Food Retailing

Kraft Heinz notified retailer customers this past Monday that it would raise prices in August on items ranging from Miracle Whip and Classico pasta sauce to Maxwell House coffee products and some deli meat. Cory Onell, chief sales officer at Kraft Heinz, wrote in the memo to retailers that inflation continues to affect the economy and shape consumption patterns. Costs continue to rally and the persistence of increases makes it necessary to announce price changes, he wrote.…

Supply-chain technology company Wiliot has its first major customer for the tiny tracking tags it is developing to follow products from source to store and measure temperature changes and other factors that affect goods in transit. Wiliot, based in Caesarea, Israel, is one of a growing number of companies building tools aimed at monitoring goods as they move through distribution channels. The company says its tags are small and cheap enough for use in the many crates and carriers…

Prices for food, energy and shelter helped drive up the consumer-price index in May to the fastest annual pace in more than 40 years, undoing a slight easing in April, the Labor Department said Friday.Those three categories represent the bulk of most household spending in any given month. Together they account for more than half, by relative weight, of the price changes tracked by the department. Gasoline prices rebounded after dipping in April as Russia’s war in Ukraine continued to upend energy markets. Food price…

A group of Trader Joe’s employees in Massachusetts filed with a federal agency to hold a union election, joining other U.S. workers who are organizing to demand higher pay and better benefits. If the effort is successful, the Trader Joe’s store in Hadley, Mass., would become the first unionized location at the privately held grocery chain, which operates more than 500 locations across the U.S. and is known for its quirky products and wine deals. Workers said more than 30% of store…

Kroger Co. and other grocery chains said they are asking brands to prove why higher prices are necessary before accepting them, and warning manufacturers that they will stop carrying products if food companies won’t negotiate prices. Some companies said they are switching to new meat suppliers with cheaper products, and are delaying price changes for items like canned goods. “We don’t just accept cost increases,” said Don Clark, chief merchandising officer of…

Marriott International Inc. is introducing a media network this month with Yahoo Inc. that will help advertisers target consumers, in part by using the hotel chain’s data on its guests, to bring them ads on places such as the hotel’s websites and, eventually, on the TV sets in their rooms. Marriott Media Network comes as the marketing industry is developing new ways to reach consumers amid a wave of privacy changes, including a plan by Alphabet Inc.’s Google to…

Instacart Inc.’s plans to launch a public offering puts the grocery-delivery company up against this year’s volatile stock market and longer-term questions about how consumers shop for staples.San Francisco-based Instacart said late Wednesday that it confidentially filed for an initial public offering, less than two months after cutting its valuation by nearly 40%. By filing confidentially now, Instacart is positioning itself to go public as early as September, according to people familiar with the offering. Instacart…

Instacart’s long-awaited filing comes as competition increases and consumer habits shift. Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images…

Americans paid less for gasoline but more for groceries and air travel last month as the broader pace of inflation eased slightly but remained historically high. A fall in energy costs led the way toward the smaller overall gain, with gasoline prices dropping a seasonally-adjusted 6.1% in April, following a steep advance in crude-oil prices in March after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Groceries rose by 1% over March and were up 10.8% over the last 12 months, the largest 12-month increase…

The pandemic made shopping for Instacart Inc. one of the hottest jobs in the supermarket business. Now, it is getting tougher.Instacart workers, who fulfill online orders for consumers, say their jobs have become more difficult and less lucrative as they see fewer, smaller orders than they did earlier in the pandemic. Some said they are increasingly competing against other so-called shoppers, waiting around for orders or driving to neighborhoods where they are more likely to find work. The job is changing as growth slows…