The Grocery Nerd Starter Kit.
Everything You Need To Know About The Grocery Business. So Far.
Thank you for reading and supporting The Checkout Grocery Update!
We publish between one and three newsletters a week, about grocery clerks and supply chain workers, about emerging brands and the challenges of innovating our way to a better food supply, about retail operations and all about pricing, food production and how supply chains actually work. It is a lot to keep up with.
Where do you start?
If you are new to this channel and want to get some background on how we got here and what the heck we are talking about, here are some of our most important analyses about how the grocery industry functions, the retail math and the sleight of hand that brings food to shelves:
How Grocery Cartels Created & Profited From Price Inflation. Our deep dive into how profiteering killed cheap food and turned the supply/demand and inflation curve on its head. Warning: this is empirical, data-driven analysis that flies in the face of your freshman economics textbooks and cable-TV pundits. Stay tuned for an updated version coming soon.
From Forbes: Where Do Food Prices Come From. An older piece from Forbes on how retail prices are formed, what they include and what they leave out.
And everything you need to know about grocery prices and food inflation: here, here, here, here, here, and here, too. Whew. That’s a lot. Where’s my honorary economics degree?
For more of our Forbes work on labor economics and other topics, please see our profile here. Apologies for the paywall, much our Forbes work is also free, here.
Retail and Wholesale Fees 101. Required reading if you are a CPG brand, investor or consumer that wants to understand grocery wholesale economics and how retailers claw back revenue from packaged food brands through distribution partnerships. Warning: it’s brutal stuff and highly detailed. Best of luck finding this type of info in any MBA course.
The Public Grocery Sector. And Why It Matters in New York. A cool little study showing that not only are public-owned grocery stores and supply chains feasible, but consumers really like the idea and want it to happen. Imagine that.
The Imitation Games: Private Label Economics 101. 365, Trader Joe’s, Kroger Simple Truth, Open Nature, Good & Gather, Great Value, Safeway Organics. Private label products are some of the most popular and fastest growing packaged food segments. This is the explainer on how that industry actually functions.
Costco Date: A Club Store Mixtape. Club stores are a unique business model and Costco is one of the fastest growing retailers in the world. Here’s the scoop on how and why Costco rules retail.
The Age Of ALDI. Aldi is cheap as hell and it’s just math. Here’s the Aldi math.
Walmart ÜBER ALLES. Walmart is the all-consuming black hole at the center of our food system. Stop talking about food system change without addressing the elephant in the living room. This is the deep dive on Walmart.
Fearless Flyers: Adventure At Trader Joe's. The title says it all.
When Pepsi Met Siete. The CPG marriage of the century. Why a unique, emerging food brand was acquired by the world’s largest snack food and beverage conglomerate. And why you can’t do the same. So stop trying to get filthy rich and just enjoy the ride.
How The Philly Whole Foods Union Campaign Was Won. The inside scoop on how a group of scrappy clerks and cashiers won a union campaign at a historically union-averse grocery chain owned by one of the richest people in the world.
Local Is Global At Kimberton. One of the country’s leading independent natural food chains and why their business model matters for the future.
How To Read A Grocery Store. The ultimate grocery nerd how-to guide. You will never see grocery stores in the same light.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for lots more.
Thank you again for the support.
Be safe out there.
-peace.
