Supermarket/Grocery

The J.M. Smucker Company has gained entry to a new business segment with the acquisition of privately held Sahale Snacks.

Smucker said it reached an agreement with Seattle-based Sahale to acquire the supplier of nut and fruit snacks to warehouse clubs, convenience stores and grocery retailers. Sahale’s annual sales of $50 million won’t have a material impact on Smucker, whose annual sales last year were $5.6 billion, but the deal does extend Smucker’s reach into new product categories.

Montvale, N.J. – The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) is using the IBM FlashSystem V840 to compress live data and speed access to Big Data. The FlashSystem now integrates into a new Control Enclosure with IBM’s SAN Volume Controller (SVC) data virtualization system, a key component of IBM’s Software Defined Storage solution.

Livingston, New Jersey — The Fresh Market will open a 23,000-sq.-ft. store at The Village at Livingston (New Jersey), occupying a portion of the center’s former Pathmark store. The store is slated to open fall 2014.

The 93,000-sq.-ft. shopping center, which is managed and developed by Eastman Companies of Livingston, features tenants Olive Garden, GameStop, Wine Legend, Karate USA, Hudson City Savings and Zen Japanese Cuisine.

Discount grocer Aldi, Costco and Walmart were recognized as the nation’s low price grocery leaders in a recent study conducted by Market Force Information.

It was the fourth consecutive year Aldi has received the low price distinction in the survey conducted by Market Force, a leading customer intelligence solutions firm. When asked to rank the top grocers offering low prices, the 6,200 consumers who participated in the study ranked Aldi first, Costco second and Walmart third. Aldi president Jason Hart was quick to take a victory lap.

New York -- Aldi was recognized as the nation's low-price grocery leader for the fourth year in a row, according to a recent consumer survey conducted by Market Force Information. Aldi announced in December 2013 that it intends to open 650 new stores across the country during the next five years.

When asked to rank the top grocers offering low prices, the 6,200 consumers who participated in the study ranked Aldi first, followed by Costco and Walmart third.

Just a few days after naming a new CEO, Target issued a preliminary update on its second-quarter expenses related, in part, to the December 2013 data breach.  

Deerfield, Ill. – Same-store sales at Walgreen Co. rose 5.2% in July. Walgreens had July sales of $6.39 billion, an increase of 6.1% from $6.02 billion for the same month in fiscal 2013.

Total front-end sales increased 1.4% in July compared with the same month in fiscal 2013, while same-store front-end sales increased 1.1%. Same-store customer traffic decreased 2.6% while basket size increased 3.7%.

A city with a booming population, one of the nation’s lowest unemployment figures, and an expanding presence on the national and international stage, Houston, Texas is on this rise. Already the fourth largest city in America, Houston has been recognized in recent years as a social and economic powerhouse that deserves to be considered alongside iconic cities like New York and Chicago. Unsurprisingly, Houston’s retail development growth has been a big part of its ascendance.