Supermarket/Grocery

Bloomington, Minn. -- A three-year old specialty grocer that plans 60 stores by 2019 is entering a new state.

Fresh Thyme Farmers Market will open its first Minnesota store, in Bloomington, on Sept. 30.

"Fresh Thyme is excited to open its first Minnesota store in Bloomington," said Fresh Thyme's CEO Chris Sherrell. "We love meeting new people in the communities we join, and we look forward to offering a shopping experience that encourages healthy and nutritious buying habits."

Despite reporting ho-hum sales for July, Costco said Thursday that its comps for the fourth quarter and fiscal year were up an impressive 6%.

Boise, Idaho -- Haggen’s acquisition of 146 Albertsons and Safeway stores is shaping up as a disaster and the reasons why are detailed in a new lawsuit that puts the blame squarely on the parent company — Albertsons Holdings — of the divested stores.

Austin, Texas – A new study has identified the most popular retail POS system.

According to research by Software Advice, Lightspeed takes the top spot.

Software Advice assigned Lightspeed a combined score of 4.9 on a five-point scale for its user adoption level, search traffic and social media presence. Following Lightspeed were Microsoft Dynamics (4.7), Vend (4.4), Revel (4.4), Shopkeep (3.8), AP (3.5), NCR (3.2), Bindo (3) and CashierLive (3).

Minneapolis – Target Corp. reportedly wants to become a place where consumers can go and everybody knows your name.

According to USA Today, Target plans to serve liquor in a store slated to open in Chicago in October 2015.

While a number of Target stores sell packaged alcohol products, this marks the first time Target would also serve liquor for customers to consume inside the store. Target has applied for permits to both sell alcohol for take-home purchase and for in-store consumption for the Chicago store.

Newcastle, Wash. -- Retail Properties of America announced that it has closed on the off-market acquisition of Coal Creek Marketplace, a 56,000 sq. ft. grocery-anchored center located in Newcastle, Washington for approximately $17.6 million. The center is currently 95% occupied and anchored by Quality Food Centers, a subsidiary of Kroger.

Regional supermarket chain Haggen’s acquisition of 146 Albertsons and Safeway stores has been a disaster and the reasons why are detailed in a new lawsuit that heaps blame of the parent company of divested stores.

As Target moves to reimagine the shopping experience for customers who visit its stores, the retailer has applied for two liquor licenses for a future store in Chicago.

USA Today reports that the company has applied for packaged goods and consumption on premises licenses.

The retailer may be trying to follow the lead of Kroger, Duane Reade and other retailers looking to expand their alcoholic offerings, which could pose operational challenges at these stores.

Greensboro, N.C. -- The Fresh Market named a veteran food retailer who once led Food Lion as its new president and CEO. The hiring follows the abrupt termination of the chain's former CEO and comes as the once high-flying chain has seen its sales stagnate.

Franklin, Tenn. – Unlike the softgoods retail POS market where there are two leading vendors, one vendor clearly dominates the POS market for hardgoods retailers.

According to the new “POS Software of Hardgoods” study from IHL Group, Oracle is the clear market leader in the hardgoods market, with 39 of the top 200 accounts.