Center Store

EDMOND, Okla. -- HAC Inc. here, operator of 67 supermarkets throughout Oklahoma and Kansas, including 49 Homeland Stores, launched its own branded debit card, the One Card Plus, in five of its locations.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- Wal-Mart is at the gate of Los Angeles, with its newest Wal-Mart supercenter just opened Friday in Santa Clarita, Calif., bringing the banner closer than ever the Los Angeles city limits.

PITTSBURGH -- Forget about its importance as a sporting event; the Super Bowl is one of the nation's biggest food events of the year, and supermarket operators this season are making sure they score every extra point they can.

STILLWATER, Minn. -- Inspired by its recent Second Harvest Heartland Food Bank Round-Up program, Cub Foods here unveiled its own piece of artwork -- containing a donation check worth $75,000 -- in downtown Saint Paul's Rice Park while Winter Carnival ice sculptors began etching their frozen creations.

SCARBOROUGH, Maine -- Hannaford Bros. Co. here is making a bid to win over more Massachusetts shoppers with the opening of its biggest stores in Taunton and Easton, Mass. this weekend. The stores, both of which will make their debut on Saturday, measure about 56,000 square feet each.

CARLISLE, Pa. -- Martin's Food Market held the grand opening of a 66,000-square-foot store yesterday in Waynesboro, Va. The retailer is a division of Ahold USA.

WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. -- Ahold USA division Tops Markets, LLC, based here, and the board of directors of weekend food and entertainment festival Taste of Buffalo, which is presented by Tops, are inviting teens to enter the 2006 Taste of Buffalo Poster Art Contest. Entrants will submit original artwork based on this year's theme, "We Be Jammin' On Delaware," a reference to the festival's location on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo. The contest is open to students in grades 9 to 12 who are currently enrolled in a public, private, or parochial high school in Erie or Niagara counties.

SCARBOROUGH, Maine -- Hannaford Supermarket and Pharmacy here will hold the grand opening of its new 62,000-square-foot Rochester, N.H. store on Saturday, Jan. 28.