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GOURMET NEWS MARCH 2015 www.gourmetnews.com Retailer News RETAILER NEWS 1 2 BRIEFS Albertsons and Safeway Receive U.S. FTC Clearance for Proposed Merger AB Acquisition LLC (Albertsons) and Safeway Inc. recently announced that they have received clearance from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for the companies' proposed merger, originally announced March 6, 2014. The FTC's clearance follows Albertsons' and Safe- way's agreement to a proposed consent order, which includes a commitment to divest 168 stores. As previously an- nounced, Albertsons and Safeway entered into agreements to sell such stores to four FTC-approved buyers. Albertsons and Safeway also agreed to settlements with the attorneys general of California, Ne- vada and Washington. "We plan to be the favorite local super- market in every community we serve," said Robert Edwards, President and CEO of the newly combined company. "We will do this by knowing, listening to and delighting our customers, providing the right products at a compelling value and delivering a supe- rior shopping experience. We will also con- tinue to be active members of our local communities." "This is a transformative day for both Al- bertsons and Safeway. This merger creates a unified, strong organization that is dedi- cated to bringing a better shopping experi- ence to more customers across the country," said Bob Miller, former Albert- sons CEO and new Executive Chairman of the combined company. "Our combined ge- ographic footprint, vast range of brands and products and service-oriented staff will enable us to meet evolving shopping pref- erences." The merger creates a diversified network that includes 2,230 stores, 27 distribution facilities and 19 manufacturing plants with over 250,000 employees across 34 states and the District of Columbia. The new company will be comprised of three regions and 14 retail divisions, supported by cor- porate offices in Boise, Idaho; Pleasanton, California and Phoenix, Arizona. Banners will include Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Ran- dalls, Tom Thumb, Carrs, Albertsons, ACME, Jewel-Osco, Lucky, Shaw's, Star Market, Super Saver, United Supermarkets, Market Street and Amigos. As a result of the completion of the merger transaction, the common stock of Safeway will no longer be listed for trading on the New York Stock Exchange or any other securities exchange. Safeway will file a Certification on Form 15 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, to suspend the company's reporting obliga- tions under sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Exchange Act. GN Eli Zabar Launches E-Commerce Wine Website Iconic New York City grocer Eli Zabar is launching a new e-commerce wine website, www.elizabarwine.com, putting the company's expansive Old World wine collection online for the first time. The new website will feature a rotating selection of 400 wines available to ship to 33 states nationwide. The selection is also available at the brick-and-mortar store Eli's List, a newly-renamed wine and spirits shop located at 1411 Third Avenue. The new website features a curated selection of 400 Old World wines sourced from France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Portugal and Israel, with a special focus on Burgundy, Piedmont and grower Champagne varietals. The collection highlights organic, sustainably-produced bottles, all of which are produced with minimal intervention. The standards of quality that the team at Eli Zabar seeks out in wines matches what the retailer has done for years with specialty foods. Bottom Dollar Food Stores Close Bottom Dollar Food recently closed its 66 store locations in the greater Philadelphia and greater Pittsburgh markets and retired the banner's operations. Upon the closing of stores, Bottom Dollar Food offered every associate severance, and eligible associates were offered career transition services. "We want to thank our associates, customers and communities for their support over the past four years," said Gene Faller, Vice President of Retail Operations for Bottom Dollar Food. In November 2014, Delhaize Group, the parent company of Bottom Dollar Food, announced that it had entered into a transaction to sell Bottom Dollar Food's 66 store locations and associated lease liabilities to ALDI Inc. For more information, visit www.bottomdollarfood.com. Fresh Thyme Farmers Market Opens First St. Louis Location Fresh Thyme Farmers Market recently opened its first St. Louis-area store in the suburb of Fairview Heights on January 14. The store is located at 6569 North Illinois Street. "Fresh Thyme is excited to open its first store of 2015 in Fairview Heights," said Fresh Thyme's CEO Chris Sherrell. "This is a wonderful community we are joining. We look forward to providing value-priced, healthy and organic offerings to its residents." Fresh Thyme Farmers Market opened ten stores in 2014 and plans to exceed that number in 2015. The company is a full-service specialty retailer focusing on value-priced fresh, healthy, natural and organic offerings. It boasts an extensive produce department with organic and local fruits and vegetables, a natural meat department, healthy deli foods to go, bakery goods, 400 bulk food bins, dairy and frozen, and health supplement products. Fresh Thyme is scheduled to open 60 stores by 2019. Natural Grocers Continued from PAGE 1 which is pretty unique for a chain of our size," Isely said. "We also support organic producers over local producers. If there aren't organic sources in an area, we won't sell conventionally-produced produce in our stores." Meats in the stores come from humanely treated animals that were raised without antibiotics, except when needed to treat an actual illness, and without growth promot- ers or feed containing animal byproducts. Dairy products come from animals raised on pasture rather than in barns. "The cows or goats or sheep that produce the milk have to be on pasture for a minimum of 120 days," Isely said. "They have to get the majority of their nutrition from forage, so that we're not stocking products that come from barn-raised animals." Providing those products across a rapidly growing geographic area has presented no particular distribution-chain challenges, because the chain is part- nered with UNFI, which, so far, has been able to supply every new store, Isely said. "Most of the product is ei- ther manufac- turer- or distributor-direct to stores, so there haven't been challenges," he said. "That isn't a big issue." Before a new product can go onto the shelves at Natural Grocers, it is reviewed by the corporate purchasing staff, which re- quires third-party documentation that the product meets the company's quality stan- dards. Approval can take up to three months, and Natural Grocers will not sell any product that contains artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, preservatives or harm- ful trans fats. The company supported GMO-la- beling ballot issues in Oregon and Col- orado. "We support GMO labeling for products. We don't support lawsuits if people inadver- tently don't men- tion GMOs that they don't know are in their products. We think that consumers have a right to know if there are GMO-containing foods in the products they purchase," Isely said. The company adopted a no-disposable-bag pol- icy in 2009 and estimates that since that time, the policy has kept 100 million bags out of landfills. Every store in the chain has a position available for a credentialed nutrition coach, whose services are free to the community, and newer stores offer regular free cooking and nutrition education classes in demon- stration kitchens. The free classes offered in the store cover topics such as main- taining blood sugar stability, heart health, bone health, food quality and gluten-free living, Moore said. A few of the older stores, such as the Vi- tamin Cottage founded in 1955, do not have demonstration kitchens, so they do not offer cooking classes, but all offer ad- vice and coaching to guide consumers about nutrition choices, whether they are following special diets such as gluten-free, Paleo, vegetarian/vegan, low-glycemic or if they heard something on television on which they want to follow up. "What we like to do is educate people about the various ways there are to eat. Eating whole foods and eating foods that are natural to your diet is a good way to eat. We don't try to say that everyone should eat Paleo or vegetarian or high-carb. Everyone doesn't want to eat the same way," Isely said. "Our people will talk to them about whatever sort of diet they want to have, and it isn't necessarily one type of diet they should have. Lean meat and veg- etables seems to be preferable for good health, but if someone wants to eat differ- ently from that, that's fine, and we'll talk to them about that also." Natural Grocers currently employs more than 2,000 people, with 85 percent of them full-time. Full-time employees get health insurance and paid personal time off, while a 401(k) plan and employee discount is available to all employees. For every hour an employee works in the store, he or she also gets 75 cents in "Vitamin Bucks," which are a store credit in addition to the employee discount. "We're foodies. We do carry supple- ments, but food is first," Moore said. "Peo- ple are taking back control of their food. They want to be food citizens." GN

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