Supermarket & Grocery Industry News

PITTSBURGH -- Giant Eagle, Inc. said yesterday that it is partnering with Courtenay, B.C.-based franchise Island Ink-Jet to refill computer printer ink cartridges for shoppers at three of its stores in western Pennsylvania. Technicians at those stores will refill empty ink cartridges for $4.95 to $17.95, a savings of as much as 70 percent vs. buying new cartridges, the partners said.

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. -- Retailers and manufacturers say category management is still "critically important," but that doesn't mean they are applying the discipline as much as they once were, new research from ACNielsen U.S. indicates. Category management is in the throes of a transition, as traditional ways of applying the practice are apparently losing favor with the industry, according to the marketing information firm's 14th Annual Trade Promotion Practices and Emerging Issues Study, released yesterday.

Bill's Fresh Markets is a plucky family-owned company that's managed to find success on the Bentonville behemoth's home turf.

PLANO, Texas -- StoreNext Retail Technologies, Inc. has added two powerful applications to its solution-mix, making them available via the Internet to small grocery chains that previously may have found them out of reach.

FRANKLIN, Tenn. -- Supermarkets plan to increase spending on self-checkout systems and workforce management software in the next 12 months, according to a new report from retail analyst and consultancy firm IHL Consulting Group.

WASHINGTON -- Representatives from the nonprofit advocacy group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) said yesterday at a press conference that the organization has filed two separate lawsuits that same morning in Alexandria Circuit Court in Virginia against the dairy industry, including a class action on behalf of all Virginia residents, to stop what the PCRM categorized as "phony" claims linking dairy intake and weight loss. The class action targets Kraft; General Mills; Dannon; McNeill Nutritionals, LLC, a division of Johnson & Johnson and the maker of Lactaid, which offers a line of products for people unable to digest dairy foods; the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA); Dairy Management, Inc.; National Dairy Council; and Lifeway Foods, manufacturer of a cultured milk product called kefir.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- It's a good thing for Wal-Mart that people have to eat. The latest figures from ACNielsen's Wal-Mart Channel Service for the 52-weeks ended May 14, show that growth in food and beverage sales more than offset an actual decline in sales of UPC-coded general merchandise at Wal-Mart supercenters and discount stores over the past year.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Supermarkets are going to be forced by alternative format competition to redefine their concepts and the shopping experience to capture their fair share of consumer spending, global management consultancy Retail Forward here said yesterday, as it released a new industry report.