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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

As grocery prices soar—inflation hit a 

 in August—Giant Eagle is betting on slashed prices for essentials as a strategy to keep shoppers coming back.

The regional, family-owned grocery chain, which operates 200+ stores spanning Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, and Indiana, late last month introduced its new “Because It Matters” strategy, encompassing improvements from price cuts to fresher produce and new shopping carts.

It’s been a “big year” for the nearly 100-year-old retailer, Justin Weinstein, EVP and chief merchandising and marketing officer at Giant Eagle, told Retail Brew. The chain, headquartered outside of Pittsburgh, 

 its GetGo convenience store arm to Circle K-owner Alimentation Couche-Tard for $1.6 billion and 

 filling prescriptions for closed Rite Aid locations in Pennsylvania and Ohio with its in-store pharmacies.

“Those two things really laid the groundwork for, ‘How do we create a plan for the investment back into our business?’” he said.

With its three-pronged strategy, the grocer is investing $100 million to provide 

 for price-conscious consumers, improving product quality and service, and upgrading its in-store shopping experience. The efforts, it hopes, will combat waning loyalty as it vies with larger players for a share of 

 on its home turf from retailers like Walmart. In addition, Wegmans is 

 its first Pittsburgh-area store in 2027.

“We’re eyes wide open about the fact that our customers have a lot of choices, and people are looking to the discounters, they’re looking to the club stores,” he said. “This entire strategy is based on, ‘How do we give them more reason to put more in their basket and come to us?’”

The savings portion of the plan is divided into two efforts. The first was promotional, with a one-week $1 Deal initiative offering 1,000+ items in its stores for $1 in late September. The discounts included popular items like drinks, pasta, yogurt, and baby food. Additionally, the retailer is lowering prices across 300 staple items—with an average reduction of 17%, the company said—through the rest of the year to give customers “immediate relief from inflation.” These lowered prices span eggs ($2.99 for a dozen), Cheerios ($3.99 for 10.6 oz), and Land O Lakes butter (1 lb. for $4.99), along with products like honeycrisp apples, Idaho potatoes, Barilla pasta, Campbell’s Soup, and Oreo cookies. Several of those prices are competitive with pricing at Pittsburgh-area Walmart and Target locations, Retail Brew found.

While a rise in sales volume is a metric for success with this strategy, Weinstein said the effort is aimed at maintaining customer loyalty and attracting new customers.

“We want to be that destination through the holiday and we don’t want people to question week to week, ‘Can they get that value with Giant Eagle or not?’” Weinstein said.

While he said the grocer will continue to grow its private label assortment (and many private label items like canned beans, brown sugar, frozen vegetables, and shredded cheese are included in the lower-price effort), national brands continue to play an important role in stores. Weinstein said Giant Eagle worked “hand-in-hand” with them on these pricing and promotional shifts to prioritize what customers care about, particularly when it comes to value.

“If items ultimately are sitting at the end of that tail, we’d rather have more at a lower price of the items that customers want than the 100th item that doesn’t necessarily appeal to them,” Weinstein said, clarifying that cutting down large amounts of its assortment isn’t part of the strategy.

Giant Eagle is investing not only in lower prices, but also upping product quality and the overall in-store experience based on both customer and team member feedback.

The grocer is training more in-store butchers, bakers, cake decorators, and cheesemongers, and increasing training to improve customer service skills. It’s also reviewing the supply chain for its most perishable produce categories (e.g. berries, grapes, tomatoes, and salads) to provide more fresh options for consumers and renovating a dozen locations in Pennsylvania and Ohio, improving decor, fixtures, food cases, and store layout, and growing its prepared food section. Plus it’s replacing its metal shopping carts—which tend to “creak and crack” as shoppers roll them through the store—with all-plastic ones.

“Retail is detail,” Weinstein said. “It’s how you pull all of those things together that makes us successful.”

Giant Eagle is investing millions to cut prices and retain customers

Giant Eagle hopes its new “Because It Matters” strategy with keeping shoppers loyal as grocery competition grows. 

This regional grocer is investing millions to cut prices and retain customers

Retail Brew was in Las Vegas last week, but not to gamble, see a 4D version of 

 at the Sphere, or attend the Backstreet Boys residency (they weren’t in town—we checked). We were in Sin City for Groceryshop to hear retail and CPG leaders break down the winning strategies and continuing struggles in the grocery business today. Here are the topics everyone was talking about.

The word “value” has long been used in the grocery industry, but as the topic’s meaning has shifted and risen in importance amid continued inflation and consumers’ spending constraints, the topic was especially emphasized during this year’s edition of the show.

In a session centered on “value-obsessed” shoppers, Ryan Draude, head of loyalty and digital at Giant Food, noted that value has historically centered on convenience, assortment, and being a one-stop shop, but the grocers need to pivot as customers—even those that are part of its loyalty program—are heading to different retailers to chase deals, leading to dropping sales.

