Editor’s note: HR & Benefits News is a monthly column by Chris Cooley, co-founder of MyHRConcierge and SMB Benefits Advisors. Believing rumors about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) can be costly for grocers. For example, many companies mistakenly believed that ACA wouldn’t be enforced, but the IRS has recently started sending out penalty letters for […]
Category: Industry News
Green Giant Launching Limited Edition Cans To Support Children’s Hospital
Green Giant has partnered with Smith Design to launch three limited edition cans that feature the artwork of patients of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Smith Design donated design, production and project management services to create these special cans of sweet peas, whole kernel sweet corn and cut green beans with colorful labels that integrate […]
Stop & Shop Green Energy Facility In Mass. Gets Design-Build Award
Stop & Shop’s new green energy facility in Freetown, Massachusetts, which converts food waste into clean energy, received an honorable mention at the 2018 New England Design-Build Awards. Each year, the Design-Build Institute of America’s New England chapter recognizes regional projects that demonstrate excellence in effectively integrating design and construction services to produce “high-value outcomes […]
Spencer, Massachusetts, Big Y Store Receives Major Upgrades
Big Y Foods has completed renovations to its Spencer, Massachusetts, World Class Market. The project brought about major upgrades in many areas of the 50,753-s.f. store as well as several new additions in response to changing customer needs. Big Y Spencer originally opened in November 1995; the store’s most recent previous remodel took place in April […]
BJ’s Wholesale Club Adds Same-Day Online Ordering And Pickup
BJ’s Wholesale Club has updated its website with new features like Shop BJs.com–Pick Up in Club. The new online ordering service allows shoppers to place their order and then pick it up in the club on the same day. The updated site also allows shoppers to add digital coupons to select online orders. BJ’s members […]
Food Lion Celebrates Former Farm Fresh Store Reopenings
It wasn’t quite six weeks ago that Food Lion announced it would purchase three Farm Fresh stores that would otherwise close for business in the greater Norfolk, Virginia, market. On Wednesday, May 9, these three stores, located at 1615 General Booth Boulevard in Virginia Beach, Virginia; 608 Mercury Boulevard in Hampton, Virginia; and 683 South […]
PCC Community Markets Commits To Improving Chicken Welfare
PCC Community Markets (PCC), a Seattle-based community-owned food market, is committing to improve the welfare of chickens raised for meat by meeting the standards of Compassion in World Farming’s Better Chicken Initiative (BCI) and the Joint Animal Protection Organization Statement on Broiler Chicken Welfare. PCC says it is the first retailer in the country to comprehensively address broiler chicken […]
Plant-Based Meat Company Beyond Meat Plans Global Expansion
Beyond Meat’s plant-based burgers are heading abroad with plans for expanded distribution and availability across six continents this summer. The mission driven company which aims to positively impact human health, the environment and animal welfare by replacing the protein at the center of the plate with “plant-based meat,” will work with distribution and food service […]
Former Maryland Steel Mill To House Hydroponic Greenhouse
Gotham Greens, a local produce brand, will open a hydroponic greenhouse in Maryland at the site of the former Bethlehem Steel mill now owned by Tradepoint Atlantic. The company’s expansion to Baltimore brings it to the third city in its growing network of urban greenhouses, which also are located in New York and Chicago. The initial […]
Three Pennsylvania Whole Foods Install EV Charging Stations
Blink Charging Co., an electric vehicle (EV) charging station operator, has deployed charging stations at three Pennsylvania Whole Foods Markets. The Whole Foods units will connect to the Blink Network, a cloud-based system that operates, manages and tracks Blink EV charging stations. Any Whole Foods shopper with an electric vehicle will be able to use […]
Krause’s Market Wins Its Third ‘Beef Stampede’ Championship
Krause’s Market’s Garrison, North Dakota, store topped nearly 400 grocery retailers from across the nation during Supervalu Inc.’s annual “Beef Stampede” merchandising contest. Scoring a perfect 75 out of 75 possible points, the retailer clinched its third win in the past four years. The Beef Stampede is held every fall to showcase beef as the […]
A (Biased) Grocer’s Guide To Choosing A Digital Commerce Partner, Or Why I Became CEO Of Self Point
by Michael J. Haaf Last fall, I was asked to join the board of a promising startup. Although I had never heard of the company, I was immediately impressed by the tech firm’s focus on helping grocery chains fight back against Amazon-Whole Foods, Walmart and other retailers entering the traditional grocery space with a wide […]
Peapod By Giant Expands Into New Zip Codes In Pennsylvania
Giant Food Stores in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, is partnering with its sister company, Peapod, to expand online grocery shopping and delivery in the Reading, Birdsboro, and Temple, Pennsylvania, communities. Customers and businesses in the following zip codes can now take advantage of Peapod grocery delivery: 19508, 19560, 19601, 19602, 19604, 19605, 19606, 19607, 19608, 19609, 19610 and […]
Ahold Delhaize Invests In Artificial Intelligence Research
Ahold Delhaize says it will use the insights gained at the Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence (ICAI), which launched at Amsterdam Science Park on April 26, to improve its businesses in both the U.S. and Europe. In the joint ICAI-Ahold Delhaize industry lab—the AIRLab, the first lab within the ICAI—seven PhDs will conduct research into “socially […]
Nestlé Enters $7B ‘Alliance’ To Sell Starbucks Coffee
Starbucks Corp. is forming a “global coffee alliance” with Nestlé S.A. in an effort to accelerate and grow the global reach of Starbucks brands in the consumer packaged goods and foodservice categories. Nestlé will obtain the rights to market, sell and distribute Starbucks, Seattle’s Best Coffee, Starbucks Reserve, Teavana, Starbucks VIA and Torrefazione Italia packaged […]
Menu Labeling Rules Now In Effect, Industry Responds
After two delays, Obama-era rules requiring chain restaurants and grocery stores to post the calorie counts of prepared foods on menus and menu boards went into effect on May 7. The rules, part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, apply to chains with at least 20 stores. They’re intended to help consumers make healthier choices […]
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. […]
Cash&Carry Smart Foodservice Is Now Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores
Cash&Carry Smart Foodservice, a chain of warehouse-format stores catering to the foodservice industry based in Portland, Oregon, is rebranding to Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores. The change reflects more than sixty years of evolution in the foodservice industry, the company says, adding that the new name will allow it to better communicate its mission of selling quality […]
Amazon Dominates Retail Industry In 2018 Brand Intimacy Report
Amazon continues to dominate the retail industry, according to marketing agency MBLM’s Brand Intimacy 2018 Report, a study of brands based on emotions. The retail industry ranked third overall in the study, following the media & entertainment and automotive industries, which placed first and second, respectively. In the retail category, Amazon was followed by Target and Whole Foods. […]
Albertsons Market Unveils Remodeled ‘Next-Gen’ Albuquerque Store
Albertsons Market on May 2 celebrated the completion of a large-scale remodel of its Albuquerque, New Mexico, store located at 10131 Coors Boulevard. As part of the festivities, the retailer presented a $10,000 donation to Special Olympics New Mexico during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “For more than 100 years, our company has operated on the foundational principle that […]
