Supermarket & Grocery Industry News

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Specialty retailer Fresh Market, which builds food stores to resemble European markets, is expanding into two more states north of its traditional operating area in the Southeast. The Greensboro, N.C.-based retailer will open its first Ohio store this week at the site of a former Big Bear storefront in Columbus, followed by a new store that will open in Geneva, Ill. in early March. Fresh Market announced last week that it will enter the Indiana market on Feb. 2 with a new location in Carmel.

Amid a rising death toll from last month's Indian Ocean tsunami disaster that rose toward a quarter of a million this week, the U.S. supermarket industry continues to step up with much needed relief funds to bring relief to those stricken by the recent disaster.

COLTON, Calif. -- A letter of intent has been entered into by Stater Bros. and its partners, Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Gatorade, and Tropicana, to sponsor the Stater Bros. 300 NASCAR Busch Series race at California Speedway in Fontana, Calif. on Saturday, Feb. 26. The sponsorship agreement will run through 2009.

COLTON, Calif. -- A letter of intent has been entered into by Stater Bros. and its partners, Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Gatorade, and Tropicana, to sponsor the Stater Bros. 300 NASCAR Busch Series race at California Speedway in Fontana, Calif. on Saturday, Feb. 26. The sponsorship agreement will run through 2009.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- In full-page ads published in more than 100 newspapers across the country, Wal-Mart c.e.o. H. Lee Scott said yesterday it was time for the public to hear the "unfiltered truth" about Wal-Mart, and time for the company to stand up on behalf of a workforce that includes 1.2 million Americans.

Colton, Calif.-based Stater Bros. Markets has launched an in-store fundraising program to support the South Asia tsunami relief effort by the American Red Cross.

WASHINGTON -- Industry trade groups said yesterday they were pleased for the most part with the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the recommendations for healthier eating that have been widely anticipated by the food industry in light of the attention placed on the country's obesity epidemic in the last several years.

Washington, D.C. ¿ In response to the Center for Science in the Public Interest¿s (CSPI) call earlier this week for restrictions on consumers¿ food choices, the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) labeled the consumer group¿s recommendations as unecessary.