Independents

It’s official: Smart & Final Stores is acquiring 32 Haggen stores in Central and Southern California.

X Team International announced that Mountain West Retail and Investment and Newmark Grubb ACRES completed sales of two grocery-anchored properties same-day.

Canyon Center, a 51,914-sq.-ft. property in Sandy, Utah, is anchored by Smith’s and Shopko; the seller was Dee’s Inc., a third generation, family-owned real estate company, and the buyer was Pacific Castle, a Southern California-based institutional investor.

Judging from the latest 2015 Temkin Loyalty Index, which measures consumer loyalty to large companies, shoppers are maniacal when it comes to their favorite grocery stores.

Based on a study of 10,000 U.S consumers, H-E-B, Publix and Trader Joe's were at the top of the list when it comes to consumer loyalty, bookended on either side by credit card and insurance company USAA.

Aldi and Hy-Vee also made the top 10 list of companies to which consumers are most loyal.

Gelson's Markets has won final approval to buy six Haggen properties in Southern California.

Westside Market, a local New York City grocery retailer, is partnering with Instacart for delivery to the Upper West Side neighborhood.

Instacart customers on the Upper West Side will now have access to an assortment of Westside Market items, all delivered in as soon as one hour. Instacart will deliver from a select Westside Market location to start (110th Street and Broadway), and Instacart prices are the same as Westside Market's in-store prices. Westside Market has five stores in all.

The Kroger Co. on Wednesday announced plans to acquire Roundy's. Kroger will purchase all outstanding shares of Roundy's for $3.60 per share in cash in a deal valued at $800 million, including the assumption of debt.

The Seattle Times is reporting that, according to court documents filed last week, Albertsons is currently bidding on 36 of 95 stores being sold by the now-bankrupt Haggen. Albertsons had previously sold 146 stores to Haggen as part of its acquisition of Safeway. [Seattle Times]

The New York Times is reporting that Texas grocery chain HEB is planning on distributing some 15% of the company’s shares to employees who are over 21 and have worked at least 1,000 hours in a calendar year. “So many in retail are competing in the race to the bottom, and people are the largest cost. So it seems logical to cut people, and lots of folks are doing it,” H-E-B president and CEO Craig Boyan said. “We think that’s a trap. We believe the race for the bottom cheapens the American experience.

Just a few weeks after installing a new CEO, the Fresh Market is planning to conduct a strategic review that may include a sale of the specialty grocery chain.

The company says it has retained J.P. Morgan Securities as its financial advisor to assist in this process, which may result in the company continuing to pursue value-enhancing initiatives as a standalone company, capital structure optimization, or a sale of the company or other business combination.

According to MyEastTex.com, H-E-B might be considering an acquisition of regional grocer Brookshire Grocery, based on information from a source close to the situation.If this deal comes to pass it would put HEB in markets beyond Texas for the first time, as Brookshire has stores in Southwestern Arkansas and western Louisiana.