THE FRIDAY 5: Expansion Underway at Wegmans, Amazon Fresh; Loblaw Taps Into Its Superpowers

1. The Continuing Case of Boar’s Head Listeria Outbreak 

After its products tested positive for the deadly Listeria outbreak, Boar's Head Provisions Co. this week expanded the recall of its deli meat products. 

On July 25, Boar’s Head initiated a recall of its Strassburger Brand Liverwurst because it was deemed to potentially be adulterated with Listeria. It also voluntarily recalled nine additional products that were produced at its Jarratt, Va., facility on the same production line and on the same day as the liverwurst product. This involved removing over 200,000 pounds of product from retail deli locations nationwide. 

Days later, whole genome sequencing results showed that a liverwurst sample collected by the Maryland Department of Health tested positive for the outbreak strain of Listeria that has sickened 34 people in 13 states, including 33 hospitalizations and two deaths. This led Boar's Head to recall approximately 7 million additional pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products.

Meanwhile, Minneapolis-based OFT Food Safety & Injury Lawyers has filed the first lawsuit arising out of the multistate Listeria outbreak linked to deli meats. The defendants are Boar's Head and Schnucks Markets Inc. According to the lawsuit, after eating Boar's Head liverwurst in June, the plaintiff allegedly became ill and was hospitalized in early July. Testing confirmed that she was suffering from a Listeria infection. 

2. Loblaw's 'Super' Partnership With Marvel 

PG readers were interested this week in Canadian grocer Loblaw’s new partnership with entertainment powerhouse Marvel on a superhero trading card promotion available online and in-store at its No Frills, The Real Canadian Superstore, Maxi, Provigo, Zehrs, Your Independent Grocer, Real Atlantic Superstore, Valu-Mart, Loblaws, Independent City Market, Fortinos, The Real Canadian Wholesale Club, Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix banners. 

There are 90 character and badge cards to collect in total, and each pack contains four individual cards. Packs are free with every CAD $25 purchase and for only CAD $5, customers can purchase a Marvel collector’s album.

“We’re always looking for new and exciting ways to show our gratitude to Canadians, and what better way to do that than with Marvel?” said Mary MacIsaac, SVP, marketing and control brands at Loblaw Cos. Ltd. “Whether you’re checking out our new flyer promotions [and] weekly special bonus offers on major brands, or stocking up on Hit of the Month deals, Marvel will add more thrill and excitement to your regular trip to the grocery store.”

3. Expansion Underway for Wegmans, Amazon Fresh

Popular regional grocer Wegmans is continuing to expand in new markets – this time with its first store in Connecticut. Located at 675 Connecticut Avenue in Norwalk, the store is scheduled to open in summer 2025. Wegmans also plans to open more stores in 2025, one in Lake Grove, N.Y., and another in Rockville, Md. Additionally, Wegmans has a tentative opening date of summer 2026 for a new Charlotte, N.C., location.

Additionally, readers were drawn to news of expansion for Amazon’s Fresh banner. The opening of an Amazon Fresh store in the northwest Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights on July 25 reflects Amazon’s aim to refocus its physical store presence.

The latest Amazon Fresh location, which is part of what Amazon CEO Andy Jassy dubbed the V2 (version 2) format iteration, heavily features the retailer’s signature tech-enabled Dash Cart. Amazon removed its Just Walk Out technology from Amazon Fresh stores in the United States to focus on the smart carts. 

This is the 10th Amazon Fresh store in the Chicago-area market. Amazon currently operates 18 brick-and-mortar namesake stores in California, two in Maryland, two in New Jersey, one in New York, two in Pennsylvania, five in Virginia and four in Washington state. Additional V2 store openings are planned for the Philadelphia area, in the cities of Middletown and Bensalem, and in the Washington, D.C. market in the Potomac Yard Shopping Center.

4. Walmart "Depacks" Food Waste

Sustainability news from Walmart made waves this week as the company became the first retailer to team up with Denali, the nation’s largest recycler of organic materials, to introduce innovative depackaging services that can help improve the food waste recycling process at more than 1,000 Walmart and Sam’s Club locations across the country. 

The program has rolled out at more than 1,400 Walmart and Sam’s Club locations in 16-plus markets across the country, with launches to continue nationwide into next year. Based on early testing, the technology has increased the volume of potentially reusable organic content recovered from the participating locations by more than 60% and reduced their compactor trash by an estimated 12%. 

5. How Trader Joe’s, Lidl Are Focusing on Experience

As Trader Joe’s expands its worker rolls, the chain is also engaging crew members in fun ways. Over the past month, the grocer opened new stores and shared the winner of an internal competition. Crew members around the United States were challenged to create a recipe using five or fewer products found at Trader Joe’s stores, and the grocer received 423 submissions, representing about 77% of its stores.

The 2024 winner was a Trader Joe’s store in Woodland Hills, Calif., where workers devised a dessert they dubbed the Brooklyn Babka Ice Cream Pie. Other recipe examples included Jicama Chickama Tacos, Shrimply the Best Scampi Pizza and My Big Fat Greek Fries, to name a few.

Lidl, meanwhile, made news this week as it works to fine-tune its U.S. shopping experience. PG Managing Editor Bridget Goldschmidt spoke with Frank Kerr, Lidl US’ chief customer officer, as the deep discounter cut the ribbon on its long-awaited debut in the Fresh Meadows neighborhood of Queens. 

According to Kerr, Lidl has a laser focus on its layout and assortment as it works to Americanize its shopping experience, and has also made improvements to its myLidl app to make the online experience even better. 

“It has now allowed us to make that customer journey much more simple for them on that app to where they see the myLidl deals for all members, but then there's also the element of personalized offers that come in on time,” Kerr shared. “We have made a lot of improvements on the back end to really enrich our customer data to provide a better personalized offer to the customer.”