Retail

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Meijer will double match every customer's $10 Simply Give donation made Sept. 2 to 8 in support of Hunger Action Month.

The Simply Give Week double match is part of a $1 million donation to the retailer's 2012 Simply Give program, which aims to replenish the shelves of nearly 200 food pantries in its five-state region each campaign.

Certain locations present unique challenges when it comes to building and maintaining stores, and Hawaii qualifies in both instances. Ryno Irwin, CEO of Hawaii Retail Services, Makaha, Hawaii, spoke with Chain Store Age about logistics and demographics challenges in the Aloha State.

New York -- Koninklijke Ahold will open its first grocery store tailored to singles, in Germany, according to Bloomberg, which cited a report by Financial Times Deutschland.

The first store will open in the city of Aachen Sept. 12, with 11 more locations to follow in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia, the report said.
 

By Jim Hogan, [email protected]

The retail industry is a bellwether for U.S financial health given that consumer spending is roughly 60%-70% of the economy. While the economy has sent mixed signals of late -- consumer confidence down, unemployment up -- consumer credit has swung up decidedly and leading companies in a wide swath of retail segments can point to positive year-over-year same store sales. This is prompting some retailers -- particularly discount stores--to begin opening new stores.

NEW YORK — A switch to LED lighting technology in its refrigerated coolers has resulted in combined energy and maintenance savings of more than $1 million annually for convenience store operator Wawa.

The new technology, Immersion from GE Lighting Solutions, has been installed in Wawa’s 600 locations across the Mid-Atlantic region, and has reduced refrigerated cooler/freezer electricity and maintenance expense by a combined 78% since its adoption.

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Domino's Pizza announced that it joined the SmartWay Transport Partnership, a collaboration between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and industry that provides a framework to assess the environmental and energy efficiency of goods movement supply chains.

Domino's Pizza will contribute to the Partnership's savings of 1.5 billion gallons of fuel, $3.6 billion in fuel costs, 14.7 MMT of carbon dioxide, 215,000 tons of oxides of nitrogen and 8,000 tons of particulate matter.

RA'ANANA, Israel — Delhaize Groug has enlisted the services of Retalix for in-store software for Delhaize Group's 3,300 locations -- including more than 20,000 point-of-sale (POS) terminals -- across Eurasia and the United States.

New York -- Tiffany & Co.'s net income in the second quarter rose 2 % to $91.8 million, up from $90 million last year. But the performance missed Wall Street's expectations and the jewelry company cut its full-year guidance, citing the tough global economy and weakness in key markets such as New York and Asia.