CINCINNATI — King Soopers president Russ Dispense has announced plans to retire from the Kroger Co. division July 1, after 51 years with the company. “Throughout his distinguished career, Russ has always been known for his passion for the community, King Soopers and for people,” said Kroger chairman and chief executive officer Rodney McMullen. “His
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Stater Bros. Markets has named Gil Salazar vice president of information technology. He reports to president and chief executive officer Pete Van Helden. “We are pleased to welcome Gil to the Stater Bros. family of employees,” Van Helden said in a statement. “His broad range of IT experience and leadership brings
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — June 1 marked the opening of Rite Aid Corp.’s first new distribution center in 16 years. The mammoth, state-of-the-art facility sits on 97 acres here, ideally located near Interstate 85 between Highways 9 and 221, providing the company easy access to these major transportation arteries and the more than 1,000 stores that
PITTSBURGH — Giant Eagle president and chief operating officer John Lucot will retire on June 30, the company said. Lucot has been with the supermarket operator for 42 years. He joined Giant Eagle as a supermarket clerk in 1974, and he went on to hold positions in distribution, retail development, real estate and operations. Lucot,
Walmart just released its quarterly performance figures and, though they were only marginally improved over recent results, the consumer press glowed in its praise for the performance of the world’s largest retailer. In truth, Walmart is still struggling with attempts to lure shoppers into its stores and, once there, to entice them to purchase at
Now that the Memorial Day weekend is over, it is time for any mass market retailers, CPG companies or supply chain providers that haven’t already done so to gear up for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Total Store Expo. The annual event, which this year will be held from August 6 through August
BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart is taking aggressive action on a number of fronts. Earlier this month the giant retailer tweaked its free delivery test program to more directly challenge Amazon.com Inc., filed suit against Visa Inc. over the card issuer’s policies regarding debit card transactions, and announced that it is bringing back greeters to all
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — At Walmart, the customer is the boss and the key to the retailer’s success, senior vice president of global consumer insights and analytics Matt Kistler told attendees at last month’s IRI Growth Summit 2016 here. “The size and scale of Walmart means that we serve a lot of customers, and 260
CINCINNATI — In his annual letter to Kroger Co. stockholders, chairman and chief executive officer Rodney McMullen characterized 2015 as a “triple crown” year, a baseball reference to the relatively rare instance in which a player leads his league in three offensive categories: batting average, home runs and runs batted in. In Kroger’s case, the
WASHINGTON — Retail sales in the United States rose 1.3% in April, the Commerce Department announced. It was the largest monthly gain since March 2015 and better than the 0.8% increase economists were forecasting. Core retail sales, which exclude automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, shot up 0.9% last month after an upwardly revised
AUSTIN, Texas — Whole Foods Market Inc. has announced it has 19 leases for its small-format “365” store. Following the May 25 debut of the inaugural 365 by Whole Foods Market in the Silver Lake section of Los Angeles, the next two openings will be in Lake Oswego, Ore., in July, and Bellevue, Wash., in
WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Health has launched CVS Express, a curbside and in-store pickup service for nonprescription products. The service, which is accessed from the CVS Pharmacy app, is one of results of the CVS Digital Innovation Lab and was developed in partnership with Palo Alto, Calif.-based Curbside, which makes its own store pickup app.