News

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens announced plans to close more than half of the stores it is acquiring in its deal with USA Drug.

The company — which said in July it would purchase the mid-South drug store chain for approximately $438 million — confirmed it would close approximately 76 stores across the region. USA Drug operates 144 stores under the USA Drug, Super D Drug, May's Drug, Med-X and Drug Warehouse banners.

The Home Depot will close its remaining seven big box stores in China, the company announced late yesterday, in order to shift its focus to specialty stores and online offerings in that market.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Sears Holdings disclosed in a regulatory filing that "because we believe that the company has substantial liquidity and financial flexibility," the company has elected to contribute an additional $203 million to its domestic pension plan on Sept. 14, after which the plan will be 80% funded under applicable law.

BOONE, Iowa — Dole Food Company partnered with Hy-Vee Food Stores to donate five salad bars to schools in the central Iowa area at the United Community School in Boone, Iowa. The salad bars were donated as a part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools initiative, which has donated more than 1,440 salad bars serving more than 720,000 children across the country.

Dover, Del. -- A Friday report by the Associated Press said that Staples Inc. will pay $8.9 million to settle an abandoned property dispute with the state of Delaware.

A final payment is slated to be paid by Staples on Monday to settle the two-year-old suit that involved Delaware’s method of calculating liability for abandoned property. Staples argued that unclaimed customer rebates should not be considered abandoned property, but a judge disagreed.

Walmart unveiled its top toy list Friday morning and couldn’t resist taking a shot at Toys "R" Us which launched a toy reservation program earlier in the week.

Walmart said its layaway program and top toy offering gives parents the confidence to shop now for the toys kids want at every day low prices. And in an obvious dig at Toys "R" Us, the press release for Walmart’s top 20 toys declared, "no reservations required: America’s largest toy seller’s hassle-free layaway program begins this Sunday."

With shoppers making fewer trips and impulse purchases, the need to influence them earlier and more frequently in the purchase decision-making cycle is critical for sales success. To accomplish this, consumer packaged goods (CPG) retailers and manufacturers are increasingly using cooperative advertising and promotion programs that target shoppers at home when they are most likely to be planning shopping trips and creating lists. As retailers, understanding what your competition is planning for in-home is just as essential to staying competitive as what’s happening in-store.

JavaJig is the name of a clever little item from Melitta that enables owners of single serve coffee makers to avoid the expense of prefilled cups.

Plenty of consumers love their Keurig machines – 1.4 million of them were sold by parent company Green Mountain Coffee Roasters the third quarter ended June 23 – but those darn K-cups are pricy. For example, Target featured a Keurig machine on the cover of its circular this week with a promotional price of $10.99 for an 18 count pack of Folgers or Millstone brand K-cups. That works out to 61 cents a cup.