Todd Schnuck Jr. succeeds David Bell as CFO and will report to him, following Bell’s transition to president of 1939 Group late last year.
Category: Finance News
Market moves, funding, earnings, and financial strategy across the grocery industry.
Posted inFinance News, National, News, Online Grocery Technology
Ottimate Launches First MCP Integration Among AP Platforms
Ottimate, an artificial intelligence-powered accounts payable automation platform serving invoice-heavy industries including grocery and foodservice, has announced the first Model Context Protocol integration in the market, enabling finance leaders to bring AP data directly into large language models for financial insights. The announcement is part of Ottimate’s 2026 summer release, which also includes enhancements to […]
Posted inFinance News, News
Thin Margins, Rising Fraud: Why Grocers Are Automating The Back Office
Grocery retailers are facing cost pressures from nearly every direction, and according to Dan Kim, chief financial officer of accounts payable automation platform Ottimate, too many of them are absorbing those costs without the visibility to see where the money is going. Kim, who has served as Ottimate’s CFO since 2023 after a career spanning […]
Posted inGuest Contributors, Featured News, Finance News, Grocery Store Equipment, Hidden Profit, National, News, The Grocer's Playbook
Hidden Profit: The Power Of Knowing Your Store
My colleague Peter Cooke and I are approaching a combined 40 years of helping food retailers improve their operations and, ultimately, their profit. For many of these years, this was represented by best sustainable practices or a similar vernacular. Regardless of the outside wrapper, we helped real retailers – real people – identify and capture […]
Posted inNews, Featured News, Finance News, Grocery Research, National
Numerator Index Shows Highest Inflation In More Than 2 Years
Prices for everyday household purchases are now up 2.9 percent versus a year ago – the largest year‑over‑year increase in more than two years, according to the Numerator Consumer Goods Price Index.
Posted inFinance News, Grocery Research, National, News
Survey: ‘Reward Stacking’ Becomes Essential Tool As Inflation Squeezes Households
More than 165,000 U.S. consumers surveyed by KashKick show that “reward stacking” – using cashback and micro‑earning apps alongside grocery and gas purchases – has become a popular strategy for coping with persistent inflation. The data arrives as March recorded its largest monthly consumer price increase in four years. Cashback and rewards app usage now […]
Expert Article
Know Your Numbers: The Financial Habits Behind Independent Grocery’s Top Performers
Jon Cline knows the grocery business from the ground up. He started bagging groceries at Safeway in high school, managed a 7-Eleven while earning his accounting degree at the University of Oklahoma, and went on to build a career spanning some of the industry’s biggest names: Arthur Andersen, Scrivner, Fleming and Supervalu. At FMS Solutions, […]
Posted inFinance News, Association News, Featured News, National, News
NGA Opposes OCC Rule Allowing Banks To Set Swipe Fees Via Third Parties
The National Grocers Association (NGA) has submitted comments to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) opposing an interim final rule that would permit national banks to establish interchange (swipe) fees through third‑party arrangements rather than through bank‑to‑bank competition. The rule revises 12 C.F.R. § 7.4002 and relates to the Illinois Interchange Fee […]
Posted inFinance News, Crossroads, Featured News, Guest Contributors, National, News, The Grocer's Playbook
Crossroads: Beyond The Store – Financial Balance In Independent Grocery
By Grant Fossum, AIF, RFC | ProWealth Financial Independent grocers understand diversification better than those in most other industries. Inside the store, balance is built into daily operations – meat and produce drive traffic, center store drives volume, service departments drive margin and the front end shapes the customer experience. Outside the store, that […]
Posted inFinance News, Corporate Store News, Featured News, News, Southwest, Walmart
Walmart U.S. 1Q Comps Up 4.1%, E-Comm 26%
Walmart characterized the first quarter of fiscal 2027 for its U.S. division as one of “strong sales, with broad-based share gains, reflecting accelerated customer transactions led by e-commerce growth.” Reporting results May 21 for the quarter ended April 30, Walmart said its U.S. comparable store sales increased by 4.1 percent, excluding fuel. U.S. net sales […]
Posted inFinance News, Grocery Research, National, News
Circana’s Purchase To Consumption Tool Highlights $100M Opportunity Gap