In a keynote session, Joel Rampoldt, CEO of Lidl US, said consumers are more focused on value than ever before, and as a discount retailer, it’s focused on finding efficiencies to “really grind out every nickel, dime, and penny of the cost to get to the best possible value.”

,” is doubling down on more deals and sales than ever, its chief merchandising and marketing officer, Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, said. It aims to have a “sea of yellow” sale signs when customers enter the store, and customers are relying on it; growth on sale items is double that of non-sale items year over year, she said. The retailer has also been expanding its private label offerings with both conventional and organic items, to emphasize both “relative value” as well as “absolute value,” AKA, a low price point, Oblisk said.

While AI and its applications remain a buzzy topic among retailers and brands, with companies like Walmart, Colgate-Palmolive, and DoorDash eager to dig into the topic, many leaders and showgoers also showed signs of being jaded, too—a few even joked about the obligation to talk or ask about it.

“There is such a focus on AI, if you take a shot every time you hear it in this conference, you’d be drunk by 10am,” Giant’s Draude noted. While he said the grocer will be using AI-powered personalization through a new partnership with Upside, he also noted that 40% of its consumers don’t even use the Giant app, so it’s also turned to offering deals through in-store kiosks.

“Don’t try to force something that’s not meant to be,” he said.

Others touched on the importance of humans being involved in the AI process. When asked about AI, Nitin Murali, VP of supply chain excellence at Gallo, referenced the recent “

” study from Harvard Business Review and said the wine giant is “focused on human collaboration,” and that companies need to fix “human-to-human problems” before bringing in AI.

“AI is an amplifier,” he said. “It amplifies great collaboration. It amplifies bad collaboration as well. It makes bad collaboration catastrophic.”

Similarly, Sambit Dutta, VP of digital strategy and transformation at Nestlé, noted the CPG giant aims to keep “humans in the loop” when using AI, ensuring humans are ultimately the final decision-makers.

GLP-1s and their impact on retailers and brands was also mentioned across a number of sessions (including one with Danone North America CMO Linda Bethea, moderated by Retail Brew).

Joe Sta-Romana, US chief customer officer at Haleon, mentioned a successful information campaign with Walgreens that emphasized its brands like Centrum and Tums aimed specifically at the needs of GLP-1 users. Whole Foods’s Oblisk, meanwhile, said the retailer isn’t marketing directly to consumers using GLP-1s with specific campaigns or devoted in-store sections because she said it naturally (pun intended) has a focus on foods suitable for these consumers.

 emphasizing the 500+ ingredients it bans from stores with new paper bags listing them on the outside, in line with many discussions at the show that also centered

around terms like “ultra-processed foods,” the movement to remove 

 from products, and shifting consumer preferences as more shoppers scrutinize ingredient labels. While neither RFK or his 

 tied to these efforts were mentioned by name, Thrive Market CEO Nick Green alluded to a “political moment where folks are really standing up and taking a stand.”

And the closing main stage keynote featured two “better-for-you” brands, Poppi and Sweet Loren’s, with Allison Ellsworth, Poppi’s co-founder and chief brand officer, underscoring that products with a lack of artificial ingredients and dyes and lower sugar will continue to be big.

This is what everyone was talking about at Groceryshop this year

Grocery and CPG leaders hit on a number of pressing topics—sometimes a little begrudgingly—at the show in Las Vegas. 

Aldi is stamping its name on all of its private label products for the first time.

The grocer this week announced a packaging refresh across its portfolio that unites its private label offerings—which make up 90% of its merchandise—under “Aldi” or “an Aldi Original” branding, consolidating its brands from 90 to 26. The new packaging has begun to hit store shelves and will continue to roll out to every product in the next few years, the company said.

The retailer has historically marketed its private label products under brand names that didn’t bear the Aldi name. Smaller brands like frozen line Belmont, canned bean line Dakota’s Pride, and baking staples Baker’s Corner, will be discontinued, the company said, while more popular ones like snack brand Clancy’s, organic pantry staple brand Simply Nature, premium line Specially Selected, deli brand Park Street Deli, and sweets line Sundae Shoppe will continue under “an Aldi original” branding. The retailer joins those like 

 in consolidating and updating its private label branding.

 by Mondelez earlier this year over product packaging that the CPG giant claimed “blatantly copies” that of several of its brands like Oreos and Wheat Thins. When reached by Retail Brew, Aldi said the company couldn’t comment on current litigation but that it’s been working on the rebrand for years.

It’s also an early move under Aldi’s new leadership; Atty McGrath took over as US CEO on September 1, moving up from her COO role as former leader Jason Hart shifts to Aldi South’s executive board as group COO. McGrath said in a statement that the new look was an effort “to modernize our simpler, quicker shopping experience” and “give shoppers yet another reason to reach for our products first.”

 in terms of private label sales as a percentage of overall sales, at 80%, according to Numerator data. This year, it 

 slightly to 77%, putting it in second place behind Trader Joe’s at 78%, while its private label household penetration remained at 45%. Its brands Fremont Fish Market, Southern Grove, Park Street Deli, and Choceur were among the fastest-growing private label brands.

