Today in Food Commerce: Amazon Turns Focus to Grocery; F&B Businesses Remove Russian Brands

Today in food commerce, restaurants and grocers respond to Russia, and Kroger looks to personalized rewards to maintain customer loyalty in the face of pricing challenges. Plus, Amazon closes its bookstores to focus more on its brick-and-mortar grocery brands.

Responding to Russia, Food Businesses Rethink Product Assortment, Logistics

As businesses across industries boycott Russia in response to the Ukraine invasion, food and beverage businesses are making changes to everything, from product assortment to last-mile fulfillment. Grubhub, for one, is canceling its contract with Yandex, through which the food delivery service had used the Russian technology giant’s delivery robots for autonomous order fulfillment at The Ohio State University, student publication The Lantern reported Wednesday (March 2).

Amazon to Shutter Physical Bookstores, Focus on Grocery Opportunities

Amazon will be closing its physical bookstores, including “Amazon 4-Star” locations and mall pop-up locations, narrowing its brick-and-mortar locations to focus on groceries, Bloomberg wrote Wednesday (March 2). The company said it wants to look more at its “Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Go and Amazon Style stores and our Just Walk Out technology.”

Kroger Leverages Personalized Rewards to Boost Price-Conscious Customers’ Spending

As food prices continue to rise, grocers are at an inflection point when it comes to price-conscious consumers. Their responses to this rapid inflation could either cement these shoppers’ loyalties or send them running to competitors. The Kroger Co., the United States’ largest pure-play grocer, has been looking to its loyalty program to gain valuable consumer data, leveraging these insights to offer personalized rewards in an effort to keep these shoppers coming back.

Grocery Roundup: Target Leverages F&B to Drive Loyalty; Grocers Invest in First-Party Fulfillment

Target is leveraging its eCommerce strength in grocery to drive the business’s overall growth. On a call with analysts Tuesday (Mar. 1) discussing the retailer’s fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings, Target executives discussed the central role that this category has come to occupy.