Produce industry veteran Steve Lutz will join the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) as regional VP–U.S. and Canada West in June. In this newly created senior-level position, Lutz will be responsible for expanding PMA’s West Coast presence. He will engage with members in the region to help them make the most of PMA to grow their […]
Category: Produce News
The Shelby Report covers the produce industry for grocery retailers nationwide, from fresh fruit and vegetable trends and supplier announcements to merchandising strategies and regional market news. Updated regularly across our five regional editions.
Find all our fresh coverage in Focus on Fresh.
Neil Stern: Create Your Own Story To Remain Relevant
Editor’s note: Last month, The Shelby Report published part one of our coverage of a presentation given by Neil Stern, a senior partner at retail consultancy firm McMillanDoolittle LLP, at the Annual Meat Conference entitled “Maintaining Relevancy: Retail Trends Impacting Today’s World and Beyond.” In part one, Stern laid out demographic and consumer behavior trends, […]
Food Lion Investing $168M In Virginia, Will Remodel 105 Stores This Year
Food Lion plans to remodel 105 stores in the greater Norfolk, Virginia, market in 2018. The $168 million capital investment will go toward remodeling the stores, lowering prices, expanding the assortment of products, hiring approximately 5,000 new associates and promoting current associates as well as additional community partnerships through Food Lion’s hunger-relief initiative Food Lion Feeds. […]
Schnucks Opening First Warrenton, Missouri, Store This Fall
Schnuck Markets Inc. will open a new 37,000-s.f. store in Warrenton, Missouri, this fall. Hiring will begin about six weeks prior to opening, with Schnucks adding 71 jobs to the local economy. The store, which is already under construction at Highway 47 and Veterans Parkway, will be the grocer’s first Warrenton location. “The loyalty of […]
E. Coli Outbreak Still Spreading, Contaminated Romaine Traced To Yuma Farm
The CDC has added 14 more illnesses to the multi-state E. coli O157:H7 outbreak associated with romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona, region, bringing the case count to 98. At the same time, the FDA has traced the whole-head romaine associated with illnesses at an Alaska correctional facility to Harrison Farms in the Yuma area. The CDC […]
CDC Warns Retailers, Restaurants Not To Serve Romaine From Yuma
The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a warning to retailers and restaurant operators not to serve or sell any romaine lettuce sold from the growing region of Yuma, Arizona, for fear that it is tainted. Fifty-three people from 16 states had been infected with the strain of E. coli as of Friday, April […]
Fresco Y Más Launches In Tampa With Dual Openings
Southeastern Grocers, parent company of Bi-Lo, Fresco y Más, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie stores, on Wednesday unveiled two new Fresco y Más stores in West Florida, growing the banner to 24 locations and expanding it beyond South Florida for the first time. The stores are located at 8424 Sheldon Road and 4056 N. Armenia Avenue […]
Coborn’s Opens Fifth ‘Next-Gen’ Store In Delano, Minnesota
Guests and employees will celebrate the grand reopening of the Coborn’s in Delano, Minnesota, this month after a remodeling project that transformed it into the company’s fifth “next-generation” grocery store. The grand reopening, taking place on Thursday, April 26, from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., will begin with live music from Charlie Roth at 3:00 […]
Winn-Dixie Unveils New Concept With Remodeled St. Johns, Florida, Store
Winn-Dixie has reopened its remodeled store in St. Johns, Florida, in the Jacksonville area. The store offers a new concept and features in response to customers who asked for an improved shopping experience, the company says. As part of the grand opening ceremony and to officially reintroduce the community to the new and improved store at […]
Potatoes USA To Kick Off Athletic Performance Campaign This Summer
Potatoes USA debuted a new consumer marketing campaign at its annual meeting in Denver. The “What Are You Eating?” campaign is designed to encourage athletes to use potatoes as fuel for athletic performance. It also is intended to re-frame potato nutrition messaging, from providing reasons why it is okay to eat potatoes to providing the reasons why consumers should eat them […]
