Market Trends

In a deal that underscores its commitment to customers and employees in both cities, Hy-Vee, Inc. is acquiring two Sunshine Foods stores in Sioux Falls, S.D., and one in Windom, Minn.

Retail conglomerate Koninklijke Ahold N.V. yesterday began having its American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) traded on the over-the-counter (OTC) market’s highest tier, OTCQX International Premier, according to New York-based Pink OTC Markets, Inc. the financial information and technology services company that operates the top electronic quotation and trading system in the United States.

A new report from the Hartman Group has found that since 2005, spending on wellness products has trended upward, with a larger proportion spent on wellness in fresh categories. The average household now spends $148.48 per month, or 19 percent of all monthly spending, on categories with a wellness halo.

Three new stores being constructed by Weis Markets will incorporate technologies and systems expected to reduce store refrigerant usage by 50 percent compared to a typical supermarket, thus decreasing their impact on the environment.

Chicken is a staple in the American consumer diet, with 53 percent of consumers eating chicken more than four times weekly, according to a recent consumer study conducted by Market Force Information.

Guiding Stars is currently available in more than 1,500 grocery stores, as well as schools, but now the pioneering nutrition guidance program has teamed up with Pittsfield, Maine-based Sebasticook Valley Hospital (SVH) to introduce the system in a hospital cafeteria for the first time.

As a way to help families relate to each other better in an increasingly depersonalized technological society, Unilever food brands has developed “The Family Dish…A Recipe for Fun,” an initiative inviting moms to round up family members and get cooking.

Fresh Madison Market is offering free bus rides to the residents of the Allied Drive neighborhood on the south side of Wisconsin’s capital city to its downtown store location.