...with brief, occasional, italicized and sometimes gratuitous commentary…
• Ahold Delhaize CIO Franz Muller has been quoted in De Financiële Telegraaf as saying that post-merger, Ahold Delhaize is growing ever stronger in the US, and as a result is currently open “to opportunities for acquisitions to strengthen our position on the East Coast.”
We know that Ahold Delhaize has realized savings from the merger, which made me ask whether the company is focused purely on efficiency or will be investing the money saved in being more effective. This story prompts a corollary question - whether Ahold Delhaize is really stronger, or just bigger? I still want to see how Ahold Delhaize is going to transition into being a 21st century retailer. (I’m certainly not seeing it at my local Stop & Shop stores…)
• Interesting piece in the New York Post about how, while many big retailers are facing economic issues, with store closings expected to hit 8,640 by the end of the year, the pain may be hitting larger companies more than small ones.
According to the story, this retail apocalypse “has hit the big boys much harder than smaller retail concerns, and the demise of the big-box stores is as much due to the growing tendency of consumers to shop small and local as it is to the internet.”
“The spending shift from large retailers to small businesses has been spurred by the latter’s ability to deliver prompt and personal services,” writes Krista Fabregas, an analyst, in Fit Small Business, an online retail-sector trade publication. She points out that “7 out of 10 millennials claim that purchasing American-made products is important to them, and 40 percent say that they prefer to shop at local stores even if they spend more.”
• Ahold Delhaize CIO Franz Muller has been quoted in De Financiële Telegraaf as saying that post-merger, Ahold Delhaize is growing ever stronger in the US, and as a result is currently open “to opportunities for acquisitions to strengthen our position on the East Coast.”
We know that Ahold Delhaize has realized savings from the merger, which made me ask whether the company is focused purely on efficiency or will be investing the money saved in being more effective. This story prompts a corollary question - whether Ahold Delhaize is really stronger, or just bigger? I still want to see how Ahold Delhaize is going to transition into being a 21st century retailer. (I’m certainly not seeing it at my local Stop & Shop stores…)
• Interesting piece in the New York Post about how, while many big retailers are facing economic issues, with store closings expected to hit 8,640 by the end of the year, the pain may be hitting larger companies more than small ones.
According to the story, this retail apocalypse “has hit the big boys much harder than smaller retail concerns, and the demise of the big-box stores is as much due to the growing tendency of consumers to shop small and local as it is to the internet.”
“The spending shift from large retailers to small businesses has been spurred by the latter’s ability to deliver prompt and personal services,” writes Krista Fabregas, an analyst, in Fit Small Business, an online retail-sector trade publication. She points out that “7 out of 10 millennials claim that purchasing American-made products is important to them, and 40 percent say that they prefer to shop at local stores even if they spend more.”
- KC's View:
