Whole Foods Market, Smart & Final, Walmart top the week’s headlines

In this week’s recap of the Top 10 most popular Supermarket News articles, the top story was Empire Company Ltd closing its acquisition of a majority stake in fellow Canadian grocer Longo’s and announcing new locations for its FreshCo discount supermarket banner. Among other stories featured in this week’s gallery: 

• Smart & Final to be acquired by Bodega Latina for $620 million
• National Grocers Association reveals 2021 Creative Choice Award winners
• Kroger creates business incubator for fresh food producers

In a letter to employees, Whole Foods Market took stock of its growth but announced plans to streamline some operations, including merchandising, store operations, technology and human resources. Also this week, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh and FreshDirect say they will be receiving a bigger distribution of leafy greens from indoor vertical farmer AeroFarms, which also has introduced its products at Walmart.

In other news, Walmart, Hy-Vee and Stop & Shop are among the grocery retailers announcing the availability of Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccination for adolescents since the Food and Drug Administration granted the vaccine emergency use authorization (EUA) last week.

Other top stories:

• Grocery Outlet Q1 earnings up despite pandemic-related sales dip
• Study: Most U.S. consumers to stick with eating at home post-pandemic
• Ahold Delhaize sees U.S. online sales jump nearly 190% in Q1