Supermarket/Grocery

New York City -- Chainstoreage.com columnist Jeff Green challenges the boon of the burgeoning burger concepts, posing the question: “Are burger joints here to stay or just a trendy restaurant theme that will overextend itself and “fall of the map” in a few years?

Check out Jeff’s latest column on the real estate community page: chainstoreage.com/article/burger-bonanza-rare-or-well-done

Like many of you, I just got back from RECon, and I’m still processing what I saw and heard. One thing that was interesting to me was the fact that it seemed like burger concepts were on everybody’s site plans, from In-N-Out Burger to Smashburger and Five Guys. If you like a good burger -- and, who doesn’t -- this is great news. If you are a developer or landlord though, I think you should proceed with some caution.

The Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 takes place next weekend at the Michigan International Speedway, and Walmart stores near the track are rolling out the checkered carpet to capitalize on race fever. A variety of special events will be held at stores near the track beginning on Wednesday, June 15.

In keeping with its renewed focus on EDLP, the average number of promotional pieces per market decreased to two in May compared with 2.8 the prior year, but the average number of pages increased to 40 compared with 30, according to the Chicago-based firm Market Track.

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Safeway and Coinstar announced Thursday an agreement to install approximately 1,400 Coinstar kiosks in Safeway's stores in the United States and Canada by the end of 2011.

Coinstar kiosks are to be installed in Safeway stores and its banners including Vons, Dominick's, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Genuardi's, Pavilions, Carrs and Pak N' Save. Installations are planned to begin this month, according to the companies.

As part three of our ongoing coverage of RECon, the annual retail real estate convention conducted by the International Council of Shopping Centers and held May 22-25 in Las Vegas, Chain Store Age talked with Joe Boehm, senior VP, retail leasing, of Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises, regarding his impressions of RECon 2011 and what Forest City projects garnered the most attention at the show.

What impression of the state of the industry were you left with by the end of RECon 2011?

On average, across the retailer set, both the number of inserts and number of page counts decreased when comparing the month of May 2011 to May 2010. Notable standouts for the insert counts include a decline of 39% for Home Depot and an 11% decrease for Lowe’s.  While both Home Depot and Lowe’s dropped fewer inserts this year compared to last year, Home Depot’s decline was more pronounced from nearly seven inserts in 2010 to four in 2011.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target ended last year with sales of $67.4 billion and earnings per share of $4, but if company chairman, president and CEO Gregg Steinhafel has his way, within six or seven years earnings per share will double to $8 and sales will top $100 billion.