Welcome to the September-October issue of Grocery Trader. New research from Waitrose reveals that nearly two thirds (62%) of the nation are dining out less often than they were six months ago, as rising prices make restaurant meals harder to justify. Instead, shoppers are looking for restaurant-quality ingredients and meals they can enjoy at home, without the restaurant-sized bill. The result is a new kind of treat: better ingredients, more considered meals and the feeling of dining out, without having to leave the comfort of your own home.
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Asda and InPost, the UK’s leading out-of-home parcel locker provider, have announced a major new partnership that will see up to 700 InPost Lockers installed across Asda’s UK store estate. The partnership will give millions of Asda customers a convenient new way to send, collect and return parcels while they shop, and marks one of InPost’s most significant UK retail partnerships to date. The rollout forms part of Asda’s continued investment in services that make life easier for customers and enhance the convenience of shopping in-store.
Aldi has begun handling fruit and vegetables at its Bardon Distribution Centre in Leicestershire, as the UK’s largest automated warehouse moves into its next phase of operation. The start of fresh produce operations follows the launch of operations at Bardon in May 2026. The UK’s biggest discounter has invested more than £500m in the site, which forms part of Aldi’s £1.6bn investment in Britain during 2026 and 2027.
There are many battles in grocery but for many in grocery the biggest has always been for visibility and what a lot of marketers call ‘brand salience’, the likelihood that your brand comes to mind in a buying situation. For suppliers, their response is listings, shelf position, promotional slots, retailer relationships, ecommerce search, reviews and category performance. For retailers, it has meant helping shoppers find the right product quickly, while protecting trust around price, quality, availability and provenance, writes James Crawford, Managing Director of PR Agency One and AMEC board director.
Great innovation doesn’t just come from a strong idea, it comes from shaping that idea to work in the real world. In the UK, 75–80% of NPD doesn’t make it beyond the first year. Whilst there are many factors at play, one of the biggest opportunities is bringing Category into the process earlier in order to ground ideas in the reality of the market, writes Charlie Derra, Category and Shopper Marketing Consultant at Curious Puffin.
For some small grocery retail businesses, cybersecurity may feel like a box-ticking exercise or one that is purely focused on protecting customer data. However, as threats increase in volume and become more sophisticated, the risk to operations and supply, too, is growing. According to government statistics, tens of thousands of businesses suffer from cyberattacks every year.
Enjoy reading the issue.
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