A recap of some of our biggest stories of 2023 and a look ahead to antimonopoly action expected in 2024.
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A trade association for independent grocers calls on Congress to revise and enforce a law banning price discrimination that antitrust enforcers have put on the shelf.
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A new antitrust suit against seed makers and sellers sheds light on how Big Ag controls the crop input market to preference their products.
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Personalized pricing was a popular topic at the National Retail Federation’s annual convention in New York City this month, reports Food & Power Reporter Claire Kelloway. Grocery stores can leverage a combination of data analytics and customer identification and tracking tools to offer real-time individual pricing and promotions, both online and in-store. While the practice may still be in its infancy, some experts believe that personalized prices will become the standard in food retail and beyond.
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Walmart sells 50 percent or more of all groceries in one in every ten metropolitan areas and nearly one in three “micropolitan” areas across the country, according to a report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, out last week. In 38 of these regions, Walmart sells 70 percent or more of all groceries.
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Last week, a coalition of farmers, fishermen, and food system activists launched a new campaign that calls on three dominant food service management companies, Aramark, Compass Group, and Sodexo, to increase local and humane food purchasing, invest in racial equity, and reduce their carbon emissions, among other demands. These companies represent 77.5 percent of the food service management industry, or the business of running cafeterias and restaurants for hospitals, schools, stadiums, corporate headquarters, and other institutions.
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A frenzy of deal-making is remaking the food delivery app business. In January, UberEats acquired Ando, a food delivery startup founded by celebrity chef David Chang. In early March, Japanese conglomerate Softbank invested $535 million into DoorDash. A few weeks later, Grubhub expanded its partnership with the review site Yelp to facilitate ordering home delivery of restaurant meals. Meanwhile, the tech publication ReCode reported last week, DoorDash and Postmates have discussed merging.
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Retailers are positioning themselves to charge customers based on their willingness to pay—so that my Burberry-dressed neighbor pays more than my thrifty neighbor for the same product. How are retailers tracking our shopping habits, and what does it mean for you?
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At the National Retail Federation annual conference, retailers discuss how to use big data to personalize customer prices. Tactics include in-store cameras that track which products you’re examining, so Kroger can send you a coupon for chips as you’re still roaming the salsa aisle. Or if you buy cat food towards the end of the month, you’ll be e-mailed a special offer on the 25th, rather than showered with ads all the time. But do the savings outweigh the creepiness?
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Imagine cows fed and milked entirely by robots. Or tomatoes that send an e-mail when they need more water. Or a farm where all the decisions about where to plant seeds, spray fertilizer and steer tractors are made by software on servers on the other side of the sea. This is what more and more of our agriculture may come to look like in the years ahead, as farming meets Big Data.
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