Trading Partners

SEATTLE - Today marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of Associated Grocers, Inc. (AG), a full-service wholesaler providing food, general merchandise, and retail services to stores throughout Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Hawaii, and Guam.

KANSANS CITY, Kan. - Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc. has successfully gone live with Chicago-based AquiTec International's Procurement solution in its newly acquired Nashville division.

Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for seafood is set to go into effect on Sept. 30 without any further rules published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to a spokeswoman for the McLean, Va.-based National Fisheries Institute. Following are some questions and answers that NFI issued in its member bulletin.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Although discussions of irradiated ground beef have been largely obscured in the wake of the demise of San Diego-based SureBeam Corp. last January, Wegmans Food Markets is currently promoting Huisken BeSure frozen irradiated ground beef patties on its Web site.

WASHINGTON - Despite hopes to the contrary, Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for seafood will go into effect on Sept. 30 without any further rules published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to a spokeswoman for the McLean, Va.-based National Fisheries Institute.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. ­ Supermarkets have a tremendous opportunity to increase total store sales by leveraging pharmacy operations, according to a new study released by the General Merchandise Distributors Council (GMDC) Education Foundation during the association's HBC Marketing conference this past weekend.

Giant Eagle mixes creative merchandising, special events, and just plain love to create a pet program that caters to owners as much as animals.

From mined salt and faux caviar to artisan teas and the cheesecake to go with them, new gourmet products are elbowing for shelf space.