【】

Shoppers will soon be able to fill carts with yogurt and yoga pants at America's largest supermarket chain.
Kroger said Friday that it's launching its own clothing line at around 300 of its stores next fall. The brand will encompass basic items for children and adults with a particular focus on activewear.
SEE ALSO:If you shop at Target, we've got bad news for you"This new offering is on-trend, convenient, and right in line with our customers' needs," Kroger senior vice president of merchandising Robert Clark said in a statement.
While the grocer has long stocked third-party apparel at its Fred Meyer stores in the Pacific Northwest, the move will mark the first time it's done so under its own name. At least for now, the new line is only slated to appear in those stores and its Walmart-like Marketplace locations rather than its straightforward supermarkets.
It might seem odd to add clothing racks near produce bins and bread aisles, but the decision comes at a desperate time for the grocery giant. It now faces formidable competition from a host of big retailers, Amazon and its newly acquired Whole Foods stores perhaps chief among them.
Big-box chains like Walmart and Target have also focused on building out their grocery businesses as a way to keep a reliable flow of store traffic at a time when people are doing an increasing amount of their other shopping on the web. Those habitual store visits are so valuable to these companies that they sometimes even sell the groceries at a loss.
Kroger has no such luxury for the most part. Supermarkets are slim-margin businesses that leave little room for the type of investment capital it needs to adapt its operations to a fast-changing industry. Adding products beyond groceries could help with that.
Meanwhile, Amazon has also been rolling out a stable of new private-label fashion lines, and Walmart has been buying up trendy clothing brands like Bonobos and ModCloth. Kroger may be looking to follow the same roadmap.
In any case, the company could definitely use a win right now. Its stock has dropped nearly 40 percent this year--shares plunged around 8 percent on the day Amazon announced its Whole Foods acquisition alone.
Escaping that slump could take more than grocery business as usual.
Featured Video For You
This small army of robots will do your shopping for you
TopicsAmazon
相关文章
Katy Perry talks 'Rise,' her next batch of songs, and how to survive Twitter
Katy Perry recently surpassed 90 million followers on Twitter, making her the person with the most f2025-04-03Woman gets horny guy to kiss a tractor for a chance at nude pictures
Oh, the embarrassing lengths some people will go for a naked picture.Twitter user @ktyshrmn shared a2025-04-03From Kimye vs. Taylor to Kimye vs. Bette Midler: The best celebrity feuds of 2016
For a lot of us, famous and normals alike, 2016 was a narrative we would like to be excluded from an2025-04-03The U.S. government wants to see Twitter and Facebook accounts of foreign travelers
The United States government has started asking a select number of foreign travelers about their soc2025-04-03- When Honda revealed its stunning and grandparent-scaring Civic Hatchback Prototype earlier this year2025-04-03
Sony built a giant 4K projector for reading magazines
LAS VEGAS -- Like many tech giants, Sony is interested in the smart home, but it has a different tak2025-04-03
最新评论