Market Trends

NEW YORK - Best Buy, Pathmark, Stop N Shop, Ranch Market, Vallarta Supermarkets, The Limited and Family Dollar Stores are among several retailers that will be making presentations and speaking on panels at this year's Store-Specific Merchandising and Marketing Conference.

BOISE, Idaho - Albertson's Inc. on Tuesday announced plans to sell eight Missouri store locations and close a ninth, effectively completing the company's plan to exit the Springfield, Joplin, Nixa, Republic and Waynesville markets as a food retailer.

DALLAS - The Board of Governors of Food Distributors International (FDI) has approved a plan in which the association's wholesale grocery companies will join an umbrella organization with members of the Food Marketing Institute (FMI).

EMERYVILLE, Calif. - Whole Foods Market Inc., the world's largest natural and organic supermarket, is introducing solar energy as the primary lighting source at its store in Berkeley, Calif.

NEW YORK - A recent study conducted by Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York found that just 7 percent of parents of allergic children could correctly spot milk as an ingredient in foods found in grocery stores across the nation, Reuters reports.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Beginning March 7, shoppers in most Florida and southeast Georgia Winn-Dixie stores can register to participate in a new program that will provide ongoing benefits that include merchandise discounts and other special incentives.

QUINCY, Mass. - The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company and representatives of certain creditors of Big V have filed a joint liquidating plan of reorganization that provides for the purchase of 26 Big V Supermarkets by Stop & Shop.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Albertson's Inc. today expanded its online grocery service into Oregon, offering convenient delivery or store pick-up at 31 neighborhood stores in Oregon's Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties and Washington's Clark County.