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Katishi Maake

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H-E-B regains top spot from Amazon as favorite grocer of 2022

H-E-B came in at No. 1 in Dunnhumby’s ranking in 2019, only to be dethroned by Amazon for the next two years. 

H-E-B regains top spot as consumers' favorite grocer of 2022

Erin Cabrey

The new suite of tech aims to be the “antidote to Amazon” for grocers

Breaking down Instacart’s Connected Stores tech

Andrew Adam Newman

Consumers may not notice shrinkflation when cereals are downsized

Honey, I shrank the bunches of oats: ‘Family’ and ‘Giant’ size cereal boxes are getting smaller

Grocery cart and store shelf on a pink background

Grocery

Market Basket, a beloved, family-owned New England supermarket chain, has long been the face of 

-level family drama, but it reached a peak this week that’s left loyal shoppers concerned about the grocer’s fate.

 by the chain’s board after being put on paid leave in May. The board—controlled by his three sisters, who own a combined 60% stake compared to his 28%—called him a “dictator” in court filings this week, accusing him of planning a work stoppage and “unilaterally” appointing his children to succeed him. In response to the firing, Demoulas said in a 

 that the “board’s actions are a farcical cover up for a coup,” calling them efforts to “falsely tarnish” his reputation.

The 70-year-old Demoulas, known by many as “Artie T,” is the grandson of founder Athanasios “Arthur” Demoulas, who began the chain in Massachusetts in 1917. He’s led the grocer since 2008, and has faced familial opposition before. 

, Market Basket’s board—then controlled by his cousin Arthur S. Demoulas—also ousted him, leading to turmoil as employees protested in support, leaving many Market Basket shelves bare as they waved signs like “Arthur T. is our CEO” outside stores. The efforts worked, and Demoulas and his sisters bought the chain for $1.6 billion.

While operating just under 100 stores across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Rhode Island, Market Basket was named No. 2 this year in Dunnhumby’s annual Retailer Preference Index ranking top US grocers. Now, customers are concerned about the fate of the 

, known for low prices and an aversion to newer technologies like self-checkout, under new leadership.

 feared Demoulas’s firing would spur higher prices and employee turnover. Many suggested they’d join a boycott similar to 2014. Those sentiments were echoed online, with many in r/boston and r/marketbasket also calling for boycotts over their concerns of changes.

“I can't imagine the board has been fighting this hard to oust Demoulas for so long to keep the stores the way they are,” one user wrote.

Many expressed loyalty to Demoulas. “Arthur T is what made Market Basket, Market Basket,” one said. Another wrote they’re “not giving MB my money without Arthur.” A few said they’d head to Stop & Shop, which recently 

And one simply referred to the chain as “Market Casket.”

Market Basket grocery store Arthur T. Demoulas firing

Consumers fear for Market Basket’s downfall

The New England chain’s board voted to fire CEO Arthur T. Demoulas this week after years of drama at the family-owned grocer. 

As a beloved grocery CEO is ousted, consumers fear for Market Basket’s downfall

The Trump administration has ushered in a number of cuts and restrictions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) this summer, and grocery retailers and CPGs will likely need to adapt as the 42 million Americans who receive SNAP benefits could shift their spending.

The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act earlier this summer 

 $186 billion in federal funding to SNAP over the next 10 years, while shifts in work requirements also mean about 2.4 million Americans could 

 their benefits, according to analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.

Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has been pushing states to limit how shoppers can spend their SNAP benefits under his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. Twelve states, including Florida, Texas, Colorado, and Iowa, have had waivers approved that restrict consumers from using SNAP benefits to purchase items like candy and soda.

SNAP households are a core pillar in consumer spending, accounting for 12% of grocery sales, per the National Grocers Association, and 20% of total CPG sales, according to Circana. They also make 29% more trips to grocery stores and spend 11% more per trip than other consumers. The SNAP changes, therefore, add “a level of complexity” for all CPGs and retailers to navigate, Sally Lyons Wyatt, global EVP and chief advisor of consumer goods and food service insights at Circana, told Retail Brew, bringing spending changes they can’t ignore.

