Research & Analysis

SALISBURY, N.C. - Food Lion Supermarkets has signed a partnership agreement with Chicago-based CoolSavings, Inc., an online direct marketing and media company, to join the latter's Grocery Solutions Network, an Internet-based distribution network for printable and electronic coupons, as well as requested product samples.

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.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - Natural food supermarket chain Earth Fare has said that it will remove all products containing high-fructose corn syrup from its shelves by Dec. 31. "As far as we know, we are the first chain to do a ban," the company's director of sales and marketing, Troy DeGroff, told Progressive Grocer.

BANGKOK - On the heels of its strong second-quarter financial results, Brussels-based Delhaize Group, parent company of the Food Lion supermarket chain, said late last week that the company will shut down its money-losing Thailand operations after a seven-year attempt to penetrate the retail food market there.

SUNBURY, Pa. - Weis Markets opened a new-design 53,712-square-foot superstore Saturday in Honeygo Village Center in White Marsh, Md.

HOUSTON - Robert Onstead, co-founder and former chairman of Randalls Food Markets, died last week of a heart attack at the age of 73 while vacationing in Italy with family members.

WEST BRIDGEWATER, Mass. - Shaw's Supermarkets workers Saturday voted to ratify two four-year contracts that were agreed to late last week by the grocer and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 791 with the help of a federal mediator, on the final day of a five-day extension of an expired three-year contract. At issue were salary and health care concerns for about 6,000 employees.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - TodoBebe, a Miami-based integrated media company dedicated to providing information about pregnancy and babies to Spanish speakers worldwide, said late last week that it will hold TodoBebe Baby Fairs at Wal-Mart supercenters in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami, beginning next month.