Retailing

The likely sale of retail chain Kotsovolos is expected to create a new landscape in the domestic market of electrical and electronic household appliances, especially since it is its biggest player.

Amazon-owned Whole Foods says it is cutting several hundred jobs as part of a process to simplify the grocery chain's operations.

The company plans to make changes to some regional and global support teams over the next two months, according to a memo sent to employees by the Whole Foods executive team.

In the UK, the price of staples such as cheddar cheese, white bread and pork sausages has jumped by up to 80% in some shops over the past year, further evidence of how inflation hits the lowest incomes hardest.

Oatmeal topped the list for average price increases in the "Which?" consumer basket of staples, followed by skimmed milk and cheddar cheese.

Jumbo Group on Wednesday said its turnover grew by 14.12% in 2022 compared with the previous year, totaling 949 million euros, and reported a 40% jump in sales in the first two months of 2023.

Walmart announced on Jan. 24 it will again raise pay for hourly staff, an indication of persistent tightness in the labor market for front-line employees despite layoffs in the tech sector.

The retail giant, the biggest private employer in the United States, is boosting the pay range at U.S. stores to between $14 and $19 an hour from the prior $12 to $18 an hour.

Successful applicants to the government's platform to support households in buying groceries will see the first credits arrive on their so-called "market pass" cards by March 3, government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou has said.

Turkey's unusual request that its retailers partially freeze prices ahead of elections has prompted some supermarkets and industry groups to warn they could only do so for a short period.

Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati asked clothing and shoe stores to launch their discount season well ahead of usual March after grocers had done the same.

While household consumption expenditures were affected by the increase in prices, one of the solutions that citizens resorted to was to use discount markets more, with their share in households' grocery expenditures increasing more than 3 percent in 2022, according to a survey conducted by Ipsos.

More businesses have decided to join large supermarket chains in freezing prices as consumer inflation started to show signs of slipping last month with officials expecting a downward trend in inflation to continue in the coming months.

A man grabbed a knife from a supermarket shelf on Oct. 27 and stabbed five people, killing one and wounding four others, including Spanish soccer player Pablo Mari, Italian authorities said.

Police arrested a 46-year-old Italian man suspected in the attack at a shopping center in Assago, a suburb of Milan, carabinieri said.