Quick Take — Pam has to decide if it is a supermarket or if it wants to be a discounter

Luigi Rubinelli writes: ‘At Pam there is an obsession with comparison with the discount store. This can be seen in the price communication variations. Too much repetition”

I would add that this fixation was already there years ago, see the first picture below which is from 2021 . The second picture below is from 2026 and is from Alimentando: I included it to make it clear that slogans and colours are always the same.

Note that in 2024 the group’s growth was lower than inflation but above all that Pam, in the same year, did NOT rank among the cheapest chains in Italy.

If Pam wants to measure itself against the discounters, instead of doing useless generic communication, why does it not do comparative advertising against the discounters, like – for example – Leclerc against Lidl, in France?

N.B.: in 2025 Pam only ‘distinguished itself’ – so to speak – by having some of its cashiers do the ‘trolley test’, sacking them and being obliged to reinstate them, making a big impression.

New Princes will buy Carrefour Italia supermarkets: the difference between cheer and reality

One cannot improvise as a retailer and, above all, it is not always the case that aggregating several realities, with different cultures, brings strength: the acquisition of Newlat reminds me of the events of Standa and those of Auchan-Conad, but also of the Carrefour- Promodes merger or the events of Walgreens with Boots. Not to mention the lesson of the bankruptcy of Sears or that of the closure of Dominick’s for manifest incompetence

Quick Take — Walmart expands express delivery network to capture last-day Christmas sales

The retailer will accept express delivery orders until 5 p.m. local time on 24 December, with items arriving in as little as one hour depending on availability(while Amazon is testing half-hour delivery).

These deliveries will include hampers, Christmas dinners, even customised ones(note that Lidl has also embarked on the offer of value-for-money dinners), beer and liquor (for the latter ‘only’ in 2,800 shops).

Progressive Grocer

Below: a Walmart turkey meal (2024).

Quick Take — Lidl USA launches first holiday meal offer for less than $4 per person

Lidl US is betting on value for the holidays by launching its first holiday meal offer, a package that promises to feed a dozen guests for less than the price of a fast-food combo meal.

The promotion, valid from 10 to 24 December at participating shops, offers enough food for 12 people for less than $4 per person. Each item on the shopping list is sold separately, giving shoppers the freedom to expand or reduce the menu to suit their needs. Progressive Grocer

Walmart also does this kind of promotion.

Quick Take — Lidl invests eleven billion euros in the AI data centre in Lübbenau

SchwarzDigits, the technology division of Schwarz, is working on a 130,000 square metre site.

The centre will be able to make use of 100 thousand AI chips while the initial computing power will be 200 megawatts. As already explained Lidl – 175.4 billion € turnover – will not only optimise its own data management, but also offer services to third parties.

There are already 12,000 data centres worldwide, of which just under half are in the US. In Italy, according to the Datacenter Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano, in 2023 there were already 190 centres in the country, but 2025 should close with 205 settlements.

The same source explains that, in our country, EUR 5 billion have been invested in the two-year period 2023-2024, a figure that will rise to EUR 10 billion in 2025-2026. And, in order to improve and strengthen the energy supply, Terna has announced a 2025-2034 development plan with allocations of more than 23 billion euro.

Big absentee from this race? The Italian retail sector.

On the problems related to data centres read here but also here.