Supermarket/Grocery

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Fresh & Easy will kick off its annual in-store holiday food drive across all of its stores next month in honor of National Food Bank Week.

From mid-November trough Dec. 31, customers can donate canned and boxed goods in specially designated boxes at Fresh & Easy stores in Arizona, California and Nevada.

Last holiday season, the retailer and its customers donated more than $1 million in food to local food banks and charities.

Under most circumstances, Walmart and Target are like oil and water, but when the issue is fighting retail crime even fierce competitors see the wisdom of coming together to battle a common enemy.

Such is the case with retail theft, and earlier this week the Retail Industry Leaders Association welcomed a select group of senior level asset protection executives, product manufacturers and academic researchers to the 2011 Asset Protection Leaders Council (APLC) meeting in Minneapolis to launch the APLC’s process driven shrink initiative. 

It looks like there are going to be some unhappy folks in Walmart’s supplier community later today. That’s because there are only a few seats remaining for the Emerging Trends in Retail conference that is organized each fall by the Center for Retail Excellence in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.

Crossmark and FLW Outdoors announced a new joint venture called Out Front Marketing and have already signed on Walmart as a client to use the firm’s “Mobile Brand Boxes” to promote Walmart’s USDA Premium Beef program.

Former Walmart president and CEO Lee Scott was a keynote speaker earlier this week at the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s 74th annual convention and trade show at Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

Promotional materials billed his appearance as an exciting opportunity to hear about the leadership, innovation and business strategies that led Walmart to be such a successful retailer and noted that Scott would also participate in a candid question and answer forum where distributors would have the opportunity to ask some tough questions.

New York City -- Barnes & Noble said Thursday it has expanded its BN.com Marketplace, adding over one million new products to the catalog.

The retailer also announced online third-party partnerships with Wayfair.com, Right Start, UnbeatableSale.com, School Specialty, Abe’s of Maine, Delivery Agent and more.

BN.com Marketplace has introduced five new categories including Home and Gift, Consumer Electronics, Arts and Crafts, Toys and Games and Baby.

PHILADELPHIA — Shoplifting, employee or supplier fraud, organized retail crime and administrative errors cost the retail industry $41.7 billion in the United States in 2011, representing 1.6% in sales, according to the Global Retail Theft Barometer released Tuesday by Checkpoint Systems. Of that, $18.4 billion was attributed to employee theft, $14.9 billion to shoplifters, $6.6 billion to internal error and $1.8 billion to suppliers.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — Supervalu reduced it full-year profit forecast Wednesday morning, even though the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter sales and profits as a result of strategies president and CEO Craig Herkert said are yielding results.

NEW YORK — Wegmans Food Markets has opened its first location in Massachusetts, in the town of Northborough. The 138,000-sq.-ft. store, the largest supermarket in New England, has a warm, welcoming feel.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — A location-based mobile shopping application has teamed up with a supermarket chain to reward users for buying specific products or brands.

Shopkick said users that shop at Giant Eagle now can utilize the app's Kickbuys technology at any of the chain's 228 stores. Shopkick users can collect thousands of "kicks" by buying featured products from many of the world's leading brands, Shopkick said.