Supermarket/Grocery

There was an increase in the number of circulars retailers released in the month of April, while page counts increased only slightly.

Cincinnati -- A report on Friday by the Associated Press said that Kroger chief David Dillon received a 66% bump in pay in 2011, as the grocer surpassed its internal growth targets.

Dillon was paid a package worth $8.9 million last year, up from $5.4 million in 2010. The compensation included a cash performance bonus of $2.7 million. Stock and award options rose to $5.2 million and salary was $1.3 million.
 

Austin, Texas — Whole Foods is rewarding customers that live a green lifestyle through a new app it created with Whole Planet Foundation and BlueAvocado.

AUSTIN, Texas — Whole Foods is rewarding customer that live a green lifestyle through its new app it created with Whole Planet Foundation and BlueAvocado.

Montvale, N.J. -- A&P president and CEO Sam Martin will star in the retailer's new integrated marketing campaign highlighting the company’s vision to be the best neighborhood food and drug store, the company said Wednesday.

The campaign’s theme is “shopping just got a whole lot better,” and it will mark the first time that A&P will run one marketing campaign across all of its A&P, The Food Emporium, Pathmark, Superfresh and Waldbaum’s stores.

Lakeland, Fla. — Publix has achieved the eco milestone of saving more than 2 billion grocery bags since mid 2007. The company said it achieved this goal by training front service clerks and cashiers to increase the number of items per bag, implementing bag reduction goals for each store, holding communication campaigns to encourage the use of reusable bags and donating reusable bags to non-profits and partner organizations throughout the Southeast.

Wal-Mart Stores fell to the number two spot on the Fortune 500 list after holding the number one spot for two years. It was ousted by Exxon Mobil, which benefitted from rising oil prices.To see the full list, click here.

Atlanta -- A Wednesday report by First Data found that April sales were negatively impacted by a March Easter, but that there has been an earlier start to the spring spending season.