DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA) and Rite Aid Corp. have lengthened the time frame for completing their planned $17.2 billion merger. The companies this month extended the deal’s end date to January 27 from October 27 and said they expect the transaction to close early next year. Under the agreement, WBA and
MINNEAPOLIS — Target Corp. opened four of its “flexible format” stores on October 6, including a two-story, 45,000-square-foot store on Greenwich Street in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood to serve city dwellers, office workers, tourists and others. Target on that date also opened flexible-format stores in Philadelphia; Cupertino, Calif.; and State College, Pa. The company now
NECKARSULM, Germany — German grocer Lidl reportedly is scouting for locations in Texas as part of its initial expansion into the United States. Media outlets in the Lone Star state reported this month that while Lidl remains primarily focused on East Coast locations, the deep-discount grocery retailer has acknowledged it was looking at sites in
SOUTH TAMPA, Fla. — The parent company of BI-LO, Harveys and Winn-Dixie, Southeastern Grocers LLC, has opened its second next-generation Winn-Dixie concept store here. With a focus on high-quality food, value and customer service, Winn-Dixie at Hyde Park has been tailored specifically to its surrounding community and is part of an extensive store remodel program
WASHINGTON — The National Retail Federation (NRF) said it expects retail sales, excluding automobiles, gasoline and restaurant meals, to increase 3.6% to $655.8 billion in November and December. That would mark an acceleration over the 3% growth in the final two months of 2015 and represent a significant increase from the 10-year average of 2.5%
NEW YORK — Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA) was honored earlier this month at the United Nations Foundation’s 2016 Global Leadership Awards Dinner for its commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through its support for well-being around the world. The UN awarded WBA for its vaccination program “Get a Shot. Give a Shot.” —
The holiday selling season remains, just weeks before it kicks off, a mystery, at least in terms of what’s going to happen. Even now, Christmas merchandise is in the stores, awaiting set-up. Holiday promotions have long since been planned, and advertising is locked in. All that waits is for the customer to choose her preferences.
Much of the talk in the supermarket industry revolves around the pending arrival in the United States of Lidl, a privately held company based in Neckarsulm, Germany, whose stores have had a powerful impact on markets across Europe. Now numbering more than 10,000 in 26 countries, Lidl supermarkets represent a compelling value proposition for many
MINNEAPOLIS — Style is one of Target Corp.’s signature categories, businesses the retailer has said it wants to be known for, and that offer some of the biggest opportunities for it to stand out and win with consumers. Beauty (along with apparel and home) plays an important role within style, notes John Butcher, senior vice
DEERFIELD, Ill. — Rick Gates developed a passion for retail pharmacy early on, when he worked at an independent drug store in Des Moines while attending high school. Now, as vice president of pharmacy operations at Walgreen Co., Gates is making it possible for his fellow pharmacists to indulge the same passion by helping create
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Jeremy Gosch, executive vice president of strategy and chief merchandising officer at Hy-Vee, has been at the center of three major initiatives that the company has introduced over the past year to ensure that the retailer remains relevant in the lives of its customers. Hy-Vee’s rollout of an apparel line,
WOONSOCKET, R.I. — As vice president of consumables and general merchandise for CVS Pharmacy, Mike McEnany has helped oversee the chain’s expansion of healthier food and beverages. “Since CVS Pharmacy became the first and only national retail pharmacy chain to remove tobacco products from its shelves in 2014, the next natural step in this evolution