Supermarket/Grocery

Visa, Walmart chip away at EMV transaction times for faster checkout
A leading payment card issuer and the world’s largest discount retailer are both launching efforts to reduce how long customers have to wait to check out with EMV-compliant payment cards.

Visa Inc. is rolling out a technology enhancement designed to optimize EMV chip card processing and speed up checkout times. The new solution, called Quick Chip for EMV, streamlines the processing of chip card transactions to enable customers to dip and remove their EMV chip card from the terminal, typically in two seconds or less, without waiting for the transaction to be finalized.
Supervalu names innovation head as part of executive shuffle
Supervalu is adding a veteran wholesale executive to a new C-level position and also enacting several other changes to its senior leadership team.

James Weidenheimer, 57, has been named to the newly-created position of executive VP, corporate development and chief innovation officer, reporting to Supervalu president and CEO Mark Gross. Weidenheimer joins the company after having spent the last 16 years in senior leadership positions with C&S Wholesale Grocers. He is expected to start in his new role by April 25, 2016.

Survey: Which direction is CPG spending heading?

Consumers are taking stock of their financial health and how it will affect their decisions to make CPG purchases in the coming months.

According to the new first quarter 2016 IRI Consumer Connect survey, 67% of respondents feel their financial health will improve in the next six months. As a result, CPG spending will generally improve, but shoppers have some specific needs and wants to fulfill.
Meijer CEO talks expansion

Meijer has plans to open stores in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Cleveland and Minneapolis during the next five years, reported MLive.com. "We see Cleveland as the next city to go to," said CEO Hank Meijer, with the first stores opening in 2018 or 2019, the report continued. [MLive.com]
Analysis: Mobile customers affect retail across channels

Consumers are using their mobile devices to shop in ways that have an impact both in-store and online.

Analysis of daily surveys of recent online buyers by Hayley Silver, VP of Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity, shows that online purchases on a mobile device as a percent of online orders have been growing and maintaining market share since late 2014. However, nearly 12% of all online shoppers still don’t use their mobile device to shop at all.
Supermarket chains among nation’s most trusted companies

Publix, Chick-fil-A, Amazon.com, H-E-B, and BJ's Wholesale Club are the nation’s most trusted retailers, according to an annual survey by the Temkin Group.

The “2016 Temkin Trust Ratings,” based on a study of 10,000 U.S consumers, benchmarks the level of trust that consumers have with 294 companies across 20 industries.
Retailer suit targets EMV mandate

It was probably inevitable that somebody at some point would challenge the legality of the Oct. 1, 2015 EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) liability shift.
Report: Walmart expands curbside grocery pickup

Customers in more cities will have an easier time shopping for the groceries at Walmart.
Publix names 3 new board members

Publix Super Markets added its soon-to-be CEO, current CFO and a retired Deloitte executive to its board of directors when the Southeast’s leading food retailer held its annual stockholders meeting on April 12. Publix president Todd Jones, CFO David Phillips and retired Deloitte executive Jessica Blume were elected to the board of the $32.4 billion retailer.
Publix names three new board members

Publix Super Markets added its soon-to-be CEO, current CFO and a retired Deloitte executive to its board of directors when the Southeast’s leading food retailer held its annual stockholders meeting on April 12.

Publix president Todd Jones, CFO David Phillips and retired Deloitte executive Jessica Blume were elected to the board of the $32.4 billion retailer.
Walmart expands curbside grocery pickup

Customers in more cities will have an easier time shopping for the groceries at Walmart. According to Reuters, Walmart is rolling out free curbside pickup of online grocery orders to eight new cities, which will make the service available in about 200 stores in 30 metropolitan areas across the U.S. Additional cities offering grocery pickup will include Kansas City and Austin, Texas. Walmart COO Michael Bender said the retailer so far is gaining new customers and increased wallet share at stores where the service is offered and may roll it out further.
Chicago-area shopping center sells for $20 million

Mid-America Real Estate Corp.’s investment sales team recently brokered the sale of Oak Brook Court. Tampa, Florida-based Third Lake Capital acquired the 103,836-sq.-ft. property for $19.95 million. Oak

Brook Court is located at the northeast corner of Kingery Highway (Illinois Route 83) and 16th Street in Oak Brook Illinois, part of the Chicago metropolitan statistical area. The center is anchored by Binny’s Beverage Depot, Office Max and The Great Escape.