Aldi’s been on a roll in terms of store openings, and now’s the time to strike while the iron’s hot. The grocery chain has opened a new distribution and headquarters in Loxley, Alabama, which will serve 100 stores across the Gulf Coast.

The 564,000-square-foot facility is equipped to service stores in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and the Florida Panhandle. In total, the 100 stores that will be supported by the Loxley facility represent an opportunity to reach more than 8 million customers. The new distribution center reflects Aldi’s expansion ambitions to add to its 2,300-store count in 38 states and Washington, DC.

• “Our expansion across the Gulf Coast area, made possible by the Loxley facility, allows us to offer our affordable prices to an even greater number of customers,” Heather Moore, Aldi’s divisional vice president for the Loxley region, told Retail Brew. “This comes at a critical time, as consumers are trying to save money wherever they can.”

Open for business: In 2022, Aldi led the pack among all grocers when it came to store openings at 49, according to a JLL report. The Loxley facility is Aldi’s sixth distribution center in the South, and the company now operates 30 stores in the Gulf Coast—20 of which opened last year. It plans another 13 in the Gulf Coast region in 2023.

• The facility was also built with roof-mounted solar panels, LED lighting, and an environmentally friendly refrigeration system and metal panel insulation.

“We look at many factors when it comes to selecting warehouse locations, and Loxley was a natural fit,” Moore said. “The location has prime access to Interstate 10 and Alabama SR 59, allowing for easier accessibility to our stores.”

Keep reading here.—KM

Shoppers looking for Valentine’s Day’s sweets this year might’ve felt their hearts sink and wallets pinch due to higher prices on their favorite confections.

Prices for pink foil-wrapped Hershey’s Kisses and heart-shaped Reese’s have jumped ~11% from a year ago. Slightly less festive treats, like a family pack of Oreos, has seen a price jump of at least $1.00 from the same time last year, while the price of ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s and Magnum has been hiked up about 9.7%.

Hershey SVP and CFO Steve Voskuil said in the candy giant’s fourth-quarter earnings call earlier this month that its sales growth was largely driven by these higher prices, noting price will be the “largest contributor to growth” for the company in the year ahead, while volume will likely be “flat to slightly down.” Mondelez, too, reported growth driven largely by price increase on its quarterly earnings call last month.

Sweet and sour: These high prices probably won’t drop anytime soon. On Mondelez’s earnings call, one analyst pointed to the recent news that retailers like Target and Whole Foods are asking suppliers to drop prices as inflation cools. But CEO Dirk Van de Put said the maker of Toblerone, Oreos, and Sour Patch Kids doesn’t see costs going down in 2023.

“We just implemented a price increase in the U.S. We’re implementing price increases in Europe. So we are not in a situation where we can say that costs are coming down, if anything, they’re up versus last year,” he said. He told the Wall Street Journal in January that US prices aren’t likely to climb further this year.

Keep reading here.—EC

“Whether it’s a jar that separates your pickles from the pickle juice or a stainless steel cup with a straw in it, odds are that TikTok has led you to buy something you’ve since realized you don’t need. Recently, though, backlash against overconsumption has taken hold on the app in the form of a new trend: deinfluencing,” writes Morning Brew’s Max Knoblauch:

The “deinfluencing” hashtag features ~155 million videos and has been growing steadily in recent months—exploding in late January, when a popular TikTok beauty influencer was accused of wearing fake eyelashes in a sponsored video advertising L’Oréal mascara. If the trend holds, it could spell the end of the easy money era for the influencer marketing economy, which hit $16.4 billion in 2022.

Read the whole story here on Morning Brew.

Today’s top retail reads.

Taking stock: The global secondhand trade generates millions of tons of clothing waste every year that then ends up at landfills. Now, some nonprofits are lobbying to hold companies accountable. (Business of Fashion)

A step back: Despite its widespread prevalence and consumer interest, CBD products have not been regulated by the FDA, prompting investors to question the product’s long-term potential. (Retail Dive)

A tough spot: Ben & Jerry’s decision to end sales in Israel’s occupied territories was meant to be a humanitarian stance but instead, it sparked a legal tussle with its owner, Unilever. (Bloomberg)

What happened in the world of retail this week in…1909 and beyond? Retail Brew takes you way, way, way back.

• On February 12, 1975, the Food and Drug Administration banned Red Dye No. 2, based on its research indicating that rats fed with the dye were more likely to develop cancer than those that weren’t. The ban led to an 11-year hiatus of red M&Ms and the introduction of orange M&Ms (though the company said the tasty treats never contained Red Dye No. 2 and the move was made to avoid consumer confusion).
• On February 16, 1909, Richard McDonald (yes, that McDonald,) was born. He opened the first McDonald’s with his brother Maurice in California in 1948, and was responsible for designing the now-famous golden arches.
• On February 16, 1937, DuPont chemist Wallace Carothers was granted a patent for “Linear Condensation Polymers,” or the first nylon. Carothers is also credited with inventing Neoprene.

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• This luxury online marketplace is disrupting the agency model
• Is Starbucks’s Odyssey changing retail loyalty forever?
• Wonder Bread has a story as colorful as its bag