News

The CEO of Whole Foods says that despite the company's recent bad publicity and sales growth struggles, the retailer plans to stay the course of "conscious capitalism."

Oak Brook, Ill. – Increased retail operating expenses, primarily related to store acquisitions and advertising, helped reduce profit at Ace Hardware Corp. during the second quarter of fiscal 2015. Net income totaled $57.5 million, a 13% drop from $66.5 million the same quarter a year earlier.

Consolidated revenues fared better, rising 6% to $86.2 billion from $84.8 billion.

Chicago - Lawn fertilizer, grass and weed killer, and propane grills were the top three categories driving small-scale growth at True Value Co. during the second quarter of fiscal 2015.

The company reported gross billings of $573.6 million for the quarter ended July 4, up 1% from the same period a year ago. Revenue was $431.9 million, an increase of 0.6% or $2.4 million. The cooperative posted a quarterly net margin of $9.3 million.

Grand Rapids, Mich. – A rival Midwestern grocery chain is reportedly accusing regional mass merchandiser Meijer Inc. of offering unfairly low prices on grocery products. According to the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee-based law firm Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan has filed five complaints against Meijer from an unnamed client who is grocer with stores in Wisconsin.

San Juan – Puerto Rico calls to many with warm weather, beautiful beaches and friendly people. The U.S. island territory is also calling to Starbucks Corp., who is answering with a new franchise deal that will significantly expand its Puerto Rican presence.

Starbucks has signed a licensing agreement with Baristas Del Caribe LLC, an affiliate of Puerto Rican conglomerate Empresas Fonalledas. Starbucks opened its first store in San Juan, in 2002 and today has 19 stores across the island, employing more than 340 employees.

Los Angeles – Fast-casual pizza chain PizzaRev is cutting into the Mexican market. PizzaRev has signed a franchise agreement with Grupo Galería to bring PizzaRev to Mexico.

The agreement calls for 20 PizzaRev restaurants to be developed throughout Mexico City and the states of Mexico, Nuevo León and Coahuila. The group is the largest Carl’s Jr. franchisee in Mexico and opened the first international store for PizzaRev parent company Buffalo Wild Wings outside of Canada.

Norfolk, Va. -- The Cordish Companies announced its comprehensive $40 million overhaul and rebranding of Norfolk, Virginia’s iconic Waterside Festival Marketplace as Waterside District.

Scottsdale, Ariz. – JDA Software Group Inc. is launching new integrated fulfillment capabilities that combine the functionality of JDA intelligent fulfillment and labor productivity solutions with order management solutions from IBM Commerce. This technology collaboration is designed to let retailers process orders more intelligently and profitably across sales channels in real-time, to ensure customers have a positive end-to-end buying experience.

St. Petersburg, Fla. – A surprisingly small number of consumers makes or breaks new CPG products. According to a study from personalized digital media company Catalina, less than 1% of consumers drive the vast majority of volume for most new CPG products.

If you’ve got a physical shop in the U.S., chances are you’re well acquainted with the upcoming deadline for getting an EMV card reader: October 1, 2015. And you’re probably also very aware that if you don’t have this device and complete all your compliance steps, you’ll be on the hook for all the painful chargebacks and related costs that come with fraudulent credit card transactions.