Frozen Foods

Rising Sun Farms has introduced two new product lines full of items intended to spruce up salads and snacks: Salad Energizers and DipnSpreads. The Salad Energizers line consists of three products containing a group of items that can be tossed into a salad.

The Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) is now offering new marketing materials to licensed retailers online. The materials, meant to promote the “Fruit & Veggie of the Month” campaign, include recipes, consumer columns and ad slicks.

Safeway Inc. released its annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report yesterday, a comprehensive document designed to provide readers with a clear picture of the company's activities on a wide range of fronts, including community, people, products and planet.

As summer approaches, frozen goodies beckon. Del Monte Foods has a new product called Fruit Chillers Freeze & Eat Tubes that offers a fun, cold treat for kids and adults. The product consists of sorbet packaged in a thin tube that contains no artificial flavors or corn syrup. Flavors include Strawberry Snow Storm and Grape Berry Blizzard.

Recognizing recession-weary consumers are buying more shelf-stable products, Del Monte, General Mills, Kraft and others are focusing their marketing and R&D efforts on the formerly unsexy center of the supermarket.

While big-box retailers BJ’s and Costco had a tough time in April as net and comparable-store sales tumbled during a time of economic recession and plummeting gasoline sales, Target managed to stem its recent sales declines and Wal-Mart actually saw higher sales during the month, driven by increased traffic and a strong showing in seasonal and discretionary items.

Safeway’s O Organics and Eating Right brands have expanded their international distribution with upcoming debuts at the ShopRite and Exito supermarket chains in South Africa and Columbia, respectively.

Amid countless reports on how the economy affects everyday purchases, very little has been written about how shopping patterns are tied directly to paychecks -- or more specifically, how paydays at the start and end of each month create spikes in supermarket sales. Specifically, how much of a lift can retailers expect on the first week of each month? Which categories are most likely to spike at the beginning of the month? Has the average first-of-the-month spike increased in recent years?