The Trump administration recently passed the spending bill. Some of the bill is new; some keeps in place existing programs. And where politicians exist, they do tricks and misinformation. Sometimes what they say is going to happen and what a bill actually does are two different things. Let’s take a deep look at the Supplemental […]
Author Archives: John Ross
John Ross is the president and CEO of IGA, the world’s largest voluntary supermarket network with aggregate worldwide retail sales of over $40 billion per year.
Posted inGuest Contributors, National, News
IGA CEO: ‘It’s the price of groceries, Stupid.’
Famously, Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign used the phrase, “It’s the economy, Stupid” as a point of focus for Bill Clinton when he ran for his first term in office. Meant to ensure the campaign didn’t get distracted from the key message, the polls and market research clearly showed that the number one issue facing voters […]
Posted inIndependent Store News, Association News, Guest Contributors, National
Post-Pandemic Holiday Presents Opportunity For Independent Grocers
Humans are social animals. As a species, we crave interaction with others. And the absence of connection is so emotionally crippling, we use solitary confinement as a severe criminal punishment. Children born in isolation fail to develop emotionally and physically and often are so scared they can never integrate into society as adults. And primates […]
Posted inAssociation News, Amazon Fresh, National, Whole Foods
What Instacart’s IPO Says About E-Commerce Growth, Retail Grocery
In late September, Instacart launched its initial public offering. The e-commerce company offers online ordering fulfillment, plus an online marketplace for retailers. (We have many IGA stores as Instacart partners.) Their IPO offers a lot of insights into the e-commerce market in the U.S., starting with its value. During COVID-19, when shoppers were forced out […]
Posted inGuest Contributors, Association News, National
Reality Of U.S. Economy – Inflation, Stagflation, Disinflation, Economic Pessimism
How’s that for a headline? Or better yet, how’s that for a description of the current economic situation in the U.S.? Confused? You are in good company. American consumers may not know one “-flation” phase from the next. But they don’t have to be economists to know that the economy seems to be a lot […]
Posted inOnline Grocery Technology, Association News, Guest Contributors, National
Exploring How Retail Grocery Can Tap Into Coming Benefits Of AI
Remember when the buzz was all about category management? E-commerce? Block chain? Big data? Well, the new chatter is all about artificial intelligence, or AI. But this time the breakthrough tech is traveling through everything – business, consumers, governments and even artists. Unlike those other transformative technology waves, AI is something we can experience and […]
Posted inGuest Contributors, Association News, National
Inflation, Recession, Obsession – How Retailers Can Navigate An Unpredictable Market
Were you a math kid or a reading kid? Right brain or left? As retailers, manufacturers, wholesalers and technology partners, we clearly need a hearty dose of right brain creativity to be successful in the grocery business. Just as important, we also need some good math chops. We wouldn’t survive long if we couldn’t count […]
Posted inThe Kroger Co., Albertsons, Association News, Guest Contributors, National
Exploring Possible Deal Thesis Behind Proposed Albertsons/Kroger Merger
I’ve been asked a lot lately about the Albertsons/Kroger merger and what it means for our industry. Every time I think, “What is the deal thesis behind the merger? What can they do together they can’t already do separately?” For example, would combining them save a bunch of costs? They won’t need two CFOs or […]
Posted inGuest Contributors, Association News, National
Industry Predictions Include Housing, Shopper Behavior, China
It’s still early in 2023, and I can’t help but think how strange the last few years have been. Just three years ago, Americans were hearing about a virus in China, but perhaps not thinking much about how it would impact their lives. My, how things have changed. Decades from now experts will talk about […]
Posted inThe Kroger Co., Albertsons, Amazon Fresh, Association News, Guest Contributors, National, Whole Foods
When The Big Get Bigger: Reflecting On Albertsons-Kroger Merger
The biggest recent news in our industry was the announcement that Albertsons and Kroger plan to merge. This isn’t the first time that bigger players have decided to combine forces with an aim to create leverage and scale. Those terms are code for anticipated better pricing from suppliers, reducing costs in infrastructure, converting to common […]
Posted inAssociation News, Guest Contributors, National
Tactics For Finding, Hiring Post-Pandemic Labor Force
I hear it all the time, “Eventually people have to come back to work, right?” Everywhere I go in the U.S. and other countries – as I talk to retailers, manufacturers, service providers and wholesalers – managers are wondering when workers will actually start working. During the pandemic, millions of workers worldwide lost their jobs or […]
Posted inAssociation News, National
Independents’ Role In Net Effective Spending Power
Many years ago, I taught economics to middle school students. Imagine the look on their faces, learning that first day they had to sit through a course on taxes, interest rates and monetary policy. Lots of yawns and eye rolls. Rather than teaching out of a dry textbook, I used stunts and games to help […]
Posted inGuest Contributors, Association News, National
Why Are Food Prices Still Rising? Look No Further Than Fertilizer
Fertilizer isn’t a glamorous topic. Far from it. But it’s a key player in the game of rising food costs. Plants need nitrogen, potassium and other nutrients to grow. Add more nutrients in the soil and plants grow bigger, vegetable and fruit yields skyrocket and, in turn, land becomes more productive and profitable. Reverse it […]
Posted inAssociation News, National
Know Thine Enemy: Return Of Restaurants
What happened in 2010? We should all know the significance of this year. It is the year that Americans started spending more on food away from home than at home, according to the USDA. In recorded American history, and probably human history, society started letting others cook for us more often than we cooked for […]
Posted inGuest Contributors, Association News, National
Examining Price Authority And What Shoppers Don’t Know About It
“I know what I know; the problem is that I don’t know what I don’t know.” In business, and in life, awareness of what you don’t know can be critical to success. And of course, the opposite is true. Being confident you know something, when the opposite is true is a path to disaster. As […]
Posted inOnline Grocery Technology, Association News, Guest Contributors, National
Grocery Stores Must Take Up Arms In War Against Cyber Crime
We know the stories: Some company, hospital, school or individual gets hit with a ransomware attack, which shuts down its computer system. It then must pay the criminals to get access to the system again or pay a lot of money reloading and restarting literally everything. These aren’t teenagers hacking corporate systems to show off […]
Posted inGuest Contributors, Home Page Latest News, National
Looking At Inflation And The Past – What Can History Teach Us?
When prices rise slowly, shoppers and the economy can adjust. But when inflation accelerates, as we are seeing in stores across the globe today, what happens then? For many younger store associates, this may be their first time going through a major inflationary period. Certainly, food prices in the U.S. have not seen cost acceleration […]