ALLETE Clean Energy's Diamond Spring Wind Project Will Provide Renewable Energy to Corporations

Allete Clean Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of ALLETE (NYSE: ALE), announced today a power sales agreement with Smithfield Foods, Inc. for the remaining output of the Diamond Spring wind site ALLETE Clean Energy will build, own and operate in Oklahoma.

The Smithfield agreement follows an earlier announcement of power sale agreements with two large Fortune 500 companies, Walmart and Starbucks. Walmart has agreed to purchase 175 megawatts for 15 years, Smithfield will purchase 75 megawatts for 12 years, and Starbucks will purchase 50 megawatts for 15 years. The approximately 300-megawatt Diamond Spring site, which is ALLETE Clean Energy’s first project to sell wind power to corporate customers, is now fully contracted with the Smithfield agreement...

Walmart is Taking Grocery Delivery One Step Further

Consumers have more options than ever before when it comes to how they receive their groceries. Customers can shop in stores, order online for free pickup, or have groceries delivered to their front doors. Now, Walmart is on track to offer Grocery Pickup from 3,100 stores and same-day Grocery Delivery from 1,600 stores by the end of the year. To make grocery shopping an even easier experience for customers, Walmart is offering the option to order fresh groceries and have them be delivered directly into their refrigerator.

Walmart InHome Delivery is a new service designed to help consumers save time and offer another convenient option for grocery shopping. Customers can place a grocery order and then select InHome Delivery and a delivery date at checkout. Then, consumers can go about their daily routine while a Walmart associate completes their grocery shopping for them, from aisle to fridge...

Walmart Offers One-Day Shipping Without a Membership Fee

When customers shop with us, they expect to find great items at low prices. They also want shopping to be easy and convenient, including getting the items they order online quickly. Our 4,700 stores, site and app combine to create an incredible range of choices for customers.

We started with same-day pickup in our stores in 2011 and began offering two-day free shipping two years ago with no membership fee. But, the most exciting development has been the creation of Grocery Pickup and Delivery. We’re on track to offer Grocery Pickup from 3,100 stores and same-day Grocery Delivery from 1,600 stores by year-end, which will provide coverage to...

Walmart Enhances Sustainability in Supply Chains

Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) today issued its inaugural Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, which details the company’s goals, progress and achievements for fiscal year 2019 toward its commitment to increase economic opportunity for associates and local communities, build sustainability in supply chains and activate climate change initiatives.

Walmart is disclosing progress to date in several areas including:

Activating Climate Change Initiatives

• Climate Change Impact Scenario Analysis – Walmart worked with an independent third-party consultant to better understand the nature of climate change and potential implications for the retail sector aiming to align with the scenario guidance set forth by the Task Force on...

Walmart’s New Intelligent Retail Lab Shows a Glimpse into the Future of Retail

Over the past few months, a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Levittown, New York, has been quietly transforming. With artificial intelligence-enabled cameras, interactive displays and a massive data center, this store suggests a retail future that seems like science fiction.

But this store isn’t just a shiny new object, equipped with tech for the sake of tech. It’s a unique real-world shopping environment designed to explore the possibilities artificial intelligence can contribute to the store experience. It’s Walmart’s new Intelligent Retail Lab – or “IRL” for short.

While the application of AI in e-commerce is now table stakes, there haven’t been many physical explorations of its potential. But IRL is designed...

Announcement Regarding Proposed Merger of Asda and Sainsbury’s

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today published its Final Report on the proposed merger of Asda and Sainsbury’s, resulting in prohibition of the merger.

Despite the clear customer benefits of the proposed merger, as a result of the CMA’s findings, Asda, its parent Walmart and Sainsbury’s have mutually agreed to terminate the transaction.

Commenting on the proposed merger of Asda and Sainsbury’s, Judith McKenna, CEO of Walmart International, said:

“We have been clear from the beginning of the proposed merger about two things. Firstly, that retail is rapidly changing and standing still is not an option, and secondly that...

Walmart to Create Angus Beef Supply Chain

Walmart, the nation’s largest grocer, announced its entry into the beef industry, developing an end-to-end supply chain for Angus beef.

The retailer has been diligently working to improve the quality of its food offering with the company’s fresh division and meat department at the forefront of this effort. To ensure supply of quality Angus beef and to meet customer demand for a more transparent supply chain, Walmart is working with best-in-class partners including Texas rancher Bob McClaren of Prime Pursuits.

“As clean labels, traceability and transparency become more and more important to customers, we’ve made plans to enter into the beef industry creating an unmatched system that allows us to deliver consistent quality and...

Walmart Offers New Voice Capabilities for Grocery Shopping 

Customers love our Grocery Pickup and Delivery options. These services make life easier and help customers get back to the things they like doing the most.

What if we could make it even easier?

We continue to innovate for the future and look to technology to make great services even better in the future. Introducing: Walmart Voice Order.

With the new voice ordering capabilities we’re building across platforms with partners like Google, we’re helping ...

Reinvented Truck Driver Orientation Helps Add New Hires to Walmart’s Fleet

With more than 1,400 new Walmart truck drivers added in 2018, hundreds more are slated to join the fleet in 2019.

Assessments, mentorship and a faster hiring process are all a part of new onboarding events that are filling critical new jobs created by Walmart’s business growth during an industry-wide shortage.

The revamped orientation initiatives have already cut in half the time between a candidate’s initial interview and a mandatory driving assessment, expediting the time it takes to complete a new hire.

“These hiring events are both improving the skill level of our candidates and enriching their onboarding experience,” said Lori Furnell, Walmart’s director of ...

Walmart Expands its Grocery Delivery Service Providers

Walmart Teams up with Point Pickup, Skipcart, AxleHire and Roadie to expand Grocery Delivery

Walmart today announced the addition of four delivery companies to its team to help expand the retailer’s popular Online Grocery Delivery option. Point Pickup, Skipcart, AxleHire and Roadie will help power Walmart’s Online Grocery Delivery in metro areas across four states with further expansion planned in the coming weeks. Today, Walmart Grocery Delivery is available in more than 800 stores with another 800 being adding this year.

“Customers love our Grocery Delivery service. As they are busy managing jobs, soccer practice, dance lessons and social schedules we are on a mission to ...

High-Tech Consolidation Center Set to Open in July, Adding Efficiency to Walmart’s Supply Chain

This July, a Walmart supply chain first is coming to Colton, California. A newly built, 340,000-square-foot high-tech consolidation center will be the first in Walmart’s supply chain to receive, sort and ship freight. This automated technology will enable three times more volume to flow throughout the center and helps Walmart deliver the right product to the right store, so customers can find the products they need.

This massive Walmart-owned center, which will open in July with 150 full-time associates can move three times as many cases. It will grow to employ more than 600 associates by 2021. With the combined might of people and world-class logistic technology, this facility will be the most efficient consolidation center in ...

Custom Autonomous Cargo Vans to Deliver Groceries in Walmart’s Pilot with Udelv

Over the last few years we’ve been working hard to bring Grocery Pickup and Delivery to more and more customers across the country for one reason: Customers love it! It makes shopping easy and saves loads of time.

But, we’re not stopping with simply rolling out the service to more stores. We continue to explore new ways that can make what’s easy today even easier tomorrow. That includes testing a number of things, including autonomous vehicle technology – and today, we’re announcing a new pilot with autonomous vehicle company, Udelv.

The pilot program with Udelv will take place in Surprise, Arizona. What’s really cool is that Udelv will utilize a cargo van custom-made to...

Walmart Dominates with Unmatched Omni-Channel Grocery Momentum, According to Packaged Facts

Walmart is the in-store grocery leader. Some 27% of in-store grocery purchasers say Walmart is the in-store retailer they get groceries from most, more than twice as many as Kroger, the next most chosen retailer, according to market research firm Packaged Facts in the report U.S. Grocery Market Focus: The Walmart Food Shopper. While Walmart may be behind the overall e-commerce curve, it is already a leading online grocery player. Packaged Facts reveals that 23% of online grocery purchasers claim Walmart is the one they use most for groceries, second only to Amazon, with 38%.

To build out its omni-channel grocery capabilities, Walmart has only just begun leveraging its roughly 4,000 Walmart-branded and 600 Sam's Club branded grocery and ...

Target is Ahead of Walmart and Kroger When it Comes to Offering a Seamless Shopping Experience

Target beat both Walmart and Kroger when Brick Meets Click evaluated how well these leading national retailers deliver a seamless grocery shopping experience, growing out of their respective omnichannel strategies.

