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 […]
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.
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 […]
Trump Administration ‘Food Box’ SNAP Proposal Sparks Concern
The Trump Administration’s 2019 budget proposal calls for a change to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that would replace current benefits with a “USDA Foods package.” The food box would contain items like “shelf-stable milk, ready to eat cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans and canned fruit and vegetables.” Food Marketing Institute (FMI) Chief Public […]
Kroger Reaches $1 Billion In Annual Organic Produce Sales
The Kroger Co.’s organic produce business has achieved $1 billion in annual sales. “Kroger offers one of the largest organic produce departments in America, and we are proud to have led the way in making this category more mainstream, accessible and affordable,” said Robert Clark, Kroger’s SVP of merchandising. “We have a dedicated procurement team that partners with more […]
Nevada Market Profile: State Drawing New Residents, New Business
by Lorrie Griffith/editor–West “Go west, young man” is how the saying goes. But today, some young men (and women) and older people, too, are doing the opposite and going east, according to a Dec. 3 article in the Los Angeles Times. They are leaving Southern California to head to Las Vegas to “find the middle-class […]
Bashas’ Family Of Stores Opens Remodeled Food City In Tucson
Bashas’ Family of Stores this week celebrated the reopening of a Food City supermarket in Tucson. As part of the opening day festivities, shoppers enjoyed live performances from Mariachi singers, as well as a grocery bag giveaways, food samplings, and a variety of prize giveaways including gift cards, kitchen appliances, and event tickets. The store […]
Stater Bros. To Open First Pasadena Store This Fall
A retail space—currently a Vons store—located at 1390 N. Allen Ave. in Pasadena, California, soon will become a Stater Bros. supermarket. The company will take possession of this location in May, “ensuring a smooth transition from the current occupant,” Stater Bros. says. At 42,000 s.f., this retail space then will undergo a major remodel and reopen […]
Gary Davis Of Russ Davis Wholesale Passes Away At Age 81
Gary Davis, former president and owner of Russ Davis Wholesale (RDW) in Wadena, Minnesota, died at his home Jan. 3 after a long battle with cancer. 2017 marked 60 years since Mr. Davis started selling fresh produce with his father, Russ. “Over the course of 50 years he leveraged a tremendous work ethic, significant smarts, […]
Sprouts Farmers Market Readying Stores In Its Home State
Sprouts Farmers Market soon will finish construction on new locations in Tempe and Scottsdale, Arizona. Those stores will be among four opening in the first quarter of 2018 in the grocer’s home state. The 30,000-s.f. Tempe store is located at 931 East Elliott Road and will open on Wednesday, March 21, at 7 a.m. The […]
Give Fresh Departments A Boost With Chinese New Year Promotions
Frieda’s Specialty Produce offers training and programming to help retailers ring in the Year of the Dog: Draw in shoppers to your store with the unique food experience of a Chinese New Year promotion. Frieda’s Specialty Produce offers special support to customers who book a Chinese New Year promotion by Jan. 10; it includes a […]
Ralphs Reopening Remodeled Mission Viejo, Calif., Store Dec. 13
Store to feature Ralphs’ Fresh Fare format Ralphs Grocery Co. is hosting a grand re-opening of its completely remodeled Portola Plaza supermarket at 27730 Santa Margarita Parkway in North Mission Viejo, California, next week. Following more than three months of ceiling-to-floor renovations, the supermarket is set to celebrate the re-opening on Wednesday, Dec. 13. As […]
Price, Freshness & Brand Loyalty: Top Influencers Driving Retailer Traffic
Whether in store or online, shoppers like to have options when it comes to where they purchase their everyday groceries and supplies. Shopping and hopping from store to store go hand-in-hand for today’s consumers as new research and insights from Acosta—a full-service sales and marketing agency in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry—shows that 76 percent […]
Vallarta Supermarkets Opens 50th Store In Pasadena, California
Vallarta Supermarkets, a Hispanic supermarket chain, opened its 50th store this week, located in Pasadena, California. The new supermarket in in the Renaissance Plaza Shopping Center on the southwest corner of North Fair Oaks Avenue and Orange Grove Boulevard. It previously was occupied by a Vons Supermarket. The remodeled 50,000-s.f. facility was built with an […]
H-E-B Huntsville Preview Included Concert, $100K In Donations
H-E-B’s newest store opened to shoppers Nov. 15 in Huntsville, Texas. The day before, the grocer and H-E-B Chairman and CEO Charles Butt donated $100,000 to local nonprofits and invited the community to a concert at 6:30 p.m. that evening featuring Texas country singer-songwriter Kevin Fowler. The 82,000-s.f. store, located at 1702 11th Street, is […]
Bristol Farms Celebrates Grand Opening Of New-Concept Store
Bristol Farms recently celebrated the grand opening of its prototype store on Mulholland Drive in Woodland Hills, California. It is the first major design departure for Bristol Farms in its 35-year history and is “a store that we’ve been dreaming up for a decade,” Kacie Davis, owner of KMDesign Co., which implemented the design, told The […]
