Convenience Stores

Austin, Texas -- Revionics announced that Niemann Foods, a chain of grocery, pet food, hardware, pharmacies and gas stations in the Midwest, has selected Revionics as its price optimization provider.

Revionics will be providing Niemann Foods with their SaaS-based price optimization solution, which includes robust price management, science-based optimization, forecasting, simulation and effectiveness measurement.

Milford, Conn. -- Subway announced that it will launch NFC-based mobile payments nationwide on Oct. 1 with Softcard, the mobile commerce joint venture created by AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA, Inc. and Verizon Wireless. It is one of the largest deployments of mobile payment capability in the country, Subway said.

New York -- ICA Sweden has signed a licensing agreement with Starbucks Coffee Company to open Starbucks retail stores in the grocery store channel in Sweden. The cafés will be operated by ICA according to the Starbucks licensing concept and under the Starbucks brand.

Initially, the plan is to open three Starbucks retail stores during 2015. These will then be evaluated before a decision is made on the possible establishment of more cafés.

Emeryville, Calif. -- Extreme-value grocer Grocery Outlet announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by affiliates of Hellman & Friedman LLC along with Grocery Outlet’s senior management team from its principal owner, Berkshire Partners LLC. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

There’s a new, farmers market-styled specialty grocer taking root in the Midwest: Fresh Thyme Farmers Market. With former Sunflower Farmers Market CEO Chris Sherrell at the helm, Fresh Thyme emphasizes organic foods and produce at value prices in a convenient neighborhood-store format. The company made its debut in April, in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, and went on to open six additional locations. A total of 60 stores are planned throughout the Midwest by 2019.

Anheuser-Busch has teamed up with Gratafy to launch a mobile gifting pilot on Facebook designed to enable real-time connections between the beer brand and its customers.

A series of Anheuser-Busch campaigns will target consumers nationwide in their Facebook News Feeds, giving them the ability to send friends a Budweiser (budweiser.com/budsforbuds) or Bud Light (budlight.com/birthday) in select cities, beginning with Chicago and Denver.

New York -- Wal-Mart Stores has no plans to join Apple’s newly-announced mobile payments system, Apple Pay, which is due to launch in October.

Wal-Mart is supporting a retailer-owned mobile technology group, the Merchant Customer Exchange, which is launching its own mobile wallet application. The application, called CurrentC, is now in pilot and is expected to be rolled out nationwide in 2015, according to The Washington Post.  Best Buy is also among the retailers supporting CurrentC.
   

Seattle — Starbucks Corp. is reportedly considering changing its policy that forbids visible tattoos on baristas. According to CNNMoney, more than 21,000 employees have signed an online petition asking Starbucks to allow baristas in its stores to display visible, non-offensive tattoos.