5 things: The rising stars of grocery

Coming up in the ranks: This is the inaugural year of our SN Leaders to Watch feature, spotlighting some of the rising stars in the grocery industry. Our first, Stew Leonard’s Jake Tavello, the company’s chief operating officer, has worked in every department at Stew Leonard’s. Keep an eye out for the other five throughout this month — these are the emerging players at both the corporate and store level who are already doing amazing things early in their career. —Chloe Riley

Merger on the mind: Imagine a world where grocery prices remained competitive and job security was locked in after the Kroger, Albertsons merger. That might not be such a stretch, according to Eric Fruits, senior scholar at the International Center for Law and Economics and co-author of the white paper titled, “Food-Retail Competition, Antitrust Law, and the Kroger/Albertsons Merger.” Have 20 minutes? You can catch my interview with Fruits in the latest episode of our SN off the Shelf podcast. In a nutshell, he says the Kroger, Albertsons merger checks all the boxes when you look at other successful mergers in retail history. He also believes the Federal Trade Commission will take both Kroger and Albertsons to court about the deal, and other states could follow suit. Don’t get your hopes up if you were betting on the merger kicking in next year. —Bill Wilson

Oak Street was a no brainer: At a recent gathering of executives in Chicago, CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch said she was “sold immediately” on Oak Street Health, the Chicago-based primary care provider CVS purchased for $10.6 billion earlier this year. The deal was one of CVS’s biggest, launching the company into health care delivery. CVS has been doubling down on health care delivery as it sees an opportunity with an aging population. As consumer behavior changes with age, Lynch said, patients will need more sophisticated care than the traditional retail pharmacy model can provide. We’ll keep an eye on how that bet pays off. —CR

A good pop: In life, sometimes good things just pop up. The sudden emergence of a temporary grocery store sure is a good thing for those in the West Garfield Park neighborhood in Chicago. The pop-up location will be open through Dec. 21 and offers temporary grocery goods while a controversial Save-A-Lot store is being remodeled. The pop-up is a collaborative effort by several local groups. Shoppers can browse through produce, canned goods, soups, pasta, baking goods, and some household items, all at affordable prices, which are partly determined by the median income level of the area. Officials want the pop-up to be more permanent, but so far lack the funding. Wouldn’t it be great if the cash just popped up out of nowhere? —BW

Rite Aid learns? Pharmacy giant Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy in mid-October. And a Forbes contributor recently decided to compile a few bullets of takeaways for those corporate leaders looking to not end up in Rite Aid’s position. The biggest takeaways? Don’t over-leverage yourself, lose focus, stray from core competencies, or give up ground to competitors. Executives in any business can take a page from the Rite Aid “what not to do” playbook. —CR