Kroger

A discounter and two convenience-store chains rank among the 10 most popular grocers in America.

The chairman and CEO of the nation’s largest grocer shared insights gleaned from his long career and vision for the future at the National Retail Federation’s annual conference.

On the heels of record growth in 2013, Ulta Beauty plans to open 100 new stores this year and increase funding for e-commerce and loyalty initiatives.

Walmart didn’t mention competitive issues as a source of sales weakness during its fourth quarter, but reports this week from Kroger and Costco indicate they were at least a contributing factor.

Bad weather and a reduction in food stamps didn’t seem to have an effect on Kroger during the fourth quarter as the retailer posted a 4.3% increase in identical-store sales, meaningful profit improvement and offered an optimistic outlook for the year ahead.

The next two years will see Kroger elevate the level of competition in north Texas with an ambitious investment program that comes as Walmart accelerates expansion of its smaller format stores.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in February 2013 versus February 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. The home improvement retailers have continued to reverse trends from 2013. Home Depot doubled its page count and slightly decreased ads per page, leading to longer, slightly less dense circulars. Despite this, Home Depot still ran less than a quarter of the number of pages that Lowe’s ran, largely due to Lowe’s running three circulars to Home Depot’s one.

Kroger has promoted Dennis Gibson to president of the QFC division. He succeeds Joe Fey, who was named president of Kroger's Mid-Atlantic division in January.

Gibson has been serving as VP merchandising in Kroger's Columbus division.