Cruisers Convenience Stores (Boyett Patroleum)

New funding and upcoming pilot promise more innovation

Grocer wants to focus on core food and pharmacy businesses

Move allows grocer to focus on core business

PITTSBURGH - Giant Eagle customer and Fresh Express salad enthusiast Janet Devinney was selected as the lucky winner of a 2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser convertible in a Cruise Through Summer promotion that proved to be an ideal way to drive awareness and trial purchases of new Fresh Express fresh fruit products.

LAKELAND, Fla. - Crispers, LLC, a quick-serve restaurant chain that is financially backed by Publix Super Markets, Inc., based here, will begin expanding its presence in the Jacksonville, Fla. area with five new stores by mid-2005. Crispers, which currently operates 23 locations in Central Florida, has said in the past that it plans to open additional locations in that region as well as in South Florida.

The c-store segment continues to improve its portable fresh food lineup -- and reputation -- and supermarkets can ill afford to ignore their cross-channel competitors' bid to boost business from the inside out.

LAKELAND, Fla. - Publix Super Markets Inc. has made an equity investment in Crispers LLC, a Florida restaurant company that targets the health-conscious customer with a variety of salads, sandwiches and soups in a quick-serve format.