Top Retailers

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — William Gibson, the science fiction author famous for being a key founder of the cyberpunk literary movement, once wrote, "The future is already here. It just hasn't been evenly distributed yet." That's especially true when considering the relatively slow adoption of mobile technology by retailers despite the buzz surrounding it and its enormous potential.

NEW YORK — Safeway will package $150 million in real healthcare savings into an overall wellness strategy to be implemented over the course of 2013, the grocer's chairman and CEO Steve Burd told analysts Thursday morning at the Goldman Sachs 19th Annual Global Retailing Conference. 

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway on Wednesday announced that it plans to file a registration statement in the United States for a potential initial public offering of a minority ownership stake in Blackhawk Network Holdings, a leading prepaid payments network.

TUCSON, Ariz., and PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway has commenced its annual fundraising campaign for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Running through Sept. 3, the nationwide campaign gives customers the opportunity to contribute funds to MDA's "Make a Muscle, Make a Difference" program. Along with Safeway, Vons, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Dominick's and Carrs stores also will participate. Through its longstanding partnership, Safeway has raised more than $68.7 million for the MDA.

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway has raised more than $9 million during its month-long prostate cancer awareness campaign.

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway is looking to its recently launched Just for U loyalty program, which this month became available across all U.S. divisions, to help drive a positive sales story through the rest of the fiscal year. The key differentiator for that program is Safeway's ability to personalize the loyalty card experience to a factor of one.

"Registration is on track," Steve Burd, Safeway chairman and CEO, told analysts during a conference call late Thursday morning. Safeway is capturing approximately 70% of its customers into the loyalty program.

AMSTERDAM — A division of Ahold USA has completed its acquisition of stores in the greater Philadelphia area.

Giant-Carlisle officially closed its acquisition of 15 Genuardi's stores, a subsidiary of Safeway. The deal was previously announced in January and was approved by the Federal Trade Commission last month.

As previously reported, during the conversion process, five stores at a time will temporarily close for about a week. The three-phase staggered approach is expected to be completed on July 22.

CARLISLE, Pa. — The Federal Trade Commission has approved Giant Food Stores' proposal to acquire 15 Genuardi's stores from Safeway.

The announcement follows Giant's Jan. 5 announcement that it would acquire the Genuardi's stores, all of which are located in the greater Philadelphia market. Giant also noted that under the terms of a consent order approved by the FTC, the Genuardi's located in Newtown, Pa., will be purchased by Newtown Market and will be operated as a McCaffrey's supermarket.