Nonfoods

MONROVIA, Calif. - Trader Joe's, based here, has decided to stop buying grocery bags from Federal Way, Wash.-based Weyerhaeuser, a company that the environmental advocacy group Rainforest Action Network (RAN) calls "the No. 1 destroyer of old-growth forests in North America."

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- It could have been the 50,528,081 pounds of apples sold a year, or the fact that Meijer carries more than 23 varieties. Or it could be because Meijer generally has the freshest produce on the market. Any way you slice it, Meijer is a leader in apple sales and merchandising, and was accordingly given top honors as the 2004 Apple Merchandiser of the Year yesterday by the U.S. apple industry.

MADISON, Wis. ¿ The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, based here, is looking to boost cheese consumption and sales this fall with a pair of heavily marketed promotions.

BOULDER, Colo. -- Henry's Farmers Markets, a fresh foods grocery store chain owned by Wild Oats, will open its 24th store in Corona, Calif. Aug. 25 as part of an aggressive expansion schedule in the Southwest that includes five new stores this year and an additional 10 by the end of 2005.

WASHINGTON - Food retailers and wholesalers report that shoplifting, employee theft, and check fraud remain the greatest sources of annual losses, according to a report released today by the Food Marketing Institute.

UTICA, N.Y. - Chanatry's French Road Market here, a feisty one-unit independent that has been profiled as a Progressive Grocer Store of the Month three times, is on the move again, this time expanding and remodeling its meat department.

NATICK, Mass. - Double digits gains in food sales were partly responsible for a 25 percent jump in net income for BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc., in its second quarter ended July 31.

LAKELAND, Fla. ¿ Some sense of normalcy is slowly returning for Florida's food retailers and manufacturers as the state continues to clean up after Hurricane Charley. Retailers reported most of their stores were up and running. The state's citrus crop may have been decimated by the storm.