IGA Barraba is tomorrow set to become the first supermarket in New South Wales to place a permanent ban on plastic bags. The store owners, John and Karen Bishton, are encouraging customers to use re-useable bags - which are sold at three for $1. They will also offer re-usable bags on loan. IGA Barraba is the largest retailer in the north western NSW town, and accounts for approximately 85 per cent of plastic bag usage among the small town’s 2000 residents. It is now well on the way to joining... ...Read more »

IGA (Independent Grocers of Australia) has added Daily Intake Guide nutritional information to the front of their private label goods. The front-of-pack DIG labels appear on 200 lines of its current range, with a progressive roll-out underway. “IGA and Metcash are committed to providing shoppers with clear and useful information, and our Daily Intake Guide labelling is a major step in that process,” Metcash National Group Manager of Merchandise and Marketing, Gary Tempany, stated. Late... ...Read more »

Business information analysts IBISWorld have released their forecast for what Australians will be piling into their shopping baskets in five years’ time. With slower economic growth encouraging more frugal supermarket spending, and increasing health consciousness at the forefront of many a shoppers’ mind, there is a noticeable change in the food Australian consumers are choosing, noted IBISWorld’s General Manager (Australia), Robert Bryant. Demand for dairy Dairy consumption is... ...Read more »

Chadstone Shopping Centre - Australia’s largest shopping centre - will officially open its new Fresh Food precinct comprising 12,600m2 of retail space tomorrow (Friday 31 October). Chadstone, in Melbourne’s south-east, is now home to 55 new food retailers including Simon Johnson, Tangelo Fine Foods, jones the grocer and Oriental Tea House, and prominent supermarket retailers Woolworths and Aldi. The array of quality food available is expected to see consumers flock to the centre in search... ...Read more »

Nearly six out of 10 Americans report they have had to cut back on the quantity or quality of food they buy because of increasing prices, according to The 2008 Hormel Hunger Survey, carried out by the Opinion Research Corporation.The study, commissioned by Hormel Foods Corporation, discovered most Americans (67%) believe that food prices have ‘increased a lot’ since last year, with 61 per cent suggesting that corn-based ethanol is at least partly responsible for higher food prices. Fifty-seven... ...Read more »

Australian shoppers are re-evaluating their shopping habits in the face of rising household costs, according to a recent study undertaken by The Nielsen Company. This has seen two out of every three Australians (66%) reduce, or plan to cutback on, purchases of non-essential grocery items, 41 per cent avoiding the purchase of certain items altogether, and more than one-third (38%) buying fewer items. The Nielsen study, which surveyed 1,500 Australian consumers, found that fuel, home loans,... ...Read more »

Today’s consumers want to have a greater say about food ingredients, safety and quality, and by the year 2020, consumers around the globe expect the way they choose and shop for food to be different, according to a recent study of consumers in five countries. The study, called ‘Food 2020: The Consumer as CEO’, examined the perceptions, expectations and considerations about food among consumers in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Argentina and China, and sought to provide an outlook... ...Read more »

Modern supermarkets and retailers are constantly looking at new ways to utilise every bit of available space to promote and advertise. Retailers often hang signs from the ceiling, glue banners to the floor, add placards to shelves in every aisle and use the trolley as a promotional device. But the freezer door, save from a few carefully placed stickers, has often remained largely unused. The primary problem has always been the potential to reduce the ability of the customer to see the products housed... ...Read more »

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has taken the unprecedented next step of hosting a gathering of more than 1,000 leading suppliers, Chinese officials and NGOs in Beijing where they outlined a series of aggressive goals and expectations to build a more environmentally and socially responsible global supply chain. “I firmly believe that a company that cheats on overtime and on the age of its labour, that dumps its scraps and chemicals in our rivers, that does not pay its taxes or honour its contracts —... ...Read more »

Australian supermarket chain Franklins has posted its maiden first-half profit since being acquired by prominent South African retailer Pick ‘n Pay back in 2001. Since the takeover the company has struggled to make inroads in the Australian grocery sector but appears to be finding its feet after posting its first full-year profit