INDUSTRY NEWS | ANALYSIS
Kroger’s traffic has dropped 0.66% over the last three months.
Kroger reported higher sales in its first quarter as growth in digital operations and retail media helped offset pressure from transportation costs and price investments. The grocery retailer said total sales for the quarter were $46.1 billion, up from $45.1 billion during the same period a year earlier. Excluding fuel and Vitacost, sales increased 0.5%. Identical sales excluding fuel rose 1%, while adjusted ecommerce sales increased 19%. Kroger also said profit from its Kroger Precision Marketing retail media business grew more than 20% during the quarter. In May, the retailer announced it was working on a plan to cut prices on thou- sands of items. The company will test price reductions before rolling them out more broadly and phasing them into stores. —Bill Wilson C&S supplies its Winn-Dixie stores and other regional and independent grocers from a 1 million-square-foot warehouse in Miami. Earlier this year C&S said it had become the primary supplier for Sedano’s Supermarkets, which operates 32 locations and is the largest Hispanic grocer in Florida. Anthony Hucker, CEO of Winn-Dixie, who had spearheaded the acquisition of Southeastern Grocers from Aldi along with C&S, will continue to serve as a special advisor during the coming months, C&S said. Raymond Rhee, who has been chief financial officer of Winn-Dixie, will serve as interim CEO until the transaction closes. Winn-Dixie “will continue to have an office presence” in Jacksonville, C&S said. Winn-Dixie operates the majority of its stores in Florida and also has locations in southern Georgia. During the past year it has sold or closed most of its locations in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. Last year Food City acquired the last three Winn-Dixie locations in Alabama, while Rouses Markets acquired 10 Winn-Dixies in Louisiana and Mississippi. —Mark Hamstra to expand the company’s retail footprint, “especially in the Southeast.”
Kroger’s traffic has been declining In July it ranked 13th among 16 retailers
JULY was not a good month for Kroger in terms of foot traffic, the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. The Cincinnati-based grocer’s traffic volume dropped 0.22%, the fourth-biggest decline among 16 grocery retailers invest- ment firm Jefferies studied. Kroger ranked 13th in foot traffic for July. Traditional grocery retailers struggled last month as foot traffic remained generally
flat, rising just 0.01%. Discount, premium and mass merchandisers fared better. Club stores were the only format that performed worse, but retailers like Costco, Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club rank in the top seven of the 16-retailer analysis, according to the Courier . Kroger’s traffic has dropped 0.66% over the last three months, signaling the decline could represent a troubling trend.
C&S to buy majority stake in Winn-Dixie Wholesaler eyes further retail expansion “especially in the Southeast”
C&S WHOLESALE GROCERS said it has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Winn- Dixie in a transaction expected to close early next year. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Keene, N.H.-based C&S last year had acquired a minority stake in Jacksonville, Fla.-based Southeastern Grocers, the former umbrella company operating Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarkets, as part of a consortium of private investors. The inves- tors had bought the stores from Aldi, which had previously acquired them for conver- sion to its own hard-discount format. Aldi retained about 220 Winn-Dixie stores, which it is still in the process of con- verting to the Aldi banner, leaving about 170 locations under the Southeastern Gro- cers umbrella. Southeastern Grocers has since closed several of those stores, and
earlier this year it converted the remaining Harveys to Winn-Dixie. The acquisition of The Winn-Dixie Co. adds another retail banner to C&S’s port- folio, which includes Family Fare, Martin’s Super Markets, D&W Fresh Markets, VG’s Markets and other banners acquired in the SpartanNash acquisition, as well as Piggly Wiggly and Grand Union. “The collective insights gathered during our C&S-SpartanNash integration have enabled us to further enhance our support of customers—in all formats—across the United States,” said Eric Winn, CEO of C&S. “Our combination has already strengthened the skills and capabilities we need to win in the marketplace while clearly demonstrat- ing that our continued growth has been greatly enhanced with our transformative M&A.” He said he sees ongoing opportunities
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