News

Kroger offers 2-for-1 stock split, boosts dividend
The largest supermarket operator in the United States is on fire, so it makes sense that the Kroger Co. approved its first stock split in 16 years and a 13.5% dividend increase.

The company announced that its board of directors approved an increase to the company's quarterly dividend, a two-for-one split of its common shares, and a new $500 million share repurchase program.
Making sense of Walmart’s new supplier agreement
Walmart’s interpretation of EDLP and a desire to simplify operations with a uniform supplier agreement sparked confusion this week among those unfamiliar with the company’s business model.

NRF calls passage of TPA a ‘landmark step’

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation praised the Senate’s passage on Wednesday of Trade Promotion Authority
New concerns arise about Staples-Office Depot merger

New York -- Concerns about regulators blocking Staples’s proposed acquisition of Office Depot have surfaced in the wake of a Federal judge blocking Sysco Corp.’s purchase of US Foods, reported 247wallst.com.

Read the store here.
Moody’s is wild for Walmart Neighborhood Market

New York -- Walmart’s Neighborhood Markets format offers a compelling source of new sales growth for the nation’s largest retailer, according to a report by Moody’s.

Despite strategic shifts to compete more successfully with the company, traditional supermarkets will feel the pressure as Walmart moves to increase its already dominant share of the US grocery segment.
Whole Foods Market overcharging customers?

New York -- An investigation of Whole Foods Market stores in New York City has found systemic overcharging of its customers for prepackaged food.

The city's Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) said some Whole Foods stores routinely overstated the weights of its pre-packaged products – including meats, dairy and baked goods – resulting in customers being overcharged. DCA tested packages of 80 different types of pre-packaged products and found all of the products had packages with mislabeled weights.
IBM, Box launch cloud partnership

Armonk, N.Y. – IBM and Box are launching a global, cloud-based partnership that will integrate their existing products and services and develop new solutions targeted across industries including retail. The strategic alliance brings together Box’s cloud content collaboration platform with IBM Analytics and social solutions, IBM security technologies and the global IBM cloud.
Q&A: Customer engagement evolves with connectivity

At the recent MIT CIO Symposium, Bryan Kirschner, director of the research/strategy organization Apigee Institute, and Jerry Wolfe, CEO and founder of food industry platform services provider Vivanda, participated in a panel discussion on consumer connectivity and engagement. Chain Store Age followed up with the two experts to ask a few more questions about engaging today’s connected customer.

How can retailers use APIs (application program interfaces) to provide a more personalized customer experience?
Study: Marketers face issues with visibility, data, optimization

New York - Lack of a single customer view, an inability to deal with large amounts of data and lack of time for optimization are among the challenges that cause the biggest headaches for modern marketers. According to new research published by Econsultancy in partnership with SmartFocus, among the pain points marketers face are the challenges of making customer data actionable, bottlenecks caused by IT and web development teams and lack of time for campaign testing and optimization.

The report identifies the following key challenges:
Rite Aid completes purchase of pharmacy benefit manager

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Rite Aid announced on Wednesday that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Envision Pharmaceutical Services from global private investment firm TPG and other shareholders. The transaction is valued at approximately $2 billion, including approximately $1.8 billion in cash and approximately 27.9 million Rite Aid shares.
Nilson Report: U.S. merchants’ card processing fees continue to rise

Carpinteria, Calif. -- With more Americans using credit, debit and prepaid goods to pay for goods and services, the amount merchants pay to process those cards continues to rise.
Analysis: The Gap, Art Peck, and store closures

Retail consulting firm McMillanDoolittle has posted an interesting blog on Gap Inc.’s ongoing efforts to turnaround its troubled namesake brand. Here is the full posting: