SuperValu (SVU)

The company is centralizing a lot of the buying, merchandising and marketing functions, and bringing those to HQ. They will lose touch with local consumers as markets are very different across the varied family banners (Albertsons in California/Mid-West; Jewel in Chicago; Acme in the Mid-Atlantic; Shaw's in New England, etc)

The company is centralizing a lot of the buying, merchandising and marketing functions, and bringing those to HQ. They will loose touch with local consumers as markets are very different across the varied family banners (Albertsons in California/Mid-West; Jewel in Chicago; Acme in the Mid-Atlantic; Shaw's in New England, etc)

The company lacks a clear strategy. They are doing a lot of remodels under the "Premium Fresh & Healthy" initiative but it falls short of other initiatives other grocers are doing (Kroger and dunnhumby, Safeway with Lifestyle remodels). In addition, they don't have a lot of money to spend given their leverage after the Albertsons acquisition which will further put pressure in their investments.

No loyalty card collection system. Most grocers have one (Kroger, Safeway, Delhaize, Ahold) with the exception of a few very good regional players (Publix, HEB). This puts them at a huge disadvantage long-term as the learning curve to extract insights from loyalty card data is currently very steep.