Food City Celebrates Grand Reopening Of Remodeled Tucson Store
Food City hosted a grand reopening for its newly remodeled store at 1225 W. St. Mary’s Road in Tucson, Arizona, last week. The festivities ran from Wednesday, April 4 through Sunday, April 8. During the fiesta-themed celebrations, customers got a first-hand look at the refreshed store and its new and expanded offerings. They also had […]
Viva Fresh Expo Welcomes Texas A&M Students For Third Year
This year’s Viva Fresh Produce Expo again will feature the Aggies for Fresh Reception after two successful years of offering students the opportunity to connect one-on-one with attendees, with many of those students securing positions within the industry as a result. Aggies for Fresh is a campaign created to recruit students from Texas A&M University to the fresh produce industry. This year’s nine Aggies for Fresh scholarship […]
Bridgewater, New Jersey, Whole Foods Features In-Store Mushroom Farm
Whole Foods Market Bridgewater, the first Somerset County, New Jersey, location for the natural and organic food retailer, opened late last week at 319 Chimney Rock Road at Route 22. The 49,000-s.f. store offers the grocer’s first indoor mushroom farm, developed in partnership with Smallhold, a New York City-based company that works with restaurants, grocery stores and […]
Aunt Dottie’s Renamed Greenjoy; Launches New Logo, Packaging, Website
Aunt Dottie’s is rebranding its products as Greenjoy, revamping all its packaging and launching a new website. The name Greenjoy comes from the company’s line of Pressed Salad Bars and its relevance to the company’s goals—to bring joy to eating healthy greens and vegetables. As it continues to expand, the company is uniting all its […]
New York, Philadelphia & Miami Top Best Cities For Fresh Food Access
New York is the best city for fresh-food access, with 75 percent of its residents living within a five-minute walk of a grocery store or year-round farmers market, followed by Philadelphia at 64 percent and Miami at 57 percent. This is according to a new report by real estate brokerage Redfin, which analyzed Walk Score data for 48 major […]
Publix Opening New Supermarket In Huntsville, Alabama
Publix Super Markets will be opening a new store on March 28, in Huntsville, Alabama, at the Pinnacle at Provident Shopping Center on Old Monrovia Road. “Publix is known for providing excellent customer service and a unique shopping experience for our customers,” said Brenda Reid, media and community relations manager. “We are proud to open our […]
BrightFarms Entering Texas With $17M Hydroponic Greenhouse
BrightFarms, a brand of locally grown salads, has selected Abilene as the site of its first hydroponic greenhouse farm in Texas. Construction is slated to begin this summer, and shoppers will find fresh, local, pesticide-free and non-GMO greens and herbs in area grocery stores by early 2019. The 180,000-s.f. hydroponic greenhouse will be constructed at […]
Recommended: The Red Delicious Is An Apple Atrocity. Why Are We Growing Billions Of Pounds Of Them Each Year?
Almost everyone agrees: The Red Delicious is a crime against the apple. The fruit makes for a joyless snack, despite the false promise of its name, with a bitter skin that gives way to crumbling, mealy flesh. The Red Delicious is a bit like a Styrofoam prop: It looks picturesque, but really has no business […]
Chacko To Succeed Papadellis As President Of Ocean Spray Cranberries
Randy Papadellis, president and CEO of Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., announced Feb. 15 that he plans to leave the cooperative on July 1, 2018, capping an 18-year career. Effective immediately, Bobby Chacko, who has been serving as SVP and chief growth officer since 2017, has been promoted to president and COO. Papadellis, whose career in the food […]
Giant Food Offering Free, Heart-Healthy Store Tours
During February, American Heart Month, Giant Food is encouraging customers to take a free, heart-healthy store tour at Giant locations in Maryland, Washington D.C., Delaware and Virginia. The tours are led by Giant Food’s in-store nutritionists and will point out items that affect heart health, such as fat and sodium, while also teaching tips and tricks for preparing […]
