Supermarket/Grocery

Cincinnati -- Kroger said Monday that it has ended a 12-year joint venture with British consumer data company Dunnhumby and launched its own customer data subsidiary.
 
The new subsidiary will help Kroger set prices in stores and decide which shoppers get certain coupons.  The ending of the joint venture comes after Dunnhumby's parent company, Tesco PLC, said it was seeking strategic options for Dunnhumby.

New York -- High-profile retailers can make a high-impact difference when they use their clout to do good.  

Case in point: Ann Inc., parent to Ann Taylor and Loft, donated more than $4.3 million to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to fund groundbreaking cancer research. The brands parlayed successes from the 2014 spring and fall campaigns and have brought the company's total corporate donation to $22.3 million in the past 10 years.

New York -- The National Association of Chain Drug Stores announced during its Annual Meeting, the election of new officers, four new executive committee members and five new board of directors member for the coming year.
 
Randy Edeker, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Hy-Vee will serve as the new NACDS chairman of the board of directors. Edeker succeeds John Standley, chairman and chief executive officer of Rite Aid.
 

Two big grocery chain executives will be overseeing the board of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

By Xavier Giandominici, FIME America

The U.S. is migrating to EMV chip technology to reduce counterfeit card fraud and promote global interoperability. And though the transition is more than three years in, many small and midsized merchants, VARs, ISOs and ISVs are only starting to learn about the EMV standard and beginning implementation project plans.

The old expression, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” was taken to heart at Whole Foods where a recent fundraising campaign will provide loans to help people improve their lot in life.

Whole Food held concerts and craft fairs and thousands of small events that raised $4.6 million with the goal of alleviating global poverty. To achieve such a lofty mission, the retailer isn’t donating money to food banks to provide hand outs, but rather using the dollars to fund a microlending campaign.

Meijer has partnered with Scotts-MiracleGro to create an unprecedented lawn and garden section in its stores, just in time for the spring gardening season. 

Meijer is the first supercenter to partner with the national lawn care and garden brand to create a Garden Marketplace inside 27 Meijer stores across the Midwest as peak gardening season begins.

London - J Sainsbury PLC is increasing transportation productivity through enhanced accuracy. Sixteen Sainsbury’s depots are using an integrated transport management system from Paragon Software, which integrates Paragon’s planning optimization with wireless communications to enhance the accuracy and execution of each day's complex transport plans.