Biography

Christine LaFave Grace

Editor

 Contact Christine

Christine LaFave Grace covers Walmart, Target and other Midwestern grocery retailers as editor at Winsight Grocery Business. Her 15+ years of experience in B2B publishing includes five years spent as managing editor of Putman Media’s Plant Services magazine. At Putman Media, she co-founded the Influential Women in Manufacturing program and the Manufacturing Tomorrow’s Workforce podcast. As a B2B editor and reporter, LaFave Grace has covered the manufacturing/industrial production, healthcare and foodservice industries; she also spent two years covering the fast-casual restaurant industry and the U.K. and Canadian foodservice markets for Winsight-owned Technomic. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Indiana University-Bloomington and lives in Wheaton, IL, with her family.

Articles by
Christine LaFave Grace

Page 1
Fresh Food

2023 annual cheese report: Consumers are whey-ing their options

Cheese hasn’t been one of grocery’s biggest attention-getters in the past 18 months—and for cheesemakers and deli managers alike, that’s a good thing.

Topics

Fresh innovation is essential

The biggest risk for grocery retailers in managing their fresh departments for 2023 and beyond is not deliberately innovating within the department, IRI’s Jonna Parker suggests.

Consumers are shifting where they’re buying their fresh-perimeter items, stretching their budgets by buying less meat and fish and choosing private labels more often. But fresh remains a top priority as they cope with inflation at 40-year highs.

One of the most interesting trends to emerge in the fresh department in the past two years, says Jonna Parker, principal with IRI’s Fresh Center of Excellence, is consumers’ redefinition of “essentials.”

U.S. consumers' assessment of current economic conditions and the landscape six months out both showed improvement in August, The Conference Board reported Tuesday.

The retailer has proposed acquiring outstanding shares of 400-store Massmart and taking the company private in a bid to stay ahead of Amazon in Africa.

Walmart tapped Oak Brook, Illinois-based smart-tech company myQ to help drive its expansion of InHome delivery service.

The labor force participation rate reversed course, inching down to 62.2%, as wages rose 5.1% year over year.

The three-tier Cart Star program will offer incentives, including fuel discounts and childcare assistance, based on shoppers' number of orders filled and their customer rating.

Previously a separate membership, Walmart's InHome service now will be an optional add-on for Walmart+ members.

In the latest move in the battle for delivery dominance, Amazon and Grubhub announced a new partnership that could see Amazon take up to a 15% stake in Grubhub.

The dollar store, which raised prices to $1.25 last fall, is under pressure from investors despite higher sales and improved margins.

  • Page 1