Supermarket/Grocery

Faced with unwavering demand for its brand of food retailing and an abundance of potential locations, Whole Foods executives on Tuesday increased their forecast for U.S. store growth to 1,200 locations from 1,000.

DNA Brands, maker of DNA Energy Drink, has signed a new distribution agreement with Koerner Distributor to sell its rebranded energy drink line and latest energy coffee drink products.

Koerner Distributor has four branches which cover a population of more than 1 million people in 52 Illinois counties. Koerner distributes of beer, wine and liquor brands such as Miller, Coors and Corona to retailers such as Schnucks, Shop N Save, Deirberg's, Circle K, Casey General Store and Huck's.

Another piece of the leadership puzzle fell into place at Kroger as the company continues to execute a succession strategy backed by the tailwind of 40 consecutive quarter of same store sales growth.

Kroger named Mark Tuffin to the role of SVP of the company’s retail divisions to fill a position previously held by Michael Ellis who was elevated to the role of president and COO last month. Tuffin previously served as president of the company’s Smith’s Food and Drug Stores division.

It promises to be a mad dash to the finish for the nation’s retailers this week with half of holiday shoppers planning to wrap up their holiday shopping online and nearly one third of shoppers yet to begin spending, according to the latest survey results from the National Retail Federation.

Walmart has appointed Krish Iyer president and CEO of Walmart India, effective Jan. 20, 2014. He will report to Scott Price, president of Walmart Asia.

Giant Food Stores is expanding its partnership with sister company Peapod again, this time with the launch of a new pickup spot at a store in a town near Philadelphia.

Giant-Carlisle and online grocery service Peapod, both banners of Ahold USA, announced the launch of the pickup service in Huntingdon Valley, Pa. The store is the 10th Giant location in Pennsylvania to include a Peapod pickup spot.

Walmart’s ad match policy states that if its customers find an item at another store at a lower price, it will honor the lower price. In fact, the retailer is currently touting its Christmas ad match policy, which covers electronics, toys and grocery produce.

Safeway has made enhancements to its online grocery shopping website to make it more accessible and usable for Safeway shoppers with visual impairments.

Safeway collaborated with its visually impaired customers to make the necessary changes to its website. As such, the company has adopted the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 level AA as its accessibility standard.