Supermarket/Grocery

Purchase, N.Y. -- After several months of sluggish retail sales, consumer shopping in the U.S. rebounded in April, according to the latest MasterCard SpendingPulse report, which aggregate national retail sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check.

Costco Wholesale Corp. has opened the doors to its second location in Louisiana, in the city of Baton Rouge. (The warehouse club giant made its Louisiana debut last fall, in New Orleans.) The store includes a bakery, fresh deli, food court, gas station, pharmacy and independent optometrist.

Milford, Ohio — Slate Properties has acquired Mulberry Square in Milford, Ohio, part of the greater Cincinnati metropolitan area. Slate paid $15.6 million for the 146,730-sq.-ft. community center, which is anchored by Kroger, Petco and Planet Fitness. Inline tenants include Steak and Shake, Hallmark, H&R Block, GNC and The UPS Store.

Mid-America Real Estate Corp. in cooperation with NAI Bergman represented the seller, a private real estate investment firm, in the transaction.

Bentonville, Ark. - At an event with President Barack Obama, Walmart announced that it will double the number of on-site solar energy projects at its U.S. stores, Sam’s Clubs and distribution centers by 2020. The commitment is part of Walmart’s global initiative to drive the production or procurement of 7 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy by the end of 2020.

Boise, Idaho - Associated Grocers of Florida is adopting recall process management technology from Recall InfoLink. Recall InfoLink offers a Web-based product recall management platform that protects brand image and reduces liability for businesses involved in processing recalls.

It improves efficiency by providing standardized messages, automated communications, inventory tracking and reports for compliance efforts.

Roundy's saw net sales increase by 1.9% to $1 billion, and reported a net loss of $4.5 million compared with net income of $8.6 million.

Sprouts Farmers Market’s president and CEO Doug Sanders credited the company’s focus on offering healthy food at affordable prices for 28 consecutive quarters of positive same-store sales growth as well as record first quarter results that outperformed its targets.

Walmart has gotten the green light to build its drive-in grocery center in Bentonville, Ark., near the intersection of S. Walton Blvd. and J St., according to an article in The City Wire.

The article reported that Bentonville’s Planning Commission approved Walmart’s request “to approve slight variations in its parking stall depths, number of curb cuts and the building materials . . . with no discussion.”

Washington, D.C. -- Import volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to increase 3.5% in May as negotiators prepare to begin talks on a new contract for West Coast dockworkers, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

Cupertino, Calif. -- Voltage Security announced a new product integration with device manufacturer Uniform Industrial Corp. (UIC) that provides end-to-end data encryption for the retail payments industry, a key technology in light of the recent data breaches. (Chain Store Age will host a Webinar on data security sponsored by Voltage Security, “Lessons Learned: What to Do NOW to Protect Stores Against Data Breaches,” on May 13. Register here.)