Demand Planning

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Spartan Stores, Inc. announced today that it will be closing 13 under-performing Food Town retail grocery stores principally located in the Toledo, Ohio and outlying areas.

DUBLIN, Ireland - Dublin food retailer Superquinn has teamed up with Ireland's biggest independent wholesale group to form a 2 billion euro ($2.18 billion) buying alliance, Ireland's Business World reports.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Safeway Inc. has chosen Elogex OneNetwork to provide a platform to manage inbound transportation across the retailer's North American distribution center network.

SAN CARLOS, Calif. - DemandTec Inc. announced that H. E. Butt Grocery Company (H-E-B) has signed a multi-year contract to license the DemandTec 3 software platform, and to use its advanced application, DemandTec Price, to enforce pricing strategy and assist in determining prices throughout all of its 300 stores in the U.S.

NEW YORK - As two top retailers restated their February sales forecasts due to business lost to severe winter storms on Presidents Day, Wal-Mart left its forecasts unchanged, according to Reuters.

NEW YORK - Online grocery solutions provider MyWebGrocer on Wednesday announced that comparable store sales for its network of more than 200 supermarkets, which offer an online grocery-shopping alternative, are up 90 percent for the two-month period of December and January.

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. - General Mills Inc. has raised the price it charges wholesalers for its cold cereals by 2 percent, The Associated Press reports. Rival Kellogg Co. recently introduced a similar price increase.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.-Spartan Stores, Inc., which owns the Toledo area's Food Town supermarkets, said yesterday it lost $57 million in its latest fiscal quarter, the third consecutive period it suffered a loss.