CPGs and retailers will need to “refine” their SNAP strategies in several ways, Wyatt said. The bill’s passage cut funding for SNAP-Ed, a federally funded nutrition education program that will now end at the conclusion of the fiscal year, leaving a significant gap in nutritional education for consumers. Now, Wyatt said, “retailers will have to really carry that and provide the guidance,” suggesting CPGs partner with retailers to further educate consumers about their products. And that education can extend to meal planning for SNAP shoppers too, with promotional efforts advertising, for example, a recipe for a $10 family meal that shoppers can add to their carts in one click, Wyatt said.

Retailers must evaluate their product assortment and CPGs, their innovation strategies, she said. This is especially true for retailers and brands selling in the mass and dollar channels, where SNAP households shop the most. Walmart accounts for 25.8% of SNAP shoppers’ annual grocery spend, per Numerator, while CPG brands most purchased by SNAP recipients, like Post, Tyson, Conagra, General Mills, and Frito-Lay could be most affected by SNAP changes.

Brands need to identify the potential risk or tailwind from state SNAP waivers, which vary from state to state, with implementation dates spanning from January to July 2026. While most so far largely focus on sugary beverages and candy, a few are more restrictive. Iowa’s includes all taxable food products, which includes dried fruit leathers, fruit and nut products made with natural or artificial sweeteners, and granola bars, while Arkansas’s includes low- and no-calorie soda, and fruit and vegetable drinks that contain less than 50% natural juice.

While some brands, products, and categories could see less spending in those categories due to state waivers, some could see more spending as recipients allocate more money elsewhere, Wyatt noted. Both considerations “have to go into the strategy conversation” for brands and retailers, she said. That strategy should include looking at prices and product sizes offered, who is buying those products, and identifying the consumers they want to retain and attract.

Brands should look to new innovation to meet SNAP consumers’ changing needs, but that doesn’t necessarily mean launching new value-focused products. CPGs going toe-to-toe with lower-priced private label products “would not be a good idea,” Wyatt said, but brands should instead zero in on premium, healthier products with various price tiers and smaller pack sizes that can appeal to SNAP shoppers. This allows consumers to stay with the brand or product they enjoy, but can’t afford in a larger size—especially for the loyal cohort of SNAP shoppers, as Circana found last year that 81% of SNAP dollars are spent on national brands.

Ultimately, affordability is going to be a core topic in the grocery industry for the next 12–18 months, Wyatt said.

“It’s still a challenging time, and with the challenging times, consumers are having to make difficult choices, and now SNAP has just [been] hit with a couple of extra headwinds that getting help from manufacturers and retailers would be greatly appreciated from that consumer set,” she said.

SNAP supplemental nutrition assistance program grocery aisle

 How CPGs and grocers should adapt to SNAP changes

Restrictions and cuts from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and state SNAP waivers will significantly impact retailers and brands. 

Paper towels that had been shrinkflated accounted for 38.6% of total revenues in their category, according to a recent study by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) for the period of 2021 through 2023. Boxes of cereal that had been shrinkflated, meanwhile, accounted for 8.6% of total revenue in their category during the same period, according to the study, which relied on NielsenIQ retail scanner data.

However, the number of products that are subject to 

—the term for products being downsized, often imperceptibly, without lowering the price—is significantly smaller, reflecting that the practice is more common for popular products. With paper towels, only 3% of items across the category were shrinkflated yet accounted for that 38.6% category share; for cereal, it was just 1.1% of shrinkflated items that commanded that 8.6% share.

The study—a 63-page doorstop prepared for a subcommittee of the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions—also examined four other categories: toilet paper (where shrinkflated products accounted for 11.6% of sales in the category), coffee (about 7% of sales), laundry detergent (about 3%), and over-the-counter pain relievers (about 1%).

