Supermarket/Grocery

Total U.S. Shopper Traffic in Retail Stores and Malls for November 2012

Shopper traffic in November increased as Black Friday weekend sales promotions — and the Veterans Day holiday earlier in the month — drew shoppers into retail stores.

As a result, the month saw an 18 percent increase in retail foot traffic compared to October. November 2012 continued a trend of year-over-year improvements with a 6 percent increase in retail foot traffic when compared to the same month last year.

Mississsauga, Ontario -- Walmart Canada on Friday opened its 200th supercenter, in Edmonton, Alberta. Today's grand opening marks a major milestone for Walmart Canada. The company opened its first supercentres in Ontario in 2006. Today, Walmart Canada has supercentres in six provinces and 373 stores nationwide serving more than eight million customers each week.

New York -- Cathy Green Burns, president of Food Lion, has left the company and is being succeeded by Beth Newlands Campbell as part of a major organizational shakeup at Delhaize America, according to published reports. Delhaize America is a division of Brussels-based Delhaize Group. Campbell previously served as president of Hannaford Supermarkets.

India -- The Indian government on Friday won a non-binding vote in the upper house of parliament on its new policy to allow foreign supermarkets to enter the country's vast retail market, which is put at approximately $450 billion.

The government had already won a vote on retail reform in the lower house two days earlier.

New York -- Canada’s Loblaw Cos. Ltd. plans to spin off the vast majority of its property assets into a real estate investment trust. The retailer said it plans to spin off real estate worth more than C$7 billion ($7.05 billion) into the REIT and sell units of the trust through an initial public offering that it hopes to complete by mid-2013.

Williamsville, N.Y. -- Tops Friendly Markets, a full-service grocery retailer in upstate New York, northern Pennsylvania and western Vermont, today announced that the company has entered into an agreement with the Farrugia family to acquire three Big M supermarkets located in Elbridge, N.Y., Mexico, N.Y., and Jordan, N.Y.

This marks the third acquisition deal this year for Tops and will expand Tops' footprint further into areas of northern and central New York State.

Chicago — The overwhelming majority of retailers offer some kind of service for mobile shoppers, and one national retail pharmacy chain was named among those leading the way, according to a new study.

Digital marketing and e-commerce company Acquity Group released results of a report showing that 82% of retailers have a mobile-optimized site, 72% have a mobile or tablet app, and 66% have both. Most of them, 88%, use basic mobile capabilities like shopping carts, while 85% use featured products, 63% use customer reviews, and 54% use contact forms.

Minneapolis -- Sprouts Farmers Market has installed enterprise asset management software from Verisae to support the company’s aggressive growth strategy.

The grocery retailer, which recently acquired Sunflower Farmers Market, recently implemented core modules of the Verisae connected facility platform; enterprise asset management (EAM), enterprise refrigerant management (ERM) and enterprise asset purchasing (EAP) solutions.

Washington, DC — Merchants at CVS, Smart & Final and Meijer have been named recipients of the 2013 Confectionery Leadership Awards by the National Confectioners Association.

GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn. — Dollar General has elected Sandy Cochran, president and CEO of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, to its board of directors, effective December 5.

“We are excited to add Sandy to the Dollar General board of directors,” said Rick Dreiling, Dollar General’s chairman and CEO. “Sandy’s extensive experience and perspective will provide us with valuable insights as we continue to grow our business. Her expertise will complement our board as we strive to build shareholder value.”