With brief, occasional, italicized and sometimes gratuitous commentary…
• Albertsons Unveils New Own-Label Meal Line
Albertsons this week announced the launch of a new private label, Chef’s Counter, which it described as being “designed to bring chef-inspired flavors and tastes to customers in a convenient, easy and affordable way. Created to meet growing consumer demand for cooking meals at home with adventurous flavors and globally inspired ingredients, Chef’s Counter is first debuting with a flavorful selection of ready-to-cook marinated meats to help food lovers turn their culinary inspirations into reality.”
According to the announcement, “Chef’s Counter features pre-seasoned and marinated meats that make it easy for customers to create delicious chef-inspired meals for maximum taste with minimum effort, ready in about 20 minutes. Shoppers will enjoy mouthwatering lemon peppercorn, zesty Italian-style and smoky BBQ chicken breasts, along with juicy chicken thighs in savory teriyaki-style or refreshing cilantro lime flavors. Rich mesquite or aromatic garlic herb flavors enhance tender boneless pork loin chops. For beef lovers, there’s chimichurri and smoky buttery garlic beef sirloin steaks as well as carne asada beef flap steak, each bursting with flavor. For additional variety, Chef’s Counter provides meal starters including balsamic peppercorn beef tips, chimichurri pork tenderloin medallions and tangy orange chicken breast strips, offering even more delicious meal-time options.”
Additionally, the company says, “Chef’s Counter is introducing a collection of shoppable recipes to simplify meal planning for customers. Shoppers can access these recipes by scanning the QR code on the product packages or by visiting the Albertsons Cos. store websites or apps. Chef’s Counter can be found in the self-service meat section of the store and ranges in prices from $4.99 for boneless pork loin chops in mesquite or garlic herb flavors to $12.69 for carne asada.”
Here’s what I want to know. As Albertsons rolls out this line, will people entering the store be treated to lots of sampling stations, with the aromas of “smoky buttery garlic beef sirloin steaks” or “chimichurri pork tenderloin medallions” wafting through the air, instantly making them hungry and curious?
I’m a big fan of stores focusing more on food as a differentiator. But this focus has to be accompanied with persistent and consistent efforts to drive sales by engaging with shoppers’ senses. In today’s competitive marketplace, you can’t just roll out items like these the same old way. You have to go above and beyond.
• Feds Accuse Amazon of Improperly Shielding Nonprivileged Documents
From Courthouse News:
“Federal regulators say Amazon systematically attempted to hide incriminating evidence by filing misleading privilege claims in the antitrust suit accusing it of favoring its own products and overcharging sellers.
“The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says Amazon withdrew 92% of its privilege claims and turned up approximately 70,000 documents that it previously shielded under privilege claims after a federal judge compelled Amazon to re-review its claims. Around 75% of those privilege claims, or approximately 58,000 documents, were fully withheld from the court … In an in-camera review of nine withheld documents, the court found only a single sentence was privileged, according to the FTC.
“The FTC and the attorneys general of 17 states sued Amazon in September 2023, accusing the online retailer of using deceptive practices in its Prime subscription program, raising prices and creating monopolies by, in part, altering organic search results to show paid advertisements or Amazon’s own products and overcharging online sellers. Vermont and Puerto Rico later joined the lawsuit.
“After reviewing the documents, the FTC said it was clear the documents were withheld for reasons completely unrelated to privilege, but rather because they contain ‘probative, inculpatory, and entirely nonprivileged statements’.”
According to the story, “Amazon pushed back against the accusations, framing the motion as a misrepresentation of the merits of the case.
“‘The FTC wants to distract from the facts because the facts don’t support this vague and unprecedented legal case,’ the Amazon spokesperson said.”
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