Supermarket/Grocery

New York City -- Save Mart Supermarkets saved more than $8,000 on a high-efficiency LED lighting retrofit of store in Ripon, Calif., through a partnership with the EnergySmart Jobs program.

Save Mart is distinguished as one of the first participants in the federally-funded program, which is an initiative of Energy Upgrade California and is administered by PECI, San Francisco. It focuses on creating new jobs through the implementation of energy-saving upgrades that help commercial retailers lower their operating costs.

New York City -- Tesco has installed wind turbines, each with a capacity of nearly 1 MW, at three of its grocery distribution centers.

The company installed two of the 90-meter, 800kW wind turbines at its distribution center near Newport in Wales, BusinessGreen reported. The other turbines are at two sites in England’s Midlands region.

A monthly pricing survey by Credit Suisse showed Walmart had the lowest overall basket price in Dallas and Chicago and suggest that where prices head from here is up to Walmart.

Walmart’s small format desires certainly haven’t gone unnoticed by the folks at Dollar General, a company that appears bent on saturating the marketplace with small discount stores. Last year, Dollar General opened 600 new stores and remodeled or relocated 504 other stores to end its fiscal year with 9,372 stores. This year, more of the same is planned with the expansion figure getting a bump to 625 new units, while the number of remodels and relocations expands to 550 units.

Bentonville, Ark. -- A comprehensive waste reduction program has resulted in Walmart eliminating more than 80% of the waste that would go to landfills from its operations in California. Walmart’s results exceed both the national average landfill diversion rate of 45% and the California rate of 65%. The program is now being implemented across all of the company’s 4,400 U.S. locations, including Sam’s Club units and distribution centers.

PLEASANTON, Calif. -- The Safeway Foundation announced that it has donated $100,000 and will match employee donations up to $50,000 to help with the Japan earthquake and tsunami relief effort. The contribution will be distributed to the impacted area through the American Red Cross.

LA JOLLA, Calif. — Kashi has added an entree and pizza to its line of all-natural frozen foods.

The new spicy black bean enchilada single-serve entree features red skin potatoes, roasted red peppers, corn and spinach, all wrapped in a seven whole grain and corn tortilla, which is topped with a vibrant tomatillo, cilantro and jalapeno salsa. The entree also includes a side of Kashi seven whole grain pilaf. The entree will retail for $4.09, the company said.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Meijer is continuing its pantry donation program by kicking off a springtime campaign.

The Midwest retailer is once again teaming up with its customers and team members in implementing its Simply Give program to help restock the shelves of nearly 200 local food pantries in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.

This marks Meijer's eighth Simply Give effort, which began on March 20 and will continue through May 14.

Palto Alto, Calif. -- Personalization of the in-store customer experience will be a key objective for retailers over the next two years, according to two new Aberdeen Group reports sponsored by HP.

According to the 100 senior retail executives surveyed from industries such as apparel, grocery and department stores, 76% do not possess the technology tools or the business processes for executing web, catalog or special orders from stores. This challenge is being fueled by rising consumer expectations of rich, multimedia in-store shopping experiences.

Greensboro, N.C. -- The Fresh Market announced that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed secondary public offering of its common stock.

The shares of common stock to be sold in the offering are expected to be offered by certain of its stockholders. The selling stockholders will receive all of the proceeds from the offering. The company will not receive any proceeds from the offering.