Research & Analysis

BOGOTA, Colombia - Carulla Vivero S.A., Colombia's second-biggest retailer, has chosen Toronto-based brand strategy and design consultancy Watt International, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Envoy Communications Group, to lead the repositioning and design of the company's 83 Carulla stores. Carulla Vivero operates a chain of 133 supermarkets, hypermarkets, and discount stores throughout Colombia.

ST. LOUIS - As Schnuck Markets, Inc. continues seeking out ways to expand its variety and value-added customer services, the family-held chain is bringing a dozen cuts of bison (or buffalo) meat to St. Louis-area customers.

LAKELAND, Fla. ¿ Some sense of normalcy is slowly returning for Florida's food retailers and manufacturers as the state continues to clean up after Hurricane Charley. Retailers reported most of their stores were up and running. The state's citrus crop may have been decimated by the storm.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Grocer and wholesaler Spartan Stores, Inc., based here, wants to sell gas and will put convenience stores and pumps at an unspecified number of its 54 Family Fare Supermarkets and Glen's Markets, the company said last week.

CINCINNATI - United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1099, representing about 8,500 employees at Kroger supermarkets in parts of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, began negotiations with the company late last week for a new contract, and said it expects tough bargaining.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Sorry, Charley, but Sunshine State supermarkets were prepared to take whatever you could dish out on Friday.

SEATTLE - As it did recently in Manhattan, Whole Foods Market will serve as an anchor for a major mixed-use development project, 2200 Westlake, in the South Lake Union neighborhood in Seattle.

As the old saying goes, "Actions speak louder than words." To make sure that all of its more than 36,000 employees were acting on the company's written Six Promises of customer service, Pittsburgh-based supermarket chain Giant Eagle, Inc. rolled out a companywide campaign to communicate and reinforce the service standards to new and veteran associates.