News

The combination of Royal Ahold and Delhaize Groupe creates a new super-regional chain along the Eastern Seaboard that will serve 50 million customers weekly and generate annual sales of more than $60 billion.

The merger announcement was highly anticipated following months of speculation followed by confirmation of talks between the companies. Now that the merger agreement has been reached, Ahold and Delhaize said they expect the deal to close by mid-2016.

Redwood Shores, Calif. – Amazon just obtained a new competitor for its Amazon Web Services cloud hosting and development platform. Oracle is going head-to-head with Amazon with a slew of more than 24 new additions to the Oracle Cloud Platform.

Oracle’s new integrated cloud services include infrastructure, platform and software delivered as a service. Specific cloud-based services include hosted Exadata-based production databases, archive storage, Big Data, enterprise mobility, and application integration.

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.

Much of the retail industry’s annual costs in returns can be prevented, according to a new survey.

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?

An investigation of Whole Foods Market stores in New York City has found systemic overcharging of its customers for prepackaged food, according to government officials.

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.

Shoppers looking for creative projects to do with their kids this summer will love a new collection from actress Jennifer Garner at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores.

The leading fabric and craft specialty retailer has launched We Made It by Jennifer Garner, a new line of creative kits for active kids, available only at Jo-Ann stores and Joann.com.