While Whole Foods is centralizing, Kroger is reemphasizing what it calls its long-standing commitment to local purchasing and customized assortments. In particular, its latest website (Kroger.com/WeAreLocal) seeks to appeal to both supplier and consumers by highlighting Kroger’s commitment to local sourcing.

One section of the site helps local suppliers register to gather information about how they can enter into a partnership with Kroger. Another section lists detailed, specific information about the suppliers that it already purchases from, giving consumers insights into the sources of the products they might find on store shelves. The third section of the website proclaims and demonstrates Kroger’s corporate social responsibility, noting the methods the grocer has implemented to combat food waste, reduce hunger in communities, and participate in sustainable transportation and logistics operations.

The local-focus site launched just one day after Whole Foods, recently purchased by Amazon, announced its plans to centralize buying, in an effort to lower its prices and make its assortment more affordable for shoppers. Whether coincidental or not, the timing gave Kroger a means to differentiate itself clearly. Thus a Kroger spokesperson could tout Kroger’s record, over many years, of working with local product suppliers to match the unique local preferences of customers in each store. It also could acknowledge the “headlines about making local, natural and organic foods more affordable,” then throw a little shade by noting, “The truth is, we’ve always been affordable.”

Discussion Question:

1. Is Kroger’s “local” strategy part of the locavore movement?
2. How will Kroger’s new strategy affect your grocery shopping habits?

Source: Tom Ryan, Retail Wire, October 2, 2017