Marking its first-ever wearable-tech product, Kroger has developed a smart Holiday Apron that taps all five human senses to reduce the stress of holiday cooking. The apron supports an influencer-led marketing campaign. What do you think of Kroger’s Holiday Apron and the campaign’s influencer focus and holiday-cooking-stress theme?

A columnist at The Wall Street Journal has found some “nits to pick” with Kroger following the grocery giant’s release of its third quarter earnings results and its recent deal to merge with Albertsons, including a lack of progress by Kroger on the digital front. How do Kroger’s digital operations stand up to its competitors in the grocery space?

Some market watchers see the biggest benefit from the proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons being the extended geographic reach and consumer data access that could help Kroger capitalize on the burgeoning retail media opportunity. What would the proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons mean for the retail media space?

Count the critics as unimpressed with their choices in last week’s RetailWire Christmas Commercial Challenge choice. That brings us to the second in a series of commercials served up for your viewing pleasure (and scrutiny). Today’s match pits Aldi Australia vs. Kroger, presenting two distinctly different takes on holiday messaging. What is your critique of the holiday spots from Aldi Australia and Kroger?

Kroger has opened a grocery pickup location for students at the University of Kentucky. The initiative melds retail’s experiments with grocery pickup points and serving colleges, both of which have faced challenges. Is establishing pickup points the best path to bringing e-grocery to college campuses?

Grocers not known for rock-bottom prices can minimize the damage in competing against low-price leaders  — and potentially strengthen bonds with customers — by keeping price gaps tight while using best practices in executing mass promotions, communications, personalization and private branding. How can traditional grocers best compete in inflationary periods against low-priced leaders?

Kroger and Albertsons have agreed on a deal that will combine the first and second largest supermarket operators in the U.S. The deal valued at $24.6 billion will see Kroger pay $34.10 a share for Albertsons’ stock, which closed at $28.63, CNBC reports. How will the Kroger/Albertsons merger affect the competitiveness of the two companies?

Kroger is introducing a temperature-controlled electronic cart to speed up its curbside fulfillment. What do you see as the biggest challenges that retailers face with curbside pickup and how can technology address these?

Kroger has updated its opening price point strategy in private label, winnowing 17 brands down to two: Heritage Farm for fresh and dairy product lines and a new brand, Smart Way, for nonperishable items. Do you see more benefits than drawbacks to Kroger’s move to consolidate its value-tier private labels to two brands?

Kroger, Giant Eagle and Acme Fresh Market have applied for licenses to install sports gaming kiosks at Ohio locations as the state gets set to legalize sports betting at the start of 2023. Do you see adding sports gaming kiosks as an acceptable extension of lottery sales and a promising foot traffic driver for stores?

Kroger is finding that grocery shoppers are  trading down and shifting to store brands as U.S. inflation hits a four-decade high, and seeing a particular shift from lower-income households. How have you been seeing inflationary pressures altering grocery shopping habits?

Kroger is bringing back an accelerator program designed to help local fresh food suppliers from across the country gain access to the supermarket giant’s store shelves. Are accelerator programs such as Kroger’s a good way to onboard local and regional suppliers?

Shoppers can find advice on selling floors on what running shoes to wear, how to fix a leaky faucet and what to take for an upset stomach. Nutritional advice from grocers? Not so much. Kroger wants to change that. Why aren’t dietitians or other nutritional experts widely accessible at grocery stores dispensing nutrition advice?

Meijer is holding its first ever Sustainable Supplier Summit, a virtual meeting that will give select attendees an opportunity to meet remotely with buyers in the appropriate department to discuss their products. Do you think a virtual summit like this is a good move for grocers who want to find new, sustainable products?

With looming changes to cookies set to undermine online targeting, retailers and brands are reconsidering ways to reach consumers in stores. Will retail media’s strong growth online translate into expanded advertising opportunities for brands at the store level?

Kroger is looking to use artificial intelligence to optimize its supply chain and deliver the freshest food to its customers with a strategic collaboration with NVIDIA. Will the use of artificial intelligence technology help Kroger achieve its freshness goals?

