Albertsons Bets on Store Experience and Personalized Pricing to Fix Sales Slump

Albertsons posted its second straight quarter of same-store sales declines — comparable sales fell just shy of 1% year over year in Q2 2026 — and CEO Susan Morris is pinning the turnaround on in-store customer experience and leaner operations. Net sales and other revenue dipped 0.1% to $18.9 billion. Digital sales rose 11%.

The problem, Morris said on the Q2 2026 earnings call earlier this month, is self-inflicted complexity. Albertsons has launched many initiatives with good intentions, but they created too many layers over time. Now the grocer will focus on fewer areas that create greater value for shoppers.

"We must deliver more consistently for our customers," Morris said. "Price matters, promotions matter, freshness matters, convenience, selection and customer service matter. Our job going forward is to deliver all of those things better than we do today."

What does this change for shoppers?

Price cuts are coming, but not across the board. Albertsons is avoiding broad-based reductions and instead making strategic price investments through the Albertsons for U loyalty program. The tool lets the chain send personalized offers that differ from one customer to the next.

"It's about our ability to leverage our very, very strong loyalty program and create personalized offers that may mean something very different to me as a consumer than it might to you as a consumer," Morris said.

She framed the goal as value perception, not price leadership. Albertsons wants the right mix of price, product variety, services and ease of shopping, tuned to each market.

"Our goal is not to be the cheapest guy in town, but rather to have the right balanced value proposition that resonates with the customers that we serve uniquely by market," Morris said.

Why the stores themselves are under scrutiny

Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalData Retail, said the stores are functional but fall short on inspiration. "There's also not nearly enough newness in the offer to showcase new brands and new products," Saunders said in an email. "The whole experience is extremely average, below par even, but when the prices are expensive, that's simply not good enough."

Saunders said Albertsons stores feel like they "were made for a different era." They tend to be too large for what modern customers expect, and the company has let them be rather than invest in reconfiguring the layouts.

How streamlining connects to service

Operationally, the turnaround may include layoffs and store closures in underperforming markets, Morris said. The company already cut its regional divisions from 11 to four in July. The regional executive vice presidents who oversee those divisions are charged with elevating store conditions and keeping teams focused on customers.

"With that kind of focus on elevating store standards and execution, it eliminates the distractions from all the noise happening around us," Morris said. "Our team knows that we have essentially two roles in our company: We either serve customers directly or we serve those that serve customers."

Store execution is one of the first areas where Albertsons sees improvement opportunities. The plan: reduce shrink, raise standards and commit to the best training for associates.

"These steps and more, taken together, will improve the customer experience and ultimately our business results," Morris said. For a grocer with shrinking comparable sales and an 11%-growth digital channel not yet big enough to lift total revenue, execution on those basics will decide whether the turnaround sticks.