Supermarket/Grocery

MINNEAPOLIS — Supervalu on Thursday morning announced it has named Janel Haugarth to lead its independent business organization, replacing Leon Bergmann, who has decided to leave the company.

Plainview, N.Y. -- Out-of-stocks are the most important overall element that impact satisfaction with the grocery trip experience, according to a study by The Retail Feedback Group. Satisfaction among shoppers unable to find all items they had planned to buy on their shopping trip averaged 3.97 on a five-point scale (with 5 as the highest), compared with 4.54 among shoppers who did find all items.

Washington, D.C. -- Most consumers will take a conservative approach with their holiday gift-giving budgets, according to NRF’s holiday consumer spending survey conducted by BIGinsight. The average holiday shopper will spend $749.51 on gifts, décor, greeting cards and more, up slightly from the $740.57 they spent last year. NRF forecasts that holiday sales will increase 4.1% to $586.1 billion.

PLAINVIEW, N.Y. — A recent study showed that supermarkets generate high satisfaction among their shoppers. Supermarkets scored an average of 4.47 on a five-point satisfaction scale (where five is the highest), according to the "2012 U.S. Supermarket Experience Study" conducted by the Retail Feedback Group.

New York -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will not face class-action gender-discrimination claims in a federal court lawsuit in Texas, Bloomberg reported. U.S District Judge Reed O’Connor has dismissed the Texas class complaint, finding that the lawsuit was filed too late.

The suit, which alleged the retailer discriminated against women in pay and promotions in the company’s Texas region, sought to represent all women hourly and salaried workers, below store managers, employed by Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club in the region.

The month saw drop in the number of circulars released to the market by the majority of retailers. However, interestingly we saw flyers increasing pages compared with last year for most of the retailers in the year over year comparison.

Walmart had a significant increase in both the number of circulars as well as number of pages when compared with same time last year.

Cambridge, Mass. — Target should be feeling confident about its upcoming entry into Canada, as a recent survey from Kantar Retail and TNS Canada revealed that 75% of Canadians are aware of the retailer.

Furthermore, 43% of Canadian consumers said that they were likely to shop at Target Canada for grocery or health and beauty aids and 50% were likely to shop at Target Canada for general merchandise or apparel.

SALEM, Ore. — Kettle Brand has added toasted snacks to its portfolio of all-natural snacks. New Kettle Brand Bakes are toasted rather than kettle-cooked and contain 65% less fat than Kettle’s fried chips. They contain no trans fats, no artificial colors or flavors, and no preservatives.

Kettle Brand Bakes are the only baked potato chip on the market made from slices of real potato seasoned with natural, savory flavors. Competitive baked crisps are made using dehydrated potato pulp and flakes.