News

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.
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

Deliv acquires Chicago delivery start-up

Menlo Park, Calif. - Same-day delivery company Deliv has acquired WeDeliver, a Chicago-based delivery service that powers same-day delivery for local retailers. Launched in early 2013, WeDeliver provides same-day delivery services for more than 200 retailers in the Chicago area
No wonder Ahold and Delhaize merged

Walmart Neighborhood Markets offer a compelling source of new sales growth for the company, Moody’s says in a new report.

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 U.S. grocery segment.
The Ugly Truth: Retailers losing millions betting on merchants’ intuition

The recent admission by Mickey Drexler to making “mistakes” while explaining the results of two J.Crew sweaters – one successful, one not – shined a bright light on the importance of each new product decision and the consequences of getting it wrong. In the grand scheme of things, one or two bad decisions do not always make or break a company. But when you string multiple bad decisions together, the stakes are much higher.
Study: Shoppers leaving national brands behind

National food, beverage and household brands continue to lose their place in Americans’ shopping carts, according to a new survey.

Deloitte’s annual American Pantry Study of more than 354 brands across 34 product categories found that nearly three in four (73%) of consumer packaged goods categories show an overall decline in their status as “must have” brands.
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.
NRF details retailers' $44B problem

Retailers are losing billions of dollars to shoplifting, employee/vendor theft and administrative error, according to the National Retail Federation.
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.
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.

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