Center Store

WASHINGTON - The Food Marketing Institute and other industry groups offered praise yesterday for the House Agriculture Committee's passage of a bipartisan bill calling for the implementation of a voluntary country-of-origin labeling program.

RACINE, Wis. - Two former executives of the now-defunct Kohl's Food Stores chain are establishing a new store under the Country Market USA banner that they hope will grow into a four-unit operation within a year.

CAMDEN, N.J. - The Campbell Soup Co. here has joined forces with Scholastic and NBC's "American Dreams" series for a novel promotion that will tie in an essay contest sponsored by Campbell's with a storyline on the show.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Food, beverage, and consumer products manufacturers reported that the cost of unsaleable products declined to 1.11 percent in 2003, compared with a record high of 1.18 percent in 2002, according to the Grocery Manufacturers of America-Food Marketing Institute 2004 Unsaleables Benchmark Report.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - On the heels of last week's unveiling of its first Collierville, Tenn. store built from the ground up, Schnuck Markets, Inc. is aggressively embarking on Phase II of its Mid-South expansion plans.

PITTSBURGH - Up to 70 cases of salmonella poisoning throughout Pennsylvania had been linked to a deli product sold at Sheetz convenience stores by Friday afternoon, and the Pennsylvania Department of Health said it expected the number to continue to increase throughout the weekend.

BOULDER, Colo. - Wild Oats Markets, Inc., the nation's No. 2 natural and organic supermarket chain, will be moving into the Cincinnati market with a new store opening in the Deerfield Town Center July 21.

EDMONTON, Alta. - Planet Organic Health Corp., which runs large natural food supermarkets in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, will pay CAN$4 million (US$3.034 million) in cash and stock for Sangster's, a 35-store national chain that sells vitamins and supplements.