Convenience Stores

Boise, Idaho - Albertsons and Safeway Inc. announced the new senior leadership team and division leaders  for the combined company that will take effect upon the closing of their proposed merger. The deal is expected to close in a few months.

Safeway president and CEO Robert Edwards will serve as CEO of the combined company and current Albertsons CEO Bob Miller will become executive chairman.

Virginia Beach, Va. -- Divaris Real Estate, Inc. announced the completion of four retail transactions, totaling 21,688 sq. ft.

Dollar Tree renewed its lease for 9,663 sq. ft. at Williamsburg Marketcenter, located at 6610 Mooretown Road, in Williamsburg.

Castaways Inc. leased 5,025 sq. ft. of retail space at the Divaris-leased and -managed Lynnhaven Green Shopping Center, located at 1505 Lynnhaven Parkway, in Virginia Beach.

Raleigh, N.C. -- Northwood Ravin has announced six new service retailers and restaurants for Bradford, the multi-use development in the northeast corner of Davis and High House Roads adjacent to the desirable Preston neighborhood of Cary, North Carolina.

Shop24 gives new meaning to the phrase “small format” and recently named a new vp of marketing and business development to help grow its footprint.

GNC Holdings has appointed former Dick's Sporting Goods executive Jeffrey R. Hennion as EVP, chief marketing and e-commerce Officer, and former Office Depot executive Daisy Vanderlinde as chief human resource officer.

Additionally, Carl Seletz, GNC's SVP of international business development, will assume the additional responsibility of leading the company's domestic and international franchise operations.

Lancaster, Pa. -- Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, the 1, 600-unit global franchise, has entered into a partnership with Meijer. In August, Auntie Anne’s opened its first Meijer franchise location, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
 
Auntie Anne’s will continue to build its partnership with the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer with two stores currently in the pipeline. The first is slated to also open in Fort Wayne later this year, with an additional location planned for Michigan in 2015.
 

With word this week that Walmart will rebrand its small format Express stores under the Neighborhood Market banner, there will be plenty of interest in an upcoming presentation by the retailer’s vp of small formats.

Marc Lieberman, vp of small formats for Walmart U.S., is slated to speak at a Doing Business in Bentonville event on Thursday, October 9. at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers, Ark., from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Kroger plans to open three new fuel center locations this week — in Abingdon, Virginia; Decatur, Georgia; and Louisville, Kentucky — that bring the company's fuel center locations total to 2,000.  

Kroger operates 1,275 supermarket fuel centers and 725 convenience stores with fuel. Combined, the company sells fuel in 37 states and is the third-largest owner-operator of fuel centers in the United States.

Louisville, Colo. -- QuikTrip is North America’s favorite convenience store chain, according to a study by Market Force Information, a leader in customer intelligence solutions. More than 5,000 consumers were polled for the study, designed to uncover which convenience stores consumers prefer and why.
 

Washington, D.C. -- Site and market challenges, underwriting challenges, and operational challenges are the key factors that hamper retail development in some lower-income communities, according to a report from the Urban Land Institute.

The report, Retail in Underserved Communities, defines underserved communities as those that fall into one or more of four categories: urban locations lacking businesses, underserviced markets, locations without cultural offerings, and isolated rural or small towns.