The Lempert Report

Kraft Heinz announced it’s selling control of its North American coffee business to private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners at an enterprise value of $650 million. The package includes Maxwell House, Gevalia, Nabob, Yuban, Tassimo, Ethical Bean and Sanka, plus the roasting plants in Jacksonville and Vancouver, according to Daily Coffee News. Kraft Heinz keeps a 30% stake, expects about $500 million in after-tax cash to pay down debt, and figures the deal closes in mid-2027.

Today’s midterms decide all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats. Forecasters have leaned toward Democrats in the House for months, and as of yesterday Kalshi gives Democrats a 73% chance of a sweep of both houses. Wall Street analysts expect a House flip and see the Senate as within reach, though less likely.

The turkey is the cheapest thing in the store this November. The roast you’re planning for Christmas may be the most expensive thing you buy all year. I’ve been watching holiday food prices and trends for a long time. On November 23, 2004, I gave my top 10 Thanksgiving tips on TODAY and said the only Thanksgiving “deal” was a coupon in the Sunday circular to get them into the store.

As of this past Sunday, you can buy one. Lay’s rolled out its “Holi-LAY’S” collection on October 25 with Cheddar Scalloped-Style Potatoes and Roasted Holiday Turkey, the latter one formulated to taste like turkey with gravy. Maple Bacon lands November 8. Then on December 1, select retailers get Lay’s Wavy chips coated in milk chocolate, plus a Dubai-style dark chocolate version with pistachios, and PepsiCo says those will spread to more stores in 2027.

A new report came out last week from the Center for Responsible Food Business (CRFB) and it should give the folks in Cincinnati cause for alarm. Government inspectors checked 101 Kroger stores across nine Ohio areas between 2022 and mid-2026. They found that in 58 stores more than one in three stores were overcharging shoppers at the register, and it favored Kroger about three times as often as it favored the customer. Average overcharge: north of 20% above the shelf price.

I spent my teenage summers breading and deep-frying clams at a Howard Johnson’s on the Garden State Parkway. By August the kitchen was its own weather system, that wall of heat off the fryer stacked on top of whatever New Jersey was already doing outside. Nobody called it climate anything back then. It was just August.

Diesel is surging, Thanksgiving is coming, and supermarkets need to spend less time on the price of the turkey and more on the value of the entire holiday basket. Nobody wakes up during Thanksgiving week thinking, “I have to run to go buy a turkey” because it’s always been there. These days shoppers are worrying about the whole meal and what it’s going to cost. Supermarkets have always had the premise that the turkey just gets shoppers through the door and they will make margin on the rest.

For the first time, a state government wants to show, right on the package, that a food isn’t ultra-processed. When I first wrote about California’s move to become the first state in the nation to legally define ultra-processed food back in April, I said that “in my view, it is the most coherent food policy framework any U.S. government body has produced.” On September 28, Gov.

For a quarter of a century Amazon and Walmart have fought over who has the lowest price. Earlier today, Walmart signaled that fight is no longer the one that matters most. On Tuesday, Walmart put Walmart+ and Sam’s Club Plus together for $120 a year. Bought separately, those two memberships ran $218. One price now gets you Sam’s Club access and member pricing, free delivery from both chains, Peacock or Paramount+, a dime off a gallon of gas at more than 17,000 stations, and 2% back in Sam’s Cash.

When I went to college “campus dining” meant a steam table, a soft-serve machine, and a sign that said Taco Tuesday. The cafeteria workers were usually older, overweight and the extent of their cooking skills was to take premade foods out of their pouches and boxes and reheat them. So when I tell you a foodservice company is now building menus for kids who won’t set foot on a campus until 2028, we need to give them accolades for planning ahead – but with some caution.