Convenience Stores

New York City -- Duane Reade’s new store in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, N.Y. , boasts an unusual feature for a drug store: a beer bar. The bar is part of a larger effort by Duane Reade to recognize the strong identity and local needs of many New York City neighborhoods, the New York Times reported.

Click here to read the full story.

Minneapolis -- Supervalu on Thursday announced the expansion of its exclusive in-store nutritional navigation program, "nutrition iQ," to include the fresh food departments and more robust nutrition information for the center store.

Chicago -- Walgreens’ massive Customer Centric Retailing initiative is transforming the way the company’s stores are merchandised and designed as it rolls into an ever-larger proportion of its more than 7,600 stores across the United States. But it’s only the opening drive in a campaign to “reinvent the customer experience in our stores,” president and CEO Greg Wasson told shareholders Wednesday.

The Dec. 23 edition of SiteTalk referenced a recent survey, which found that driving responsible growth, in addition to protecting and building the brand, is a chief priority for retailers in 2011. We asked you, our readers, if that priority was consistent with your 2011 objectives. Here is what one reader had to say.

New York City -- Twenty-three Kmart stores in Illinois and three other markets are testing financial centers where shoppers can cash checks, pay bills, place money orders and transfer money, according to Chicago Breaking Business.

A Kmart spokeperson declined to comment on whether a bigger roll out is planned, or what the retailer has learned so far from its test, the report said.

Seven of the Kmart stores are in Illinois, 10 are in Los Angeles, five are in Puerto Rico and one is in Wisconsin.

El Segundo, Calif. -- Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market on Wednesday said it will open its first stores in Northern California in March and April, with the first two scheduled to open March 2 in San Jose and Danville. Nine additional locations are scheduled to open in the area within the two-month time frame.

Fresh & Easy also said it also plans to open two stores in San Francisco early this year.

Minneapolis -- Target is opening 21 stores across 12 states, the retailer announced Tuesday.

Among the openings include five stores in California, a third store in Hawaii and a SuperTarget in Minnesota.

“Target takes great pride in designing stores that meet the needs of our guests and the communities we serve,” said John Griffith, Target executive VP. “With the addition of an expanded fresh food assortment, our new stores will offer guests everything they need in one convenient location.”

Concord, Calif. -- Beverages & More has launched a next-generation technology initiative based around NRF/ARTS (Association for Retail Technology Standards) standards coupled with cloud computing and high-performance technology and service providers that include NCR Corp., Verifone, Retail Anywhere, Trevarian, and Anametrix. The initiative (called “ItsMo!” internally) allows for rapid design, adoption and deployment of new technologies.