October 30, 2024 — A new poll has found that most Americans care about sustainably produced seafood, food security, and protection of the world’s oceans.
The poll, released by the Walton Family Foundation (WFF) – a Bentonville, Arkansas, U.S.A.-based philanthropic organization established by Walmart founders Sam and Helen Walton – in honor of National Seafood Month, found that more than four out of five Americans agree that it is important to promote the production of sustainable seafood.
May 16, 2024 –A U.S. judge has narrowed a class-action lawsuit alleging Walmart made misleading seafood sustainability marketing claims.
U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah granted a motion in part made by Walmart to dismiss the suit, which was filed in March 2023 in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois.
Read the full article at SeafoodSource
April 30, 2024 — Americans are continuing to buy more of their groceries online, with a recent study expecting that trend to grow exponentially over the next five years.
E-commerce grocery sales in the U.S. are projected to increase at a compounded annual growth rate of 4.5 percent – more than three times faster than the 1.3 percent rate expected for in-store sales over the next five years, according to “U.S. eGrocery Sales Forecast: 2024-28,” a new report compiled by retail data site Brick Meets Click.
April 9, 2024 — Retail giant Walmart will soon have to pay USD 45 million (EUR 41 million) to consumers as part of a settlement of a class-action lawsuit regarding the sale of improperly weighted groceries, including seafood.
The lawsuit, filed in October 2022, alleged Walmart overcharged shoppers for certain groceries that were sold by weight – including meat, poultry, pork, seafood, and certain fruits sold in bulk.
June 20, 2023 — Walmart is updating is seafood sourcing policy to require tuna suppliers to source exclusively from vessels that have 100 percent observer monitoring – either electronic or human observer – by 2027.
The Bentonville, Arkansas, U.S.A.-based operator of more than 10,500 stores globally, including nearly 4,700 Walmart stores and nearly 600 Sam’s Club stores in the U.S., said tuna suppliers must also source from fisheries using zero high seas transshipment, unless the transshipment activity is covered by 100 percent observer monitoring by 2027. The changes apply to Walmart U.S., Walmart Canada, and Sam’s Club stores.
October 6, 2021 — A partnership between the Republic of the Marshall Islands and The Nature Conservancy will supply canned tuna to Walmart stores for the store’s Great Value brand across the United States.
The new joint venture, dubbed Pacific Island Tuna (PIT), is “designed to transform the global canned tuna supply chain,” according to a Nature Conservancy announcement. The new business model is intended to give Pacific islanders the ability to benefit from their tuna resources by directing 100 percent of long-term net profits back to them while utilizing a sustainable model of fishing and production.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
August 19, 2021 — Walmart and Target have reported higher grocery sales in Q2 2021, with Walmart’s sales hitting USD 2.4 billion (EUR 2.1 billion) – up 6 percent compared to Q2 2020 – and Target’s up by “low double-digits,” according to Target Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer Christina Hennington
Overall same-store sales at Target grew 8.9 percent in the quarter, on top of record growth of 24.3 percent last year, and its digital comparable sales grew 10 percent after realizing growth of 195 percent last year, Hennington said on the retailer’s Q2 earnings call, according to Progressive Grocer.
May 3, 2021 — The outlook for United States retailers and grocers is strong, according to National Retail Federation (NRF) Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz.
As Americans get vaccinated against COVID-19, they are developing a more positive economic outlook, and they’re visits into physical stores are rising, according to Kleinhenz. As a result, the U.S. economy is on firm footing and could see its fastest growth in more than three decades.
March 18, 2021 — As younger Millennial and Gen Z consumers get older, seafood sustainability is becoming increasingly important in the marketplace.
According to survey data from GlobeScan shared during a panel at Seafood Expo North America Reconnect this week, a key trend among seafood purchasing is emerging.
January 25, 2021 — If you could peek inside America’s cupboards and refrigerators, you’d see tableaus that capture changes wrought by the pandemic: Towers of paper goods, loads of comfort food, caches of upmarket coffee. You might also be surprised to see an unusual amount of seafood.
Frozen seafood sales at U.S. supermarkets and other food retailers rose 26% in the four weeks ended Dec. 27 from a year earlier, according to market research company IRI, far stronger than the 6% growth for consumer packaged goods overall. Fresh seafood sales rose 25% in the same period. That strong result wasn’t just a holiday binge: Since the onset of the pandemic, seafood sales growth has tended to outpace that of the grocery store as a whole by a comfortable margin.
The seafood spending surge is an example of the hard-to-foresee ways the pandemic continues to displace and redirect consumer demand. Typically, an outsize share of Americans’ spending on seafood is at restaurants. Consumers spent $69.6 billion in 2017 on seafood at restaurants and other food-service venues, according to a U.S. government report, compared with $32.5 billion spent at stores for home consumption. But with many white-tablecloth dining rooms closed or operating at reduced capacity during the pandemic, shoppers who perhaps rarely cooked seafood before have decided to put seared salmon, shrimp scampi and steamed lobsters on their own kitchen tables.
The trend is apparent everywhere, from big-box retailers to discount chains and traditional supermarkets. Walmart Inc. has had such strong growth in both fresh and frozen seafood at its U.S. business during the pandemic that the giant expanded its fresh shellfish offering in the fall. Lidl said it had a “double-digit” increase in seafood sales in the past year, while Albertsons Cos. executives said on a January earnings call that seafood sales had delivered quarterly comparable sales growth above the company average. Conventional supermarket Stop & Shop said it is carrying a bigger selection of seafood as shoppers have increased purchases, while Whole Foods Market is experiencing “huge growth” in frozen seafood, according to Wesley Rose, the chain’s vice president for seafood. That led the upscale chain to expand its selection to include value packs of halibut, barramundi and arctic char. With fresh offerings such as red snapper also selling well, Whole Foods has added black cod and farm-raised striped bass to fish counters at most of its stores.