The Fresh Market to add 14-16 new stores this year
The Fresh Market, which has three stores in the Greater Philadelphia Region (Center Valley, Glen Mills, Horsham; all in PA), announced last week that it plans to add 14 to 16 new stores in fiscal 2012. It is expected the expansion will take place within their existing markets, and possibly even California, where they do […]
Pathmark to close South Jersey store
A&P, whose plans to emerge from bankruptcy were approved last month, announced last week it is closing its Pathmark store in Lawnside, NJ next month. The company cited the store’s lease expiration as the reason for the closing.
Analyst thinks Safeway and Kroger could get takeover offers
A story yesterday on SeekingAlpha.com concludes that Kroger can expect takeover offers in the near future, and that Safeway is also worthy of consideration. Regarding Kroger, the nation’s largest retail supermarket chain, the article says “the company has delivered top-line growth every year since 1987, but is still cheaper than 99% of companies listed in […]
Target plans on 230 new P-fresh grocery sections in 2012
Target completed about 400 P-fresh remodels in 2011 and plans to slow the pace this year to about 230 stores. A P-fresh remodel greatly expands the grocery offering in a traditional Target store. According to the company, last year’s remodeling efforts were largely in high-volume stores in urban and suburban locations, and they are now […]
Supermarkets selling less than half the nation’s groceries
I read an article in the March issue of Shopping Centers Today this morning about food shopping. It had a number of interesting tidbits: Low-income shoppers typically buy 45% of household groceries at a traditional supermarket, 38% at a mass merchandiser (ex. Walmart), and the rest elsewhere (dollar store, drug store, etc.). Shoppers with incomes […]
Nonprofit grocery store to open in Chester, PA
Philabundance, the Delaware Valley’s largest hunger relief organization, recently announced plans to purchase a building that will house a food center called “Fare and Square” in Chester, PA. The 21,000 square foot nonprofit grocery store will be located in an area that hasn’t had a full-fledged supermarket for more than a decade. It will provide […]
Safeway to count on non-core businesses for income growth
We’re used to hearing about struggling companies disposing of non-core businesses in order to concentrate on what they know and do best. However, Safeway announced last week that with supermarkets being a relatively low-growth endeavor these days, adding more non-core businesses will enable it to grow operating income. Examples of non-core activities for Safeway include […]
Bottom Dollar to open 8 more stores in New Jersey
About a month after Bottom Dollar opened 14 new stores in the Pittsburgh, PA and Youngstown, OH markets (see “related blog posts” below), the company announced yesterday that it would open eight new locations in New Jersey. The new stores will all be in the Central and Southern part of the state. New stores opening Friday, March […]
Panera’s pay-what-you-can concept to expand
A story in the Detroit Free Press last week detailed the success of the three Panera Cares Cafes in Michigan, Missouri and Oregon. I hadn’t heard of them, and was a bit surprised to read about Panera locations where you can pay the suggested price, pay more, pay less, or pay nothing at all. From […]
Save-A-Lot store count on the rise in PA
At one point last year Save-A-Lot parent company Supervalu said the company would open 160 new Save-A-Lot stores in the next year. They backed off that number in the fall, revising it to 80-90 new stores. This growth has been evident in Pennsylvania, where four have already opened this year, and two more are planned […]