Supermarket/Grocery

RANDOM NOTES: The North Face puts its passion for adventure and the great outdoors front and center in its new flagship in London. Designed to inspire customers to explore the world, the 4,300-sq.-ft. store features skylights, live greenery, tree trunks that extend through the ceiling windows, and such tech enhancements as a virtual reality experience that takes viewers on a journey through Nepal. Digital screens (“sky windows”) set in the ceiling have imagery that reflects outside weather conditions.

SPS Commerce Inc., a provider of cloud-based retail supply chain management solutions, is recognizing the need for back-end unification of supply chain and store.

SPS has acquired ToolBox Solutions, a Toronto-based provider of POS analytics and category management services to retailers and CPG suppliers in North America.

In 2016, retail chains will continue to face increasing competition and high consumer expectations. Changing regulations will also impact retail businesses. We see the regulatory issues below as the most critical for the retail industry this year and beyond.

Lists are a good way to start a debate, depending on who is included or left off, and that is sure to be the case with a newly released compilation of the 25 individuals the National Retail Federation Foundation has included on the 2016’s List of People Shaping Retail’s Future.

Marsh Supermarkets, a regional grocer with 73 stores in Indiana and Ohio, needs to know its customers especially well to compete with larger supermarket chains.

To that end, Indianapolis-based Marsh is partnering with targeted marketing software vendor inStream to provide personalized, targeted offers on the front of consumer receipts. InStream drives customer engagement and sales via personalized targeting based on customer-specific purchase data.

Global investment firm KKR’s name is usually associated with large deals, but that’s not the case with it latest acquisition of a small Midwestern chain that looks a lot like Tractor Supply.

Rite Aid last week reported a same-store sales decrease of 0.1% for the four weeks ended Dec. 26. December front-end same-store sales increased 0.8% while pharmacy same-store sales, which included an approximate 207 basis points negative impact from new generic introductions, decreased 0.6%.

Despite the report of relatively flat sales, Rite Aid stocks were up on Dec. 31, reaching a peak of $7.89 for the day. Today, the stock is trading at $7.86, up slightly from the day's open of $7.84.

Venice, Fla. -- Main Street Ranchlands and The Sembler Company announced the companies have formed a joint venture to develop the Marketplace at Coastamar in West Villages located in Venice, Florida. This is the first commercial opportunity in the rapidly growing master-planned community in south Sarasota County.