Supermarket/Grocery

Little known food retailer Haggen Northwest Fresh will grow its store base more than 800% following a Federal Trade Commission mandate that Albertson’s and Safeway divest 168 stores.

Few people have heard of Haggen outside Washington and Oregon, where the company operates 18 stores, but now the food retailer is about to get dramatically bigger and expand its presence to three more western states.

Albertsons plans to acquire Safeway for $32 a share in a deal valued at roughly $9 billion that will create a supermarket chain with roughly 2,400 locations to rival market leader Kroger.

The deal announced late Thursday ended longrunning speculation regarding the potential acquisition of Safeway.

Mexico City - Wal-Mart de Mexico said that that Enrique Ostale, Walmex chairman and Latin America CEO for Wal-Mart Stores, will also take over as CEO of the Mexican company, effective January 1.  

Kansas City, Kansas - Mid-America Real Estate Corporation’s Investment Sales team recently brokered the sale of Quivira Crossings located in Overland Park (Kansas City MSA), Kansas. Cincinnati-based Phillips Edison purchased the 111,304-sq.-ft. grocery-anchored center for $14.5 million.   Quivira Crossings is located at 135th Street and Quivira Road in Overland Park, and features a long-term lease with Price Chopper.

Poughkeepsie, New York - DLC Management Corporation announced its latest acquisition: The Shoppes at South Hills, a 518,000-sq.-ft. grocery-anchored power center in Poughkeepsie, New York.   This acquisition aligns well with DLC’s operations and features anchor tenants ShopRite, Burlington Coat Factory, Christmas Tree Shop, Hobby Lobby and Kmart. Other tenants include Ashley Furniture HomeStore, Bob’s Discount Furniture, and Chuck E. Cheese’s.   

Mexico City, Mexico - Grupo Financiero Inbursa, a banking firm owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, has reportedly bought the bank division of Wal-Mart de Mexico (Walmex) for $246.94 million, or 1.7 times Walmex’s bank capital.

 

According to Reuters, Walmex has been focusing on selling its non-core assets, such as its restaurant division, in the past year.

New York - The Deloitte Consumer Spending Index reached its highest point since November 2013, rising to 4.5 from 4 the prior month. The Index tracks consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending.    The Index comprises four components – tax burden, initial unemployment claims, real wages and real home prices. Highlights include:   Tax Burden: The tax rate has been effectively unchanged from the previous month at 11.8%.  

Chicago - Top commercial construction trends for 2015 include an increase in retail and restaurant ground-up construction and a rise in shopping mall renovations, according to national general construction firm Englewood Construction.  

Grand Rapids, Mich. - Meijer made the holidays very merry for 213 unsuspecting customers recently when those shoppers received a big surprise upon checkout – their entire shopping cart filled with gifts and groceries given to them as a holiday gift.

During the “Very Merry Meijer” event, one customer at each of the retailer's 213 stores across the Midwest was randomly selected on Dec. 13 to receive their purchases free.

Meijer has made the holidays a lot merrier for 213 very special customers.

The retailer picked 213 customers at random to get a big surprise at checkout: their entire shopping cart filled with gifts and groceries was given to them as a holiday gift.