HEB #1 Grocer | Costco +6.2% | WM Board +CEO | Sparky +Ads
Costco December comp sales (ex fuel & f/x) +6.2%: US +6.3% / Canada +6.0% / Other Int’l +5.6% / Digitally Enabled +18.3% Press release
H-E-B and Market Basket Top dunnhumby’s Ninth Annual U.S. Grocery Rankings (Costco #4, Winco #6, Amazon #8) Top 10 list/Press release
Albertson’s Companies Inc. Q3 ID sales +2.4% Press release
Walmart Opens Up Ads in Gen AI Shopping Agent Sparky at Adweek. “…(Walmart) is actively testing ads within Sparky, its AI shopping agent, after an initial test last fall. Sparky is an AI shopping assistant within Walmart’s mobile app…Search is the most popular use case for Sparky…” Read more
Britons splurge on food, cut back on gifts as retailers warn of tough 2026 at Reuters. “Tesco…reported a 3.2% rise in underlying UK sales for the six-week festive period, calling it a “strong” Christmas…Marks & Spencer’s underlying food sales jumped 5.6% in the Christmas quarter, but clothing, home and beauty dropped 2.9%…” Reuters subs.
Walmart names Shishir Mehrotra, CEO at Superhuman (formerly Grammarly) to Board of Directors “Prior to joining Superhuman, he was the CEO and co-founder of Coda, a productivity and AI platform…Before founding Coda, Mehrotra served as YouTube’s Chief Product Officer and Chief Technology Officer…” Press release
Why some independent brands are upset with Amazon’s new ‘Buy for Me’ shopping tool at GeekWire. “The tools are designed to help shoppers find products that aren’t sold on Amazon — and, in some cases, allow Amazon to complete a purchase on a customer’s behalf using AI…brands…say they were caught off guard when their products appeared in Amazon search results.” Read more
PriceSmart Q1 comp net merchandise sales +8.0% Press release
Why Every Decent Restaurant Has a Product in the Grocery Store Now at Bloomberg. “Now restaurants are invading the grocery store. They’ve captured the freezer aisle, colonized the pastas, conquered condiments and spreads. I am well aware of this, because, as far as I can tell, I spend all my time at the grocery store. I used to go to restaurants, too, but then I had a baby.” Bloomberg subs.
JPMorgan Chase becomes the new issuer of the Apple Card at TechCrunch
More Than 1,000 Companies Are Suing Trump Over His Tariffs at Bloomberg. “Everybody stayed out of the fight because the president is very powerful…” said Sara Albrecht, chair of the board of Liberty Justice Center, a libertarian-leaning public interest firm handling one of the cases before the Supreme Court…Albrecht said she asked Costco for a contribution…The company’s general counsel declined…” Bloomberg subs.
Shopify competitor Swap raises $100M six months after raising $40M at TechCrunch
Amazon rolls out new version of its Dash smart grocery cart at GeekWire. “…capture(s) barcodes more quickly, improved sensors to track the cart’s location inside the store, and an integrated produce scale that weighs fruits and veggies directly within the cart…reduced the cart’s weight by 25% while increasing basket capacity by 40%.” Read more