News Briefs

Women Grocers of America is rolling out the Emerging Female Leaders Network, a share group for female leaders in the independent grocery industry who want to grow their professional network and ramp up their leadership development.

The new share group will debut in tandem with the spring gathering of the Executive Female Leaders Network (EXFL), meeting at the first half of the event on May 1-2 in Chicago. 

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Among the objectives of the share group will be establishing and growing connections and relationships with women in the grocery industry, learning new skills to support professional development, increasing confidence and acquiring tools to advance professionally, and learning more about the overall grocery industry, including consumer and market trends. 

“WGA continues to enjoy great success and growth in interest and membership after the inaugural EXFL meeting in Washington, D.C., last October, when more than 40 women met for two days of professional and personal development,” noted Kristin Popp, president of Women Grocers of America, which is part of the Washington, D.C.-based National Grocers Association, and EVP of Janesville, Wis.-based Woodman’s Markets. “This new share group will boost mentoring opportunities and allow women executives to nurture the next generation of leadership for our industry.” 

With a targeted attendance of 12-15 women, the share group will meet in spring and fall with the executive network, in addition to various virtual touchpoints, creating a mentor “buddy” system among its members and members of EXFL. Participants must attend virtual and in-person events.

Sprouts Farmers Market continues to shuffle its store roster. After announcing the closure of 11 underperforming stores and sharing that it intends to focus on smaller-format locations with 30 planned openings this year, the retailer has acquired two independently owned stores in California.

Sprouts is taking over the locations in the city of Chula Vista as part of its growth in that region. The stores were operating under the Sprouts Farmers Market name as part of a legacy trademark license agreement reached with a third-party operator several years ago.

With this move, Sprouts is consolidating its business and effectively ending licensed Sprouts store operations. “We are pleased to bring these two high-volume stores into the Sprouts fold, allowing us to serve more customers in the San Diego market,” said Chip Molloy, Sprouts’ CFO.

According to information from the retailer, the acquisition of these two locations was not factored into the company’s latest outlook that was released on March 2. In that report, Sprouts shared that it expects net sales growth between 4%-6% for the rest of fiscal 2023 and pegged capital expenditures to fall between $210 million and $230 million.

Phoenix-based Sprouts Farmers Market employs approximately 31,000 associates and operates approximately 380 stores in 23 states nationwide. The company is No. 53 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.

Reflecting the elevation of that bread subcategory, brioche products are available at Walmart. St Pierre Bakery announced that it has secured distribution with that leading retailer to carry three of its SKUs.

According to St Pierre Bakery, its sliced brioche loaf variants are rolling out into 2,200 Walmart locations, while its waffles with butter product are on the shelf at more than 4,000 stores. The brand is supporting the introduction with marketing efforts.

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“This is fantastic news for the brand and the result of a collaborative relationship we have built with Walmart, creating a sound strategy and a lot of shared insight,” said David Wagstaff, managing director at St Pierre Bakery. “We have invested heavily in our supply chain to ensure we maintain our industry leading fill rates and deliver for our customers. We knew that the opportunity justified the investment, but driving distribution was key to realizing it and our products appearing on shelves in Walmart stores nationwide has helped us to do just that.”

At Walmart, St Pierre loaves will be merchandised for the first time in the commercial bread aisle. The brand’s offerings are typically displayed in the in-store bakery area.

Brioche continues to make gains in the overall bread category. St Pierre cited data showing that the subcategory has grown by $98 million on a year-over-year basis, with St Pierre capturing almost 18% branded market share and 71% branded market share within the in-store bakery section.

Based in Manchester, England, the St Pierre Groupe spans the St Pierre Bakery brand as well as the Baker Street and Paul Hollywood brands. In 2022, St Pierre Group joined the Grupo Bimbo  portfolio.

The Giant Eagle-owned GetGo Café + Market convenience store chain has formed a partnership with Lux Vending LLC, dba Bitcoin Depot, an Atlanta-based Bitcoin ATM operator and fintech company, to install Bitcoin ATMs (BTMs) at 125 GetGo stores in various Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic metropolitan areas.

“We’re thrilled to work with a leading convenience store brand like GetGo to grow the footprint of Bitcoin Depot BTMs across locations in multiple states,” said Bitcoin Depot CEO Brandon Mintz. “We’re confident in our technology’s ability to provide easy and convenient crypto access to GetGo’s existing patrons while adding holistic value to their business and encouraging new customer traffic as well.”

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The partnership enables GetGo customers to purchase Bitcoin in easily accessible locations where a variety of additional amenities is available.

“Providing our guests with high-quality foods and the best in convenience is our top priority at GetGo,” noted Brandon Daniels, the convenience store chain’s public relations manager. “We continually look for new ways to better serve them, and new technologies are just one of the ways we can exceed their expectations.”

Bitcoin Depot allows users to convert their cash into Bitcoin via BDCheckout through its app and at about 7,000 kiosk locations in 48 states and 10 Canadian provinces. 

GetGo operates more than 270 locations throughout western Pennsylvania, Ohio, northern West Virginia, Maryland and Indiana, offering food and fuel in a variety of models, from open-concept stores to stand-alone kiosks. Its parent company, Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle, is No. 36 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.

This time it’s frozen fruit in the food safety spotlight. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is conducting an epidemiological investigation into recent cases of hepatitis A infections tied to frozen organic strawberries. So far, there have been five illnesses and two hospitalizations attributed to the contaminated products.

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In response, several brands and retailers have issued a recall of the berries that were sourced from a common supplier in Mexico. The vendor California Splendor voluntarily recalled certain 4-pounds bags of Kirkland Signature frozen organic whole strawberries sold at Costco stores in Los Angeles and Hawaii. Another vendor, Scenic Fruit, provided now-recalled products to retailers including Costco, ALDI, KeHE and PCC Community Markets in specific states. The recall also includes Organic Tropical Fruit Blend SKUs sold at Trader Joe’s stores nationwide.

The FDA advised consumers to discard the products and, if those berries were eaten in the past two weeks, to contact their health care provider if they have not been vaccinated against hepatitis A.

For more information on the outbreak investigation, go to FDA's website.

Walgreens Boots Alliance is continuing with its company-wide changeover to phenol-free paper receipts. The transition consists of a phased approach, which began with all of its Boots locations in the United Kingdom, and the retailer is now working to complete the phenol-free changeover at all of its nearly 9,000 Walgreens and Duane Reade stores in the United States by the end of 2023. 

Phenol-based chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA) or bisphenol S (BPS) were used to coat thermal papers. These chemicals protected the paper and printer against overheating.

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However, studies have found that long-term handling of these chemicals – even in small amounts – can have a negative impact on health, affecting hormones, metabolism and other bodily functions.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Walgreens also began offering a completely “no contact” checkout option for customers, including the ability to receive digital- only receipts. Currently, according to the company, this step alone is saving 87 miles of receipt paper every day.

Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens, which operates nearly 9,000 retail locations across the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, is No. 5 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.