Ceder's Drinks’ Post

Have you seen our new Complete Costco Buying Guide + In-Store Cheat Sheet yet? This is everything you need to know to find the real deals. Cheers to buying smart! https://lnkd.in/gSFx7rQ6

R5 Reflections: Welcome To The Jungle… The song Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N’ Roses is all R5 could think of as we were doing an online pricing survey between Amazon and Walmart. The prices we came across on Amazon were simply shocking, as was the discount to Walmart. Amazon’s one time purchase price basket was lower than Walmart by 9%, which ballooned to 22% when we included all the discounting (Subscribe & Save first time coupon and ongoing discount) on our basket of ~50 food, pet, HBC and HPC items. To read more about our findings from the online pricing work conducted, and what it means competitively across retailers, please email rmushkin@r-5cap.com. 

Listen to your customers 👀 Last week we shipped a feature for Biscuits Bundles that wasn't on our roadmap at all. It had quickly become one of our most upvoted requests on our feature request board. What was it? ➡️ The feature allows merchants to use the Compare At Price when calculating discounts in their bundles. This meant that they'd be able to put products on sale with no risk of double discounting products in a bundle. A no brainer when you think about it - who wants to update all of their bundles when they put other products on sale? Coming in to sales season, we decided to move this feature to the top of our roadmap and build it immediately. It's mind-blowing to us that we have a product that people vote for features on, and that we actually build them! 🙏 Shout out to Canny - the feature request board has become one of our best tools for helping us figure out our roadmap and what features impact the most merchants.

Walmart's Apple Juice Recall: A Wake-Up Call for Food Safety The recent Walmart apple juice recall highlights the importance of rigorous quality control in the food industry. As professionals, we must recognize the potential risks of inorganic arsenic in our food supply and the critical role of regulatory oversight. Key takeaways: • Walmart recalled thousands of apple juice cases due to high arsenic levels • The FDA has set a 10 ppb limit for inorganic arsenic in apple juice • Long-term exposure can lead to serious health issues, especially for children What steps can we take to ensure food safety in our organizations? How can we foster a culture of transparency and accountability in the face of food contamination risks? Let's discuss this important issue and share our insights on maintaining consumer trust and safety in the food industry. For more information visit: https://lnkd.in/e_hZ5-rk #FoodSafety #RegulatoryCompliance #ConsumerTrust

🌭 Costco’s $1.50 Hot Dog: A Delicious Defiance of Inflation 📈 In a world where prices soar, Costco’s hot dog-soda combo remains an unwavering beacon of value at just $1.50 - the same price as in 1985! This strategic move isn’t just about the snack; it’s a masterclass in customer loyalty and smart business. 🛒💡 While other items may see a slight price uptick, Costco’s membership-centric model allows for this iconic deal to thrive. As inflation rates dip, Costco’s steadfast price point continues to draw crowds and delight shoppers, proving that some things just get better with time. 🎉 Join the conversation and share your thoughts on Costco’s pricing strategy! #ValueVictory #CostcoCraze #InflationInsight

Are Aussie coffee shoppers promo junkies...? Here are three things our latest research shows: 1/ Coffee is what we call a 'HERO category' - It's both a traffic and spend driver for Coles and Woolworths. 2/ Coffee shoppers are hyper-aware of price. They're also using sachet, instant and pods coffee products’ prices to judge the rest of the store. So it's critical to get prices on a ‘good’ level. 3/ As you can see from this graphic, coffee is massively over indexing (vs. the rest of the store) on promotional buying. And offers a huge opportunity for incremental sales, given the right promotion. If you want a free copy of our new coffee report, Type 'yes in the comments 👇

Will be a fascinating earnings season. One to keep an eye on: which customers are driving growth. Walmart’s focus on more affluent customers via their ecom efforts just got another boost with the launch of bettergoods vs. Amazon’s focus on less affluent customers via half off grocery delivery for anyone with a EBT card (and no prime membership requirement). I expect these two companies to be the share leaders and for their shadow boxing only to continue—can’t wait for Vizio to close. Walmart’s ability to add affluent customers will not just sell cardamom rose raspberry jam, but help their ads business as brands will pay a premium to reach affluent customers; so yes bettergoods will drive GMV, but if it also takes affluent customers from Trader Joe’s or elsewhere, Walmart can then monitize again via ads. https://lnkd.in/eYM-rFE2

Inflation may be cooling, but consumers’ outrage over higher prices is running hot. TikTok users blasted Walmart for rolling out digital shelf labels that allow it to quickly raise and lower prices. Wendy’s backpedaled after its CEO suggested the burger chain may start using dynamic pricing, the practice of raising and lowering prices based on demand. And at some Chipotle locations, customers filmed workers to try to make sure they didn’t skimp on their burrito bowls. The three joined a growing list of consumer brands contending with customers’ deep frustration over high prices — and wariness that prices will only rise more. Learn more: cnb.cx/4cB4J4u

The latest edition of Costco Connection is speaking my language:

Increase your JHOOK sales by 70% or more. Sound too good to be true, IT'S TRUE. Blueoco is the only FOOD FOCUSED program will increase your sales 70% or more over the most common program. CHALLENGE: Walk your store and look at the PRODUCT, PLACEMENT, and PRICE you charge and ask yourself ARE YOU COMPETITVE with leading GM retailers and Amazon? You can be much more than competitive, with BLUEOCO you can LEAD. Our products are designed to compete with the best retailers but offered in GROCERY STORES. You can sell products to PREP, COOK, SERVE, ENTERTAIN, STORE and TRANSPORT all the food and beverages you sell rather than TOYS that simply don't perform like FOOD FOCUSED product. Get started by testing the program for FREE. Yes we purchase all your JHOOK inventory and provide a FREE test to see the numbers in your stores! Email darlene.bond@blueoco.com to get started!