On March 22, 2021 a gunman opened fire inside the Table Mesa King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, CO. A year later, how have King Soopers and Kroger done? What lessons can be learned from how Table Mesa King Soopers responded to its crisis?

Hy-Vee last week announced the introduction of an in-house armed security team to manage theft and in-store disturbances. Are more armed security guards the solution to the rise in shoplifting and organized crime at retail?

The largest grocery chain in the U.S. recently pulled its paid COVID-19 leave for employees not yet vaccinated against the coronavirus in a move designed to encourage inoculations. Is Kroger’s approach the right one for incentivizing vaccination at this point?

Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen said earlier this year that no other retailer “has the customer data and the insights” that his company has, once again pointing to his company’s understanding of its customers. What do you see as the most important factors driving consumers’ grocery shopping behaviors at this time?

Kroger appears ready to get on the subscription program bandwagon with the launch of a new service that offers expedited grocery delivery and fuel rewards for its customers. Will Kroger’s new subscription options prove popular with the grocer’s customers in the markets where it is being tested?

Kroger and Bed Bath & Beyond have entered into a collaboration that will bring the home and baby products retailer’s products into some of the supermarket giant’s stores and to its website. What is your take on Bed Bath & Beyond’s deal with Kroger and its digital marketplace news?

According to a recent survey, 54 percent of U.S. consumers believe grocery delivery within an hour is important to them, well above other categories. How disruptive will rapid grocery be to the grocery channel?

The Kroger Co. and its Home Chef subsidiary announced yesterday that the meal kit service has reached $1 billion in annual sales.  What do you see as the current opportunities and challenges facing meal kit brands?

Instacart has acquired Caper AI, a smart shopping cart and checkout technology startup.  Caper AI uses computer vision, weight sensors and other technologies in its Caper Cart and Caper Counter products. What is your assessment of Instacart’s acquisitions of Caper AI and FoodStorm?

Kroger may not have found the treasure of the Sierra Madre, but the grocery giant appears to have struck grocery retailing gold with its use of automated warehouses, spoke hubs and micro-fulfillment centers to move into markets without having to open stores. What is your takeaway from Kroger’s rollout of the Ocado system in Florida and elsewhere?

At this week’s GroceryShop trade event in Last Vegas, Kroger chairman & CEO Rodney McMullen took the opportunity to enumerate a series of initiatives his company has pursued in the past year. Which of Kroger’s recent initiatives is likely to have the greatest impact on corporate success?

Kroger and Instacart are working together to launch a new virtual nationwide convenience delivery service. Will the new Kroger Delivery Now service redefine what many Americans think of convenience when it comes to ordering fresh foods and household essentials?

Shares of Kroger fell nearly eight percent on Friday after the grocer reported that gross margins in the second quarter came in lower than expected due to higher food prices, theft and supply chain costs. How much room does Kroger have in the current climate to raise prices to offset cost pressures?

Restaurants are finding unique advantages in launching “virtual brands” to draw in new groups of customers or to test out new menu items. Do virtual brands represent a good way for restaurants to appeal to customer bases they wouldn’t normally do business with?

Dick’s Sporting Goods says it achieved significantly higher profitability in the second quarter in its e-commerce channel through fewer and more targeted promotions, better leverage of fixed costs and strong customer adoption of curbside and in-store pickup. What are the obvious and less obvious levers that drive e-commerce profitability for retailers?

Kroger wants to be the place Americans think of when they order restaurant food for takeout or delivery. Do you think Kroger’s partnership with Kitchen United will succeed in its goal of furthering the grocer as a food destination for consumers in the markets served by its stores?

For grocers, significantly larger basket sizes more than made up for fewer transactions due to lighter traffic during much of the pandemic. Whether in-store grocery basket sizes return to pre-pandemic levels appears to depend on a number of factors. Will supermarket basket sizes return to pre-pandemic levels as comfort with in-store shopping returns?

Kroger has just joined a few other retailers in launching a contest in search of new suppliers. The competition encourages local and regional growers across fresh categories to apply online for a chance to partake in the Go Fresh & Local Supplier Accelerator. What do you think of competitions and pitch programs as a path for retailers to discover new brands?

