Ahold

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — With shoppers looking for ways to buy things more conveniently, it's clear that the age of the multichannel consumer is well under way, and retailers would be wise to respond in kind. Many of them have already done so.

According to retail consulting firm Upstream Commerce, convenience ranks at the top of reasons why consumers shop online, and as recent news has shown, this is just as true for supermarkets as it is for anyone else.

QUINCY, Mass. — Stop & Shop is opening a new store that will include new features that emphasize customer experience, the company said.

Stop & Shop, a division of the U.S. subsidiary of Dutch supermarket operator Ahold, said the Wayland, Mass., store would include nine complementary electric car charging stations, as well as numerous energy-efficient features. The store's grand opening is scheduled for Nov. 16.

NEW YORK — An article recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine examines the role that impulse marketing and customer psychology in supermarkets contributes to obesity and related health problems.

BOULDER, Colo. — Giant-Landover and ShopRite are shoppers' two favorite supermarkets, according to results of a survey released Tuesday.

CARLISLE, Pa. — Giant Food Stores collected nearly 3 tons of unused medications during a nationwide medication take-back day last month, the chain said.

Giant, owned by Dutch supermarket operator Ahold, said it and its Martin's Food Markets banner collected 5,843 lbs of unwanted and expired medications at 43 of its stores during the April 28 take-back event, doubling the amount collected last year.

CHICAGO — Online grocer Peapod is bringing its scan-and-buy grocery ordering system to the Chicago El.

The online retailer, owned by Netherlands-based Royal Ahold, announced Monday that it had placed its virtual store posters along the walls of a tunnel at the heavily trafficked State and Lake station of Chicago's rapid transit system.

LANDOVER, Md. — Two of Royal Ahold's U.S. supermarket chains are offering new labeling to make gluten-free foods easier to find in the store, while one has launched a new magazine to address childhood obesity.

RICHMOND, Va. — A Giant-Carlisle pharmacist has won recognition from the country's largest pharmacist organization for his immunizations. Dennis Stanley, a pharmacist at Martin's Food Market — a banner under Ahold's Giant-Carlisle chain — won the American Pharmacists Association's 2012 APhA Immunization Champion Lifetime Achievement Award.