Research & Analysis

PORTLAND, Ore.- Healthnotes, Inc. today announced that Clemens Family Markets is the first supermarket chain to roll out the new Healthnotes EasyAnswers Touchscreen kiosks in-store.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Food Lion announced today that 101 of its stores have earned the Energy Star designation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Energy Star label means these Food Lion stores are some of the most energy-efficient retail facilities in the United States.

WASHINGTON - On the heels of last Friday's announcement that the industry's major trade associations agreed to implement a voluntary country-of-origin program, food industry leaders are decrying results of a poll released yesterday and sponsored by the National Farmers Union (NFU), a vocal advocate of COOL.

LOS ANGELES - As the Southern California supermarket labor dispute enters its 15th week, several thousand people formed a "human chain" at a Vons market in Garden Grove, Calif. over the weekend in support of striking and locked-out workers.

ZAANDAM, Netherlands - Ahold announced that its Williamsville, N.Y.-based Tops Markets subsidiary will divest its 204-unit convenience store chain as part of a previously announced effort to raise 2.5 billion euros as it emerges from an accounting scandal.

WASHINGTON - The boards of directors of the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) and the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) today endorsed guidelines designed for use by companies engaged in the large-scale deployment of Electronic Product Code (EPC) to ensure consumers' privacy rights.

WASHINGTON - Associations for the nation's leading produce, beef, pork and seafood producers, along with food retailers and wholesalers, are joining forces to craft a cost-effective, voluntary program that would provide consumers country of origin information.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Online auction site ebay has said it will ban the sale of recently expired coupons and electronic "scanned" coupons, according to the Wall Street Journal Online.