Distribution

Little known food retailer Haggen Northwest Fresh will grow its store base more than 800% following a Federal Trade Commission mandate that Albertson’s and Safeway divest 168 stores.

Few people have heard of Haggen outside Washington and Oregon, where the company operates 18 stores, but now the food retailer is about to get dramatically bigger and expand its presence to three more western states.

Albertsons plans to acquire Safeway for $32 a share in a deal valued at roughly $9 billion that will create a supermarket chain with roughly 2,400 locations to rival market leader Kroger.

The deal announced late Thursday ended longrunning speculation regarding the potential acquisition of Safeway.

Seattle – Manhattan residents have the opportunity to receive Amazon deliveries faster than even before.

Las Vegas – Marshall Retail Group (MRG), an independent specialty retailer in the casino resort marketplace, is betting that D.L. Neu will help bolster its order fulfillment processes. MRG has  awarded a contract to D.L. Neu to provide an order fulfillment system featuring a newly engineered “Shuffle Sorter” which automatically routes inbound put-to-light totes to the appropriate lanes.   

San Antonio, Texas - CST Brands Inc and CrossAmerica Partners LP have agreed to jointly purchase 22 convenience stores in San Antonio and Austin, Texas from Landmark Industries, their third combined acquisition in less than three months. The 22 stores operate under the Timewise brand name and provide Shell-branded fuel.   

Walmart has announced the 75 winners of its Food Pantry Holiday Makeover campaign, which gifts a food pantry organization with a $20,000 grant for renovations. 

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. - Ikea hasa proposed plans for a possible store in the city of Memphis, Tennessee that could increase the Swedish retailer’s presence in the Southeastern United States as its first store in the state.    The potential store could open as early as fall 2016 and is contingent upon receiving all governmental approvals.  

Toronto – Staples Canada has released its sustainability report for the third quarter of fiscal 2014, and highlights include collecting and recycling 116,000 kg of batteries, surpassing its goal of 100,000 kg. In addition, in October 2014, Staples became the first Canadian retailer to launch an exclusive green energy offering for small businesses, letting customers sign up for Bullfrog Power online.  

Toronto, Canada - Today’s consumers increasingly shop online with home delivery, eliminating a valuable trip to the store where they can be enticed to make additional purchases. However, a LoyaltyOne survey of 1,000 American consumers indicates a discount on the online purchase for picking up in store (as has been experimented with by Target and Best Buy) will encourage a majority of customers to select that option.  

New York - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has reportedly discovered discrepancies in accounting practices its China business was using that made performance look better than it really was. According to Bloomberg, shifty accounting practices included making unauthorized bulk sales to other retailers and even booking non-existent sales.