Wegmans announced that it has "chosen to partner with UNFI Supervalu to add additional distribution capacity in Virginia for select grocery, dairy and frozen items. This partnership will help Wegmans reduce the travel time and shipping costs to our stores in Virginia and North Carolina.
"Beginning June 2020, Wegmans will service a subset of our conventional Grocery, Dairy and Frozen products for select stores in Virginia and North Carolina through the Supervalu distribution center (now owned by UNFI) in Mechanicsville, VA."
Wegmans disclosed the change in an email to suppliers in which it laid out how the transition will play out for vendors.
- KC's View:
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I have to be honest here - many retailers with whom I have spoken about their relationships with UNFI since its acquisition of Supervalu have described themselves as dissatisfied with their service levels. (I think I'm being generous here.)
So I have to wonder if Wegmans' growth strategy has put it in a position where it has make deals with a company that has disappointed a number of its brethren. So is this a good thing? I don't know.
And one other point, if I may …
Wegmans makes the point that the products affected by this change are conventional - which may be a synonym for undifferentiated. I find myself wondering about why a company likes Wegmans carries so many undifferentiated products in its increasingly large stores. Should it be transitioning to s strategy in which the stores are smaller and more differentiated, with the products you can get anywhere available largely through a more proprietary e-commerce offering?
Again, I don't know. And I may be taking my credibility in my hands by suggesting that anything Wegmans does could actually be done better. But iut is only because I have so much regard for the company and its stores that, when it does something conventional or traditional, I find myself wondering why.
