Grocery stores hand over fist, consumers hand to mouth…
A Goldman Sachs analyst said Friday packaged-food companies boosted their revenues in November due to price increases.
Analyst Judy Hong said in a note to investors that according to data from research firm ACNielsen for the four weeks ended Nov. 29, dollar sales – or the dollars that came from sales – grew about 5 percent. In the previous four-week period, dollar sales rose 4 percent.
But volumes – the amount of the product sold – fell nearly 2 percent in November, indicating that the revenue growth came from higher prices.
As the economy plunges into a deep recession, grocery stores are one of the few sectors doing well. That is because cash-short consumers are eating out less and stocking up at the supermarket. And store brand products, which tend to be cheaper than national brands and more profitable for grocers, are doing especially well.
Led by chains like Trader Joe’s, Kroger, Wegmans and Safeway, grocers have expanded their store brands beyond cheap generics and simple knockoffs of Cheerios, Oreos and Coca-Cola. Now, retailers are increasingly adding premium store-brand items like organics, or creating products without direct competition.
After a successful months-long test in 200 stores in the South, Kroger is expanding a mobile coupon program to serve all of its 2,200 grocery stores nationwide.
During a 10-week period this summer and fall, more than 50% of shoppers who joined the program redeemed more than one coupon, and the average coupon’s conversion rate was between 10% and 20%, reports Cellfire Inc., the mobile coupon company that facilitates the program for Kroger.
“There has been robust consumer adoption and use of their mobile devices to access the mobile grocery coupons,” says Dwight Moore, vice president of corporate marketing at Cellfire. “Plus, additional manufacturers continue to join the program since rolling out nationally, providing even more value to Kroger and its shoppers.”
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