Aldi’s affordable private label offerings have also been driving up its 

, Retail Brew previously reported. The grocer’s foot traffic grew 7.1% in the first half of the year, outpacing total grocery’s 1.5% growth, per Placer.ai.

Aldi begins sweeping packaging refresh

The rebrand comes after a lawsuit filed by CPG giant Mondelez that claimed some of Aldi’s private label packaging “blatantly copies” brands like Oreo. 

Aldi begins sweeping packaging refresh, consolidating 90 brands down to 26

To respond to President Donald Trump’s 

 tariffs, retailers might be tempted to cover the cost of the import tax by charging higher prices, but even considering doing so could possibly draw the White House’s ire.

 was contemplating displaying how much tariffs contributed to products’ prices, for example, Trump called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to complain. An Amazon spokesperson subsequently told CNN that the company had never considered the move for its main site and would not be implementing it for any outfits.

Similarly, when Walmart CFO John David Rainey 

 CNBC in May that the retailer might have to raise prices because of tariffs, Trump responded on social media that “Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices” and should “‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING.”

Michael Klein, head of retail, travel, and hospitality product marketing for Talkdesk, disagrees.

“I sometimes shake my head when I hear from the White House that manufacturers and brands are going to ‘eat the tariffs,’ which is bullshit,” Klein told Retail Brew. “If their cost of goods is going to increase for any particular reason, and tariffs in particular, then they are going to have to find ways to” cover increasing costs by “increasing prices” or else finding “a way of making my product at a lower cost.”

There’s a new term gaining traction that may shed light on the practice of covering tariff costs 

.” It refers to companies passing along higher costs but not hiking prices conspicuously, through such 

 as introducing restocking fees when returns had been free, and either raising purchase thresholds to get free shipping or eliminating free shipping altogether.

Internet searches for “sneakflation” 

 in August, according to Google Trends, whose data goes back to 2004.

Sneakflation can apply to raising prices if it’s done incrementally rather than all at once, Klein said.

“We’re not going to see these 5%, 10% increases,” Klein said. “We’re going to see a 2% increase, then a few months later, we’re going to see another 2% increase, and before you know it, that retailer has actually…preserved their margin over the course of time.”

It’s a way some retailers have raised prices without “sticker shock,” Klein said. “They didn’t have that, ‘Oh, last week I paid $4.99 and now I have to pay $5.99.”

 in Retail Brew recently, social media users identifying as store associates at Walmart and Target have for months been tearing from hang tags the perforated portions with prices, allegedly at the behest of the management so higher prices can be affixed more subtly.

Sneakflation is one of a handful of inflation portmanteaus that have gained currency in recent inflationary years.

, the term for manufacturers reducing the size of their products, often imperceptibly, without lowering the price. The word got so much footing that Merriam-Webster 

 it to its dictionary in 2022, the same year Retail Brew 

Another neologism, “tipflation,” refers to tipping becoming not only more generous but more widespread. As we 

 in 2023, the phenomenon was fueled, at least when it comes to the generosity aspect, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when housebound consumers gave better tips to restaurant and delivery workers who still worked in-person.

Tipflation is becoming more widespread due to the pandemic-related growth of contactless point-of-sale systems, specifically tipscreens, which shoppers are increasingly presented with in non-restaurant settings.

 that like shrinkflation was popularized by consumer advocate 

, refers to when a product stays the same size but is reformulated to be made more cheaply. Such appeared to be the case in 2022, when Smart Balance 

 its buttery spread, which went from having vegetable oils constitute 64% of the product to just 39%, and where water became the first listed (read: most plentiful) ingredient, when it had previously been the second, after vegetable oil.

Following a torrent of online backlash from consumers, Smart Balance returned to the original formulation.

Sneakflation, the relative newcomer on the scene, is a term that does not describe a new phenomenon so much as serve as an umbrella term for those other inflation portmanteaus.

Whether companies are slightly shrinking their products, skimping on ingredients, or encouraging tipping their employees instead of paying higher wages, to beleaguered consumers it can all feel sneaky.

“Sneakflation is multifaceted,” Klein said.

After both Amazon and Walmart enraged Trump for even raising the specter of linking price hikes to tariffs—not to mention wanting to avoid causing sticker shock among consumers—Klein predicts retailers will step carefully when it comes to offsetting tariffs.

“Retailers are going to be cautious,” Klein said. “They’re going to do what they can to maintain loyalty while not pissing off their customers.”

How tariffs spurred ‘sneakflation’

Loathe to raise prices, retailers pass costs along in other ways.

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. 