The Friday Checkout is a weekly column providing more insight on the news, rounding up the announcements you may have missed and sharing what’s to come.
Tomorrow is Earth Day, and grocers have been heralding the occasion by jamming reporters’ inboxes with announcements trumpeting their drives to protect the planet. But while blasting out a press release might be a breeze, demonstrating the connection between sustainability and the bottom line is a little more complicated.
Target kicked off the week with a Monday blog post crowing about the completion of its first “TRUE Zero Waste certified” supply chain facility. The next day, Fareway Stores announced that it is working with electricity supplier Alliant Energy to help the utility eliminate coal-powered generators from its fleet by 2030
Also on Tuesday, Seattle’s PCC Community Markets celebrated the fact that two of its stores have won designations from the International Living Future Institute for “meeting the world’s most rigorous green building standards.” And on Friday, United Natural Foods, Inc., said it has launched a “Climate Action Partnership” to further its “collaborative approach to climate action across its full value chain.”
Wall Street analysts point out, however, that without truly comparable measures for gauging how well companies are actually doing in pursuit of goals related to cutting carbon emissions, reducing food waste and preserving natural resources, investors would much rather focus on basics like sales and earnings to judge a firm’s performance and future prospects.
Regulators have been working on a rule that would require public companies to disclose how susceptible they are to the effects of climate change, but that seems to have done more to raise the political temperature than clear the air.
On Capitol Hill earlier this week, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler took fire from Republicans over the agency’s efforts to get involved in the way businesses describe the environmental risks they face. Gensler sought to tamp down the blowback he faced from Republicans — who have been lashing out against the ESG investing movement, assuring them that “we’re not a climate policy agency.”
This volatile mix could hardly be reassuring for grocers hoping to profit from their sustainability efforts amid an investment and political atmosphere driven by greenbacks, not green thinking. The outlook they face, it seems, is complicated.
In case you missed it
Which grocers reign supreme in the Northeast?
A new report from Placer.ai has found that within the relatively small region, six chains had the largest share of visits in February, with Stop & Shop claiming the top spot for the region overall and commanding the most foot traffic among grocers in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
In addition to the six major ones, other grocers also recorded significant market share across the nine states in the region, like Massachusetts-based chain Shaw’s in Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Placer noted that Stop & Shop has managed to hold a strong position in the Northeast in part thanks to its remodeling efforts. For example, one of the chain’s stores in Dorchester, Massachusetts, which also has a community wellness center, free nutrition programming and a partnership with food waste prevention app Flashfood, has seen elevated foot traffic since its remodeling last summer compared to other locations from the banner in the state.
Tops Friendly Market closes store on shooting anniversary
One year after a racist attack claimed the lives of 10 people, the grocer’s Jefferson Avenue store in Buffalo, New York, will temporarily close for that anniversary date, May 14, and resume its normal opening schedule on May 15, the grocer announced this week. Tops will provide a free hourly bus service from the store’s parking lot to a nearby location.
The grocer, which plans to install a permanent memorial by the store, said the one-day closure will “support the community’s healing as Western New York remembers the victims, honors the survivors and reflects on Buffalo’s response and recovery in the aftermath of last year’s horrible acts of violence, racism and domestic terrorism.”
The grocer also said the closure will allow its workers at the store which experienced the mass shooting to take time to care for themselves and their families.
Minute Maid grapes
The Coca-Cola Company and Frutura have linked up to bring Minute Maid and Simply to the produce aisle.
The deal allows Frutura to use those brands on fruit from grower, packer and distributor Dayka & Hackett. Simply Select will be paired with fresh citrus in the U.S., while Minute Maid will be used for both fresh grapes in the U.S., and fresh citrus and grapes in Japan.
Number of the week: 1 billion
This is the number of bananas Instacart has so far delivered in the U.S. and Canada, making it by far the most popular item ordered through the app. Bananas have been the top seller for Instacart for nearly 11 years.
To put this number into perspective, Instacart highlights that this amount of bananas sold equals the height of 486,229 Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other and covers a flight path stretching more than halfway to the moon.
Impulse Find
Spotted: Mark Wahlberg packing groceries at a Stop & Shop in Quincy, Massachusetts. The actor recently surprised workers and shoppers by walking right up to the end of a checkout lane and bagging groceries. But Wahlberg didn’t just walk into any Stop & Shop location: This is the same store he worked at in 1998 as a teenager.
“Right here, this is where the whole hustle all started," Wahlberg said standing outside the store.