Kroger thinks that drone deliveries have the potential to help transform its e-commerce operations, announcing yesterday a pilot program testing the use of autonomous drones to deliver online orders from a Kroger in Centerville, OH. Why do so many retailers seem intrigued about the use of drone technology to make deliveries?

Services and solutions have quickly become retailers’ growth engine of choice. Major retailers like Walmart, Kroger, Target and Amazon.com have branched out into health services, ad marketing, financial services and more. Which aspects of retailer-as-service will have the greatest impact on retailer profitability and viability?

Forget about underselling and overperforming. Kroger is going all in with the launch of its first automated fulfillment center (AKA shed) as part of its deal with Ocado, the British grocery e-commerce leader. Do you expect the Kroger/Ocado partnership to transform e-grocery in the U.S.?

Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen, who often speaks of “competitive moats” that Kroger has established, is a firm believer that the retailer’s data and insights enable it to outperform its rivals. Do you agree with the statement on the company’s strength in data analytics and action, specifically as it relates to personalization?

Grocery stores that manage their back-end operations with busy hives of robots have gone from speculative fiction to reality. One recent entry into the space has made headlines with its plans to build up instead of out. Do you see a vertically-oriented, automated grocer like Urbx being able to make good when it comes to fast picking, packing and delivery?

Automated grocery delivery is a retail technology that suddenly found itself with a more robust use case as the novel coronavirus pandemic made customers prioritize contact-free transactions in the interest of staying healthy.  Is the timing right for contactless delivery using robots and/or driverless vehicles to catch on?

The mantra is to beat last year’s numbers, but the pandemic has distorted sales comparisons. Now a few retailers on fourth-quarter investor calls are encouraging analysts to compare 2021’s figures to 2019’s. What challenges do 2020’s abnormal comparisons present to retailers or brands in 2021 as they do their forward planning?

It’s safe to say that no retailer feeling forced to pay its workers $4 or $5 an hour more as a result of a local ordinance is happy with the situation, but most have chosen to pay the temporary increases. Should chain retailers look at temporary pay mandates as more of a branding challenge vs. as a financial issue?

After scrambling for months to meet unprecedented demand, grocers are facing new challenges as vaccines roll out and consumers return to normal spending patterns. Do you see a rocky path ahead for conventional supermarkets over the next year?

Connected devices are emerging as a new way for grocers to reduce losses due to food spoilage and energy waste and some of the biggest in the business are already putting Internet of Things tech to work to improve their operating results. What are the biggest benefits you see from grocers’ use of IoT solutions?

A new survey of over 1,000 U.S. brands finds online marketplaces to be their strongest growth opportunity, although some are looking for options beyond Amazon.com.  How much of an uphill battle do retailers face competing against Amazon with their own online marketplaces?

According to a survey from Piplsay, 89 percent of shoppers who have visited Amazon Go have had either an excellent (54 percent) or a good (35 percent) experience. Has the pandemic likely accelerated the rollout of automated checkout technology in the years ahead?

Kroger has announced that it will close a Ralphs and a Food 4 Less store in Long Beach, CA, after the city passed an ordinance requiring it to pay an extra $4 an hour to frontline associates for at least 120 days. Do you see chains closing large numbers of stores if hero pay ordinances are passed in other cities and towns around the country?

Walmart knows that its stores work. The chain is continually searching for ways to keep prices down and grow its market share. That’s where local fulfillment centers come in. Do you see Walmart’s ability to scale local fulfillment centers as a competitive game changer for the U.S. grocery market?

Amazon.com last week discontinued its single large box service known as Amazon Pantry. The service had been seen as a way to sell less expensive household items online that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive to ship. Has Pantry’s business model, based on bundled online orders of household essentials, become outdated?

With pandemic-huddled households discovering online grocery shopping, Kroger has broken onto eMarketer’s top-ten U.S. e-commerce retailers list. Is Kroger’s online business benefiting from similar or unique factors compared to other traditional grocers?