Supermarket/Grocery

Ahold USA has appointed Tom Lenkevich as president of the company’s Giant/Martin's division, effective March 4, reporting to Bhavdeep Singh, EVP operations, Ahold USA.  

Weis Markets has promoted Kurt Schertle, previously the company’s EVP, to COO.

General Mills Big G cereals now include four collectible comic books featuring DC Comics' Justice League characters, on shelves now through April 2014.

Four specialty issues created exclusively for General Mills, in partnership with DC Entertainment (DCE) and Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP), can be found in grocery retailers nationwide, with a bonus fifth issue available only in select boxes of Cheerios at Target.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in February 2013 versus February 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. The home improvement retailers have continued to reverse trends from 2013. Home Depot doubled its page count and slightly decreased ads per page, leading to longer, slightly less dense circulars. Despite this, Home Depot still ran less than a quarter of the number of pages that Lowe’s ran, largely due to Lowe’s running three circulars to Home Depot’s one.

Village Super Market, which operates a chain of 29 supermarkets under the ShopRite name in New Jersey, Maryland and eastern Pennsylvania, saw net income fall 69% during the second quarter, compared to the same period in the prior year, driven in part by flat same-store sales.

Carlisle, Pa. -- Ahold USA on Monday announced that Tom Lenkevich will join the company’s Giant/Martin's division as president, effective March 4.

Lenkevich, who most recently served as COO and senior VP retail operations at Save-A-Lot Food Stores, will manage all aspects of the division, with responsibility for Giant and Martin’s sales, operating profits, organization and people.

Oak Brook, Ill. — Inland Real Estate Income Trust has acquired the 69,381-sq.-ft. Park Avenue Shopping Center in Lille Rock, Ark., for $28.12 million. IREIT Business Manager & Advisor assisted Inland Real Estate Acquisitions in the transaction.

By Jeff Weidauer, VP of Marketing and Strategy, Vestcom International

Webster defines technology as “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry.” Put another way, technology is the use of knowledge that solves problems in a practical manner. It’s important to understand that, because when it comes to the concept of retail technology, history shows that too often the solution becomes a hammer looking for a nail.

Publix’s sales for the fourth quarter of 2013 boosted the company’s stock price from $30 per share to $30.15 per share.

The company reported sales of $7.4 billion, a 5.3% increase from last year’s $7 billion. Comparable-store sales for the fourth quarter of 2013 increased 4.3%.

Net earnings for the fourth quarter of 2013 were $422 million, compared to $392.8 million in 2012, an increase of 7.4%. Earnings per share for the fourth quarter increased to $0.54 for 2013, up from $0.50 per share in 2012.

Prairie Farms Dairy has rolled out a line of Old Recipe Seasonal Favorites Milk in three flavors: Jelly Bean, Chocolate Marshmallow and Easter Egg Nog.

According to the dairy, the milk is ultra-pasteurized and has an extended shelf life of 75 days, and all flavors are produced using milk from cows not treated with artificial growth hormones.