Supermarket & Grocery Industry News

NATICK, Mass. -- BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc. yesterday reported that sales for July grew 9.3 percent to $582.3 million from $532.6 million in the year-ago period, with grocery categories playing a significant roles in the gains.

RUTLAND, Vt. -- Vermont's biggest food show, the 71st annual Vermont Grocers exposition, hosted by the Vermont Grocers' Association (VGA), will take place Friday, Sept. 16 to Sunday, Sept. 18 at the Wyndham Burlington Hotel in Burlington, Vt. and the Robert E. Miller Exposition Center in Essex Junction, Vt.

LONDON -- The UK's largest supermarkets caught a break yesterday when the Office of Fair Trading, an independent organization that promotes and protects fair and competitive UK business practices, concluded that the Supermarkets Code of Practice should remain unchanged.

EDMONTON, Alta. -- Planet Organic Health Corp., based here, which owns and operates large natural food supermarkets under the Planet Organic Market banner, in addition to a chain of natural health outlets across Canada under the Sangster's Health Centres banner, said yesterday that it has completed its acquisition of health food store chain Newfound Health, also based in Edmonton, which has 14 franchise locations in the province of Alberta.

WILSONVILLE, Ore. -- Oregon grocers are furious with the Meth bill passed by the state senate last Saturday, claiming that, if signed into law, it will hurt the retail industry and do little to fight the state's methamphetamine abuse problem.

NEW YORK -- Low carb has hit a new low. Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. (ANI), manufacturer of the Atkins line of low-carbohydrate products and an outgrowth of the late Dr. Robert Atkins' once wildly popular low-carb diet, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection here as consumer interest in counting carbs wanes.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ¿ After dealing with its share of bankruptcy-related challenges, Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. got a major break on Friday, as the U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved a trade creditors payment program that will free up credit and provide the retailer with about $100 million in liquidity.

One retailer's firsthand account of devastation and recovery in the face of Hurricane Ivan shows how grocers both give and receive when disaster strikes.