Target, Inc.

During a conference call on Tuesday to review results of its third-quarter financial results, Supervalu chief executive Craig Herkert revealed that two more executives from outside the company have joined the retailer, including former Home Depot and General Electric executive Chuck Golias as group VP of strategic planning, and Keith Wyche, who most recently led U.S. operations for Pitney Management Services, as president of Cub Foods.

According to the “7th annual FSI Distribution Trends Report,” last year free-standing insert (FSI) coupons saw their greatest activity in 10 years, with more than 272 billion coupons dropped — an 8 percent increase over last year.

Browsing the show floor at the FMI Show in March 2008, Cory Deily, director of security and loss prevention at Reading, Pa.-based Redner’s Markets, Inc. wasn’t looking for a new security system.

In a year when consumers were looking to cut back anywhere they could, private label made inroads in a lot of categories, but took the biggest slices from segments like baby food and frozen pizza.

Despite a better-than-expected 18 percent third-quarter profit gain of $436 million vs. $369 million a year ago, Target Corp.’s forecast of a trying holiday season on the heels of tepid early-November results sent its share price down over 5 percent.

Shopper, an iPhone Shopping Assistant from New York-based ReachEverywhere, now offers weekly flyers from more than 100 retailers, including Target, Best Buy, Kmart, Sears, Meijer, Walgreens, Lowes and Home Depot, enabling users to find deals on products without having to flip through printed circulars.

As one of the first in the cooking genre to chronicle the convergence of eco-friendly food and lifestyles, I had a chance to preview the fourth season of PBS’ outstanding culinary series, “Chefs A’Field,” in advance of its DVD debut earlier this week.

Walgreens chief innovation officer Colin Watts was in town last week to host a jury preview of the upcoming Product of the Year awards, an annual consumer-driven competition.