Research & Analysis

ZAANDAM, Netherlands - Ahold today announced further steps in its strategic program to streamline the company and improve long-term efficiency.

LOS ANGELES - Labor leaders launched a campaign Tuesday to enlist union members across the country in the cause of striking grocery clerks in Southern California, according to an Associated Press report.

LOS ANGELES - As the Southern California supermarket labor dispute enters its 15th week, several thousand people formed a "human chain" at a Vons market in Garden Grove, Calif. over the weekend in support of striking and locked-out workers.

ZAANDAM, Netherlands - Ahold announced that its Williamsville, N.Y.-based Tops Markets subsidiary will divest its 204-unit convenience store chain as part of a previously announced effort to raise 2.5 billion euros as it emerges from an accounting scandal.

WASHINGTON - On the heels of last Friday's announcement that the industry's major trade associations agreed to implement a voluntary country-of-origin program, food industry leaders are decrying results of a poll released yesterday and sponsored by the National Farmers Union (NFU), a vocal advocate of COOL.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Online auction site ebay has said it will ban the sale of recently expired coupons and electronic "scanned" coupons, according to the Wall Street Journal Online.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - Richard A. Thorne, chairman and c.e.o. of distributor Tree of Life Inc., today said the company has agreed to sell the assets of Specialty Partners to Natural/Specialty Sales Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Acosta Inc. The acquisition is expected to close in February 2004.

WASHINGTON - The boards of directors of the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) and the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) today endorsed guidelines designed for use by companies engaged in the large-scale deployment of Electronic Product Code (EPC) to ensure consumers' privacy rights.