Circana has rolled out its Purchase to Consumption solution, a tool that links verified purchase behaviors from the company’s receipt panel with National Eating Trends (NET) consumption behaviors from the same consumers. The solution provides the consumer packaged goods industry with what Circana calls a “holistic” understanding of the food and beverage journey. It closes […]
Posted inFinance News, Association News, National, News
Food-At-Home Prices Jump 0.7% As Energy Costs Squeeze Supply Chain
Food-at-home prices rose 0.7 percent in April – the sharpest monthly increase so far this year – as energy market disruptions and ongoing supply chain pressures pushed grocery costs higher for American families and retailers alike. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported May 12 that the overall Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers […]
Posted inFinance News, Featured News, Grocery Research, National, News
NRF: Retail Sales Rose For Seventh Consecutive Month In April
Retail sales grew for the seventh straight month in April despite rising gas prices and persistent inflation, according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor released May 13 by the National Retail Federation. Total retail sales, excluding automobile dealers and gasoline stations, rose 0.34 percent month over month on a seasonally adjusted basis and 5.73 percent year […]
Posted inFinance News, Association News, Featured News
Report: Independent Grocers Generate $557.5B In Annual Economic Activity
According to a new economic impact analysis released today by the National Grocers Association, independent supermarket operators generate $557.5 billion in total annual economic activity, representing nearly 2 percent of U.S. gross domestic product. The report, conducted by Arizona State University using store-level retail sales data from NielsenIQ’s TDLinx platform, found that independent grocers account […]
Posted inFinance News, Featured News, Grocery Research, National, News
Upside Report Reveals A Growing Income Divide In Consumer Spending
Upside’s new report “The Income Divide” reveals that high- and low-income consumers are making fundamentally different decisions about where and how much to spend. The findings, drawn from more than 10 billion transactions and surveys of 3,500-plus shoppers, show consumer behavior splits sharply at $75,000 in household income. Above that threshold, consumers report increased spending […]
Posted inFinance News, Hy-Vee, News, Online Grocery Technology, Raley's, West, Woodman’s
Instacart Reaches $1B In Total Revenue For First Time
Instacart achieved two first-time financial milestones in the first quarter, chalking them up to “continuously improving what matters most to consumers: selection, quality, affordability and convenience.” GTV, or gross transaction value, was up 13 percent to hit $10.29 billion on 91.2 million orders (up 10 percent), and total revenue reached $1.02 billion, an increase of […]
Posted inFinance News, Featured News, Ingles Markets, News, Southeast
Showdown Over Ingles’ Board Vote Results In Election Of Held
Asheville, North Carolina-based Ingles Markets Inc. has shared preliminary voting results from its 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, with Rory Held and Dwight Jacobs elected as Class A directors. Held was the nominee put forward by activist investor Summer Road LLC. In the same vote, Fred D. Ayers, Robert P. Ingle II, Patricia E. Jackson, […]
Posted inFinance News, Featured News, Grocery Research, National, News
Ibotta Outlook: Shoppers Reallocate Spend Heading Into Summer 2026
A new 2026 Summer Outlook from Ibotta finds that the summer shopping season is starting weeks before Memorial Day, with shoppers reallocating spend away from convenience and discretionary categories toward staples and at-home consumption. The report draws on Ibotta receipt data across millions of purchases, supplemented by a survey of 500 consumers about their plans […]
Posted inFinance News, Featured News, News, Southeast
AL Grocers Face State Tax Holiday As National Rollback Accelerates
Beginning May 1, Alabama grocers will stop collecting the state’s 2 percent sales tax on food for two months under House Bill 527. But as the Alabama Department of Revenue has made clear, the temporary holiday comes with important operational considerations for retailers – and Alabama is far from alone in the push to cut […]
Posted inFinance News, Crossroads, Featured News, Guest Contributors, National, News, The Grocer's Playbook
Crossroads: Beyond Value – Factors Impacting Decision To Sell
Life is complicated. Every decision creates a ripple effect, and no meaningful decision is ever driven by a single factor. Few choices carry more weight for a business owner than the decision to buy or sell. The decision to purchase often is made at a relatively young age, at a stage when there’s not much […]