For consumers who’ve taken to social media to 

 when they discover instances of shrinkflation, this aspect of the report will come as bad news: The strategy seems to be working for brands like a 

Researchers reviewed six studies on how consumers respond to shrinkflation, and the common theme—even though shrinkflated items effectively are more expensive because shoppers pay more by volume—is raising prices without shrinking them has a more detrimental effect on products’ sales.

“Consumers were less likely to change their purchases in response to product downsizing than to an equivalent total price increase,” the report stated.

One study found that 93% of items that were shrinkflated saw no “statistically significant decline in the number of packages sold,” and some of them even saw more sales. Another found that raising the price of a product by just 1% resulted in a loss of sales of nearly double that: 1.95%. Conversely, shrinking the product by 1% led, inexplicably, to a slight increase of 0.76% of packages sold.

“This limited responsiveness” from consumers to products being shrinkflated, the report stated, “could stem from lack of awareness of subtle packaging changes” and from “strong consumer preference for certain products and brands.”

Befitting a report issued to a committee of lawmakers, it also reviewed laws and policies that aim to inform consumers who might not 

 that there’s less toothpaste in the tube or fewer tortillas in the package.

In 2024, the study noted, France began requiring retailers to 

 on shelves warning consumers that products had been shrinkflated. That same year, South Korea put the onus on manufacturers to post notifications on a product’s packaging or at the product’s point of sale, including e-commerce sites.

The report noted that about 16 states and Washington, DC, have enacted uniform unit pricing regulations, which require retailers to display price-per-unit cost (often cost per ounce).

While the intentions of such laws might not be to flag shrinkflation per se, the report suggested that the regulations “can help consumers compare prices and make informed decisions” and as a result be a detriment to brands that have shrinkflated their products.

A 2024 study, for example, looked at how consumers responded to tuna brands shrinkflating their cans in states that had unit pricing regulations compared to states that did not.

Compared to states that had no such regulations, consumers in states with unit pricing requirements reduced their purchases of products that had been shrinkflated by 30%–84%.

Four paper shopping bags contain progressively smaller grocery items and are progressively less full. 

Shrinkflated paper towels accounted for 38.6% of category sales revenue

For cereal, it was 8.6%, per the GAO. 

, Amazon this week announced its latest bid to become a digital grocery powerhouse and compete with Walmart. Consumers can now purchase perishable grocery items through its same-day delivery service.

The service is now available to shoppers in 1,000 locations across the US, and the e-comm giant said that’ll expand to 2,300 by the end of the year. Perishable items include produce, dairy, meat, baked goods, and frozen offerings, which can also be ordered alongside any other Amazon products in the same cart.

The move could help Amazon, which has found muted success in the fresh grocery space, compete with its biggest 

, Walmart, which is the top digital grocery retailer in the US, per eMarketer. Walmart currently accounts for approximately 40% of US all online grocery sales, according to Brick Meets Click.

The efforts to win in online grocery come amid the segment’s burgeoning success, with penetration reaching a record 81 million, or 61% of households and US online grocery sales growing 26% YoY to $10 billion in July, Brick Meets Click reported this week. Delivery sales jumped 36% YoY to $4.3 billion, while ship-to-home sales increased 10% YoY to $1.6 billion.

Amazon said it uses a temperature-controlled fulfillment system for the perishable orders, which undergo a “six-point quality check” before they arrive at shoppers’ doors in the same insulated bags they’d receive for Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods deliveries. Delivery is free over $25 or $2.99 under $25 in most cities for Prime members, Amazon said, and $12.99 for non-Prime members.

The company tested the offering in locations like Phoenix, Arizona; Orlando, Florida; and Kansas City, Missouri, and has found shoppers use the same-day delivery service twice as often as those who don’t buy fresh food on the platform, and are increasingly turning to Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods as well, Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, said in a statement. The company also said strawberries beat Airpods as a top five seller on Amazon in these regions.

