KROGER

It’s called automated retailing. While retail merchants MaxWellness and Kroger are still in the pilot phase, more or less, this should become a fast brand extension that can reach consumers in remote locations — the bus stop/train depot, the hospital, the airport, the school, the gym or inside another noncompetitive retailer’s box.


The advantages are just too good for these mini-boxes not to take hold. To begin with, there’s brand extension. Only the Internet can be as effective in attributing a national presence to a regional operator. 


Several health-and-wellness programs targeting professional drivers have been gaining traction in the past few months. And for the consumer packaged goods industry, professional drivers represent a crucial cog in the whole supply chain. But it’s a cog that happens to be heavily indexed across many chronic disease states (e.g., obesity, diabetes, heart health) — and for a simple reason. There just aren’t that many healthy choices for those drivers putting the hammer down on the big road.


JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Acosta Sales and Marketing, a full-service sales and marketing agency in the consumer packaged goods industry, on Wednesday named former Kroger president and COO Don McGeorge to its board of directors.

CINCINNATI — Kroger announced that Tim Brown now will be responsible for stores in western Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri as president of the company's Delta division.

Brown, 52, has been VP operations in the company's Delta division, based in Roanoke, Va., since 2011; before that, he served as the Mid-Atlantic division's VP merchandising since 2009.

CINCINNATI — Kroger announced that it has named Suzanne Lindsay as its director of sustainability.

In the newly created position, Lindsay — who previously created and led sustainability initiatives at PetSmart — will lead Kroger's internal sustainability initiatives and will lead the company's sustainability leadership team.

The number of patients with diabetes is not decreasing any time soon, and one of the most important fronts in the battle lies at the pharmacy counter.


Within the past month, two Ohio-based traditional retailers announced plans to test-market automated retail vending machines. It’s not so much thinking outside of the box as it is figuring out how to get that box to where the consumers are, wherever they are — the airport, the hospital, convention centers, exercise facilities, on a college campus or in a hotel. 


CINCINNATI — Kroger announced that its board of directors have declared a quarterly dividend of 11.5 cents per share.

The dividend will be paid June 1 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 15.