins grocery chains including Weis Markets, FoodMaxx, Cardenas Markets and Winn-Dixie in working with Amazon.
Ocado to cut 1K jobs
The U.K.-based warehouse-automation company intends to eliminate about 5% of its global workforce as part of a cost-reduction drive, the BBC reported last week. Most of the job cuts will affect workers at the company’s headquarters outside London. Ocado’s move follows Kroger’s decision last year to close several robotic fulfillment centers it built with the automation company. Kroger also ended an exclusive agreement with Ocado in late December 2025.
Kroger location now runs on Dunkin’
A supermarket in Southgate, Michigan, has become home to the coffee and donut retailer’s first location situated inside a Kroger store, according to a recent LinkedIn post by a Kroger executive.
Impulse find
Fairway celebrates Lunar New Year
The New York City food retailer recently partnered with dim sum restaurant Nom Wah to run an interactive dumpling-making class at a cafe the chain operates in the city’s Upper West Side neighborhood. The 22 people who signed up for the two-hour class at Fairway Market’s 74th Street Cafe used ingredients provided by the grocer as they learned how to make dim sum fillings and prepare dumplings. And of course they also got to sample the classic Chinese lunch delicacy.
Fairway noted that it now carries Nom Wah’s signature dumplings, dumpling sauce and chili oil at all of its locations, and offers freshly prepared dumplings at its 74th Street Cafe.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly described where Fairway Market sells Nom Wah’s freshly prepared dumplings. The dumplings are available at the grocer’s 74th Street Cafe.