“If the goal of omnichannel is to enable shopping from anywhere, for anything, and any way a customer wants, then the seamless shopping rating highlights progress and opportunities against that goal,” says David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click. “And, for seamless shopping to have a positive impact on a retailer’s results...

Retail Feedback Group Online Grocery Shopper Study Finds Growing Number Purchasing Fresh Food Items

Supermarkets Continue to Lag Behind Amazon and Walmart in Key Satisfaction Measures

The Retail Feedback Group (RFG), a leader in providing actionable stakeholder feedback, today released the 2018 U.S. Online Grocery Shopper Study. This year's research found about half of online shoppers plan to purchase grocery items more often in the coming year and rate their overall satisfaction ordering food and grocery items online highest with Amazon (4.70 on a five-point scale where five is highest), followed by Walmart (4.54) and Supermarkets/Food Stores (4.36). The research also captured generational differences with online shopping for food and groceries, finding Boomers are the most satisfied (4.65), followed by Gen X (4.51) and Millennials (4.43)...

Foster Farms Introduces Bold Bites: On-The-G, High-Protein, Flavor-Rich Chicken Snacks

Leading California all-natural chicken producer Foster Farms introduces Bold Bites, a new on-the-go chicken snack inspired by bold flavors. Bold Bites are fully cooked, ready-to-eat chicken breast pieces delivering 15 grams of protein per serving. Conveniently packaged in grab-and-go, single serve pouches, the new product line includes five varieties – Cajun, Chile Verde, Korean BBQ, Caribbean Jerk, and Parmesan Garlic – and is free of hormones, artificial colors and flavors, and nitrates. Bold Bites provide a quick, stand-alone boost of energy or can be added to salads, wraps, tacos and soup to give a mouthwatering pop of bold flavor.

Foster Farms’ new on-the-go, high-protein chicken snack Bold Bites features fully cooked, ready-to-eat chicken breast pieces in five varieties...

Just in Time for the Holidays, Walmart Announces Major Improvements to its Marketplace

When customers shop Walmart.com, they trust us for low prices and free two-day shipping* on the items they buy every day. And, regardless if the item is shipped by Walmart or a third-party, marketplace seller, we know they expect the same, seamless shopping experience.

With that in mind, we’re making two significant changes to our marketplace shopping experience. We’re working with our marketplace sellers to make millions of items available for free two-day shipping without a membership fee and simplifying the returns process for items purchased from marketplace sellers, including launching the ability to facilitate returns of these items at any one of our 4,700 stores. The improvements will begin to roll out this November, just in time for the holiday season...

Cargill Announces First Virtual Power Purchase Agreement in South Dakota

Cargill today announced a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) with developer Geronimo Energy. Through the agreement, Cargill will buy 50 megawatts (MW) of wind power from Geronimo Energy’s 200MW Crocker Wind Farm project, which is currently under construction in Clark County, South Dakota. The wind energy will be used to help partially offset the impact of Cargill’s Midwest operations.

The agreement supports Cargill’s commitment to increase their use of renewable energy sources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Cargill has committed to...

Walmart, Amazon, Target Named America's Most Ethical Companies 

Walmart, Amazon and Target have strong reputations as being “ethical” companies, according to Morning Consult.

Six thousand and six hundred Americans were asked to think of a company that they would consider to be ethically responsible and name the first one that came to mind. Walmart had the most mentions (666), followed by Amazon (450) and Target (301). Rounding out the top 10 are Chick-Fil-A, Starbucks, Apple, Costco, Google, Microsoft and McDonald’s.

A report details what consumers expect from brands in this highly charged political era. There are some issues that brands should steer clear of, and talking about President Trump in any context will harm a brand’s reputation.

“One of the most striking findings in this...

Amidst Constant Change, Largest Retailers Stay Ahead

Launching new strategies, augmenting the in-store experience and reengineering both logistics and digital commerce capabilities helped the largest U.S. retailers maintain their edge during the past year, according to the annual Top 100 Retailers list released today by the National Retail Federation’s STORES Magazine and Kantar Consulting.

“Retail today is a blend of innovation and experience, and the nation’s top retailers are showing the way,” STORES Media Editor Susan Reda said. “Companies large and small are transforming their businesses in the quest to satisfy shoppers who rewrite the rules of engagement faster than light.”

The 10 largest retailers on the list remain the same as last year, although the order has changed. Walmart remains...