More retailers were in the news this week, as Loblaw announced investment plans and Walmart had a strong financial report. And of course, we want to know more about Aldi’s plans for the Southeastern Grocers stores it kept.
We are also ready for winter to go on and git.
Aldi analysis
I checked it with a familiar expert to Week in Review fans, Pamela Riemenschneider, who is now a retail consultant, on what we should expect from Aldi in 2025 after it divested 170 stores from its Southeastern Grocers purchase.
She said Aldi plans to reopen about 100 stores it kept from the deal, and they will look much more like Aldis than Winn-Dixies, but we still don’t know how different they will look.
Aldi will have a much bigger presence in the Southeast, which it didn’t have before, she said, and there are many more regions for Aldi to move into.
“There are still many underdeveloped places, so new customers will be exposed, and it will feed on itself—this is Aldi really making a push,” Riemenschneider said.
Loblaw investments
Canadian retailer Loblaw said it will invest $2.2 billion this year in new stores, renovations, and supply chain improvements.
It anticipates similar levels of investment over the next five years – to invest more than $10 billion by 2030 – adding to the more than $8 billion the company has invested since 2020
Walmart’s good quarterly earnings
Walmart announced fourth-quarter results with strong growth in revenue and operating income, and company leaders said much of it was due to growth in e-commerce and grocery.
Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart, said the company’s low-price model continues to attract consumers who feel the pain of inflation.
But projecting slower sales in fiscal 2026 didn’t please investors, as Walmart shares fell after the report, according to The Wall Street Journal.
FDA commissioner resigns
Jim Jones, deputy commissioner for human foods at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, resigned after the firing of 89 people in the program.
The cuts were part of President Trump’s streamlining of government, which has been popular among his supporters. The president has nominated Johns Hopkins surgeon Marty Makary to lead the FDA, but he has not yet been confirmed.
The produce industry is justifiably concerned about a step back in food safety at the FDA, so that’s something Makary will need to address if he becomes leader of the FDA.
Weather woes
It sure is cold outside. About three-quarters of the U.S. population was below freezing this week, with parts of the Great Plaines and Midwest 30-40 degrees below average mid-February temperatures.
It was a contributing factor in prices dropping, according to Produce IQ, as cold typically suppresses demand.
Some places where it wasn’t freezing, it was raining, such as Santa/Maria and Oxnard, CA, where wet fields kept strawberries from harvesting.
Expect a drop in supply for some commodities and rising prices as demand picks up when the freeze goes away, hopefully for the rest of winter.
More retailers were in the news this week, as Loblaw announced investment plans and Walmart had a strong financial report. And of course, we want to know more about Aldi’s plans for the Southeastern Grocers stores it kept.
We are also ready for winter to go on and git.
Aldi analysis
I checked it with a familiar expert to Week in Review fans, Pamela Riemenschneider, who is now a retail consultant, on what we should expect from Aldi in 2025 after it divested 170 stores from its Southeastern Grocers purchase.
She said Aldi plans to reopen about 100 stores it kept from the deal, and they will look much more like Aldis than Winn-Dixies, but we still don’t know how different they will look.
Aldi will have a much bigger presence in the Southeast, which it didn’t have before, she said, and there are many more regions for Aldi to move into.
“There are still many underdeveloped places, so new customers will be exposed, and it will feed on itself—this is Aldi really making a push,” Riemenschneider said.
Loblaw investments
Canadian retailer Loblaw said it will invest $2.2 billion this year in new stores, renovations, and supply chain improvements.
It anticipates similar levels of investment over the next five years – to invest more than $10 billion by 2030 – adding to the more than $8 billion the company has invested since 2020
Walmart’s good quarterly earnings
Walmart announced fourth-quarter results with strong growth in revenue and operating income, and company leaders said much of it was due to growth in e-commerce and grocery.
Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart, said the company’s low-price model continues to attract consumers who feel the pain of inflation.
But projecting slower sales in fiscal 2026 didn’t please investors, as Walmart shares fell after the report, according to The Wall Street Journal.
FDA commissioner resigns
Jim Jones, deputy commissioner for human foods at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, resigned after the firing of 89 people in the program.
The cuts were part of President Trump’s streamlining of government, which has been popular among his supporters. The president has nominated Johns Hopkins surgeon Marty Makary to lead the FDA, but he has not yet been confirmed.
The produce industry is justifiably concerned about a step back in food safety at the FDA, so that’s something Makary will need to address if he becomes leader of the FDA.
Weather woes
It sure is cold outside. About three-quarters of the U.S. population was below freezing this week, with parts of the Great Plaines and Midwest 30-40 degrees below average mid-February temperatures.
It was a contributing factor in prices dropping, according to Produce IQ, as cold typically suppresses demand.
Some places where it wasn’t freezing, it was raining, such as Santa/Maria and Oxnard, CA, where wet fields kept strawberries from harvesting.
Expect a drop in supply for some commodities and rising prices as demand picks up when the freeze goes away, hopefully for the rest of winter.
