Convenience Stores

Fresh produce comes out on top as the most important feature to customers in their grocery store experience.   That’s according to a new report by Acosta, a full-service sales and marketing agency in the CPG Industry, in which fresh produce (89%) ranked as a more important feature than competitive pricing (86%) and product selection (84%).   

Fred’s on Tuesday announced its new executive VP and chief merchandising and marketing officer, Mary Lou Gardner. Gardner will be replacing Bryan Pugh, who has resigned from the company, effective immediately.    

Ralphs is inviting customers to take advantage of the convenience of online grocery shopping at its Carlsbad, Calif., store, and the retailer plans to expand the service company-wide by the end of the year.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. is reportedly nearing a deal that would increase the ongoing consolidation in the convenience-store industry.   The Canadian convenience-store giant is in the lead to acquire CST Brands Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported.   CST, based in San Antonio, Texas, is a fuel and convenience-store chain with more than 1,000 stores in the southwestern U.S., New York and eastern Canada.   

After a long, post-recession lull, leasing activity at shopping centers and strip malls in the Phoenix area is picking up, according to a report in Tempe’s East Valley Tribune.   Local real estate investor Michael Pollack is so bullish on the scene that he said he envisions tenant waiting lists as a possibility for the near future.    “We are in a red-hot market right now,” said Pollack, who invests in financially distressed centers and renovates them. 

Chicago-based Newport Capital Partners purchased a 69,749-sq.-ft. center anchored by Pick ‘n Save the Milwaukee area. Terms of the deal, brokered by Mid-American Real Estate Corp., were not disclosed.    Other tenants in the center at the Intersection of I-41/45 and Mayfair Road in Wauwatosa include Firehouse Subs, Mattress Firm, and Supercuts. The sellers were New York-based DRA Advisors and Atlanta-based RCG Partners.  

Crosslands Shopping Center, a joint development of Tupperware Brands and O’Connor Capital Partners, has been sold for $121 million just two years after opening in Kissimmee, Florida, according to a report in the Orlando Business Sentinel.   The Hampshire Companies, a New Jersey-based real estate firm, announced that it had acquired the center on behalf of an unnamed foreign investor. Crosslands is located within the Osceola Corporate Center, not far from Tupperware headquarters in Orlando.  

Dollar General continues to expand its store portfolio at a rapid pace.   The discounter on Monday opened its 13,000th store, in Birmingham, Alabama. The company operates approximately 675 stores in Alabama.    The new store is one of the planned 900 new stores Dollar General expects to open in 2016.