Supermarket/Grocery

Landfill operators got some bad news this week when Walmart said it prevented 81% of waste generated by U.S. stores from going to landfills. That nugget is just one example of the progress Walmart has made on its broad sustainability agenda and was among numerous others contained in the company’s 5th annual Global Responsibility Report released this week.

West Bridgewater, Mass. -- Five Shaw’s Supermarkets in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, have reached a major environmental milestone in the company’s “zero waste” program by diverting over 90% of all store waste from local landfills.

The environmental impact of the five stores has been significant:

Virginia Beach, Va. -- Divaris Real Estate Inc. announced the following lease transactions were completed for several retail tenants:

A lease extension was signed with Tidewater Finance Co. for 25,516 sq. ft. of retail space in the DRE-leased and –managed Tidewater Plaza in Virginia Beach.

Atlanta -- The Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council has published the final installment of its five-part report on social media, which suggested that grocery marketers significantly can leverage any social media participation by simply responding to tweets on Twitter and exploring the potential of professional networking site LinkedIn.

LONDON — The break-even forecast for the U.S. division of Tesco has been pushed back to early next year, the U.K. retail giant announced in its fiscal-year results.

Chicago -- Supermarket retailer Giant Eagle said Thursday it has completed a rollout of Galleria's Promotional Display Optimization solution that allows the grocer to generate thousands of store-specific display plans on a daily basis.

"We were already developing end-cap planograms, but Galleria enabled us to complete the process more efficiently," said Dan Schnorr, senior director of retail space planning, Giant Eagle.  

Walmart and other retailers have fought unsuccessfully for years to level the e-commerce playing field in the United States by requiring Amazon.com and other online-only merchants to collect sales tax. Doing so would eliminate the Internet pure play retailers’ most significant competitive advantage, and for a glimpse of just how significant that would be, look no further than Canada.

Boston -- The Wilder Cos. announced the addition of Jo-Ann Fabric & Crafts at two of its New Hampshire shopping centers.

Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts recently opened at Belknap Mall, the only enclosed shopping mall north of Concord. The new store joins Peebles Department Store, Shaw’s, Maurices, Lakes Region Jewelers, CVS and Dunkin Donuts at the 218,500-sq.-ft. mall.