Amazon’s other recent efforts to expand its grocery biz include reorganizing its leadership. In 

, it tapped Whole Foods CEO Jason Buechel to serve as VP of worldwide grocery stores while also continuing to lead Whole Foods. And in June, Business Insider 

 Amazon was restructuring its leadership to organize Whole Foods more closely under Amazon’s operations.

Perishable groceries and home goods from Amazon

Amazon ups Walmart competition with same-day grocery delivery

The move comes as online grocery sales grew 26% year over year in July. 

Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Lidl are running circles around many supermarket chains when it comes to foot traffic, according to the latest data from Placer.ai.

The grocery segment overall increased only 1.5% YoY in the first half of 2025, but foot traffic over the same period increased 11.9% at Trader Joe’s, 7.1% at Aldi, and 4.9% at Lidl, according to a recent 

While some of that aggregate growth could be attributed to the chains adding locations, per-location traffic increases outpaced the segment for the first half of the year, too. While the per-location increase for the segment grew just 1.2% for the period, it jumped more than five times for Trader Joe’s to 6.2%, and for Aldi and Lidl it increased to 2.8% and 2.1%, respectively.

“The grocery segment has never been more competitive, and Aldi, Trader Joe’s, and Lidl have consistently emerged as top players,” the report found. “The three chains share similarities: all offer a limited assortment of groceries and tend to operate at lower price points.”

 from Placer.ai that tracked how Aldi and Trader Joe’s made dramatic foot-traffic gains for the full year of 2024, with Aldi up 18.2% YoY and Trader Joe’s up 6.2%.

As for the first half of this year, the latest report also tracked how Trader Joe’s has gained a greater foot-traffic share in California, from 13.2% in 2019 to 15.7% for the first half of 2025. Over the same period Safeway’s share fell from 25.1% to 24.7%, Ralphs’s from 18.8% to 17.6%, and Vons’s from 16.4% to 14.9%.

A Trader Joe's sign on a store's exterior. 

Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Lidl are on fire with foot traffic

The grocery segment is up just 1.5%, but Trader Joes is up 11.9% and Aldi 7.1%.

 with Kroger in December, Albertsons has been on a journey to prove that it’s just fine on its own.

The grocer has managed to get its “mojo” back, per former CEO Vivek Sankaran, in part by doubling down on its digital business to help it compete with giants like Walmart and Costco. Albertsons’ digital sales rose 24% YoY in Q4, the company reported in April, while its loyalty members jumped 15% to 45.6 million.

Digital sales have proven to be crucial to grocery industry growth over the past year. E-grocery sales surged during the Covid-19 pandemic, then cooled between 2021 and mid-2024 as shoppers returned to IRL shopping. But sales have 

 up again in the past year as retailers double down on promotions for their pickup and delivery services. Sales jumped 27% YoY to $8.7 billion in May, according to Brick Meets Click.

Albertsons launched its first-party digital experiences through its app just four years ago, and has been working to catch up to its competitors since then, Jill Pavlovich, SVP of digital shopping experiences at Albertsons, who oversees the grocer’s app, website, and in-store digital offerings, told Retail Brew.

“As we think about this year, the path that we have ahead of us, it’s really taking what we’ve developed a step farther and really bringing the digital experiences more deeply into stores,” she said.

Four platforms—e-commerce, loyalty, pharmacy and health, and its mobile app—have been key to its blossoming digital business, Sankaran said in January.

Albertsons’s mobile app has served as a “Swiss Army knife of tools” to help shoppers, Pavlovich said, adding that last year was centered around “strengthen[ing] the core” and focusing on the “basics,” with updates that included in-store geolocation with real-time coupons. It’s also recently added a capability for consumers to upload their own recipes or recipes they’ve found online into the app and, using generative AI, digitize them, making the recipes shoppable across Albertsons’s offerings.

“This year is all about taking the things that reduce the cognitive load and taking them a step farther, leveraging the rate at which technology is changing to really give our customers a human multiplier—make it super easy for them to shop with us,” she said.

