Supermarket/Grocery

Gainesville retail pioneer Butler Enterprises announced the signing of P.F. Chang’s as a restaurant anchor at its Butler Town Center, now under development.   "It's an excellent fit for P.F. Chang's and we're really looking forward to sharing our farm-to-wok food philosophy with the entire Gainesville community," said P.F. Chang’s CMO Dwayne Chambers.  

Walgreens Boots Alliance is losing its chief merchandising and marketing officer.   Linda Filler, Walgreens' president of retail products and chief merchandising and marketing officer, will depart the retailer effective April 1. Filler has been in the role since January 1, 2015. Prior to joining the drug store chain, she was president of Claire’s Stores. Before Claire’s, Filler served as was executive VP and chief merchandising officer for Sam’s Club,   

The CEOs of Gap, Best Buy, Target Corp., J.C. Penney and several other national retailers met with President Trump on Wednesday to discuss tax reform and to make their case against the so-called border tax adjustment.  

Lidl is coming out of the starting gate in the United States earlier than expected — and it isn’t going to waste any time ramping up its store base.   The discount grocer will open its first U.S. stores this summer, with plans to open up to 100 locations across the East Coast within a year, the Associated Press reported. The chain initially had said it planned to enter the U.S. market no later than 2018.    

The year kicks off with a respectable set of retail sales numbers that show continued momentum in the consumer economy. The overall growth rate of 4.9% is a little way above the average monthly growth rate of 3.3% recorded in 2016, something that will give retailers some cheer as they head into 2017.  

Retail sales sizzled in January, beating expectations. Even the struggling department store sector managed to beat the odds.   Retail sales, excluding automobiles and gasoline, grew 0.4% in January, according to the National Retail Federation. (The numbers exclude automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants)  

BJ’s Wholesale Club could see a change in ownership.   The company’s private equity owners, Leonard Green & Partners and CVS Capital Partners Ltd., are hiring investment bankers to advise them on options, reported the Wall Street Journal.   The two buyout firms acquired BJ’s in 2011 for approximately $3 billion. The retailer, which is based in Westborough, Massachusetts, operates 213 stores and 130 BJ's Gas locations 15 states.    

For years, retail was neatly divided into two categories: e-commerce and brick-and-mortar. But with the advent of smartphones, digital and physical worlds are melding together, creating a new retail environment in which almost every customer journey involves both online and offline activity. This is particularly true for Generation Z consumers, the first generation to have grown up with digital technologies at their fingertips and who now make up 25% of the total U.S. population.  

Another corporate ranking, another first place finish by Amazon.   The online giant came out on top in Harris Poll’s annual corporate reputation rankings report. The poll measures the reputations of the 100 most visible companies in the United States as perceived by the general public.        

One independent grocer is making a move to compete with larger chains.