Daily monitoring of call service logs, checking reviews in the App Store and Google Play Store, and connecting with customers (and non-customers) directly to get their feedback helps the retailer establish both its annual digital product roadmap as well as make any real time adjustments necessary, Pavlovich said.

That continual iteration is necessary as more tech-savvy, younger consumers opt for online shopping for themselves and their early-stage families for the first time, she noted.

“Their expectation of technology is omnichannel experiences, so they have a lot less barriers to entry to engage digitally and convert online,” she said. “If we continue to keep up with our customer and meet their needs through our digital and omnichannel experiences, we’ll see that growth continue for Albertsons and also for the industry as well.”

As Albertsons takes on online grocery leaders like Walmart and Amazon, Pavlovich said its loyalty program (which it 

 last year) and its “differentiated services” including special occasion planning offerings like catering and party supplies, will help it compete. This year, the grocer aims to add digital ordering capabilities for in-store services like its bakery and floral department, she noted.

Albertsons also announced at Cannes Lions this year that it’s 

 in-store digital ad displays as it looks to grow the reach of its retail media network Albertsons Media Collective. The pilot is in its early days, but Pavlovich said “initial feedback is positive” as the grocer aims to use ads to boost discovery and brand awareness for shoppers.

“It’s not just an ad to be an ad; it really has to aid in the customer shopping journey and purchasing decision,” she said. 

Pavlovich is hopeful that customers will be receptive to digital in-store screens, though she noted the grocer has had “varying successes” with other innovations. The in-store mode for its app has been a bright spot, quickly adopted by 10 million customers, Pavlovich said. However, checkout options similar to Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, which the grocer previously 

"It’s been very experience-dependent, and we just continue to watch and keep a pulse, because the trends continue to emerge, and we’re learning of adoption in other industries or from other retailers,” she said. “We want to make sure that we keep up and we try again.”

Inside the growth of Albertsons’s digital business

Jill Pavlovich, the grocer’s SVP of digital shopping experiences, breaks down updates to its mobile app, AI innovations, and more.  

Albertsons is piloting digital ad displays in stores this summer, the grocer announced today during the Cannes Lions in France.

Its retail media arm, Albertsons Media Collective, is partnering with digital solution company Stratacache for the pilot, which will see digital screens deployed at stores in two regions, its Northern California and Jewel-Osco divisions, this summer. The screens will be placed in “high-traffic areas with impactful touchpoints in the customer journey” throughout the store, the company said, including the store entry and produce department. The company is showcasing the new advertising features at a mock grocery store set up at Cannes this week.

Liz Roche, Albertsons Media Collective’s VP of media and measurement, said in a statement the grocer partnered with Stratacache as its technology enables “closed-loop measurement,” noting that “understand[ing] performance helps us fully realize the potential of the in-store channel.” Albertsons said brand partners will be able to measure their ads’ impact including direct sales attribution and sales lift. Standardization of data reporting across retail media networks continues to be a 

Oreo maker Mondelez will be the retailer’s first CPG partner, Albertsons said. Mondelez previously 

 with Albertsons and Fetch on a new retail media integration last year.

Melissa Pitmon, customer director of omnichannel activation of Mondelez, said the screens will allow the brand to market “hyper-relevant content right where purchase decisions are made.”

“It’s a natural complement to our digital strategy and a powerful reminder that the store remains one of the most influential spaces to build brand connection and drive conversion,” she said.

Albertsons said it has a “comprehensive” plan for rolling out the tech to other stores following the pilot.

 the majority of grocery shoppers still shop in stores. As such, adoption of 

 has gained steam among grocers as they look to capture shoppers’ eyes and double down on this additional revenue stream. Analysts 

 last year Albertsons might work to expand its ad business to grow after its 

 have also both recently made strides in in-store digital advertising through partnerships with Grocery TV. (Trader Joe’s, on the other hand, 

EMarketer has forecasted in-store retail media ad spending will hit $1 billion in 2028—but still account for just 1% of omnichannel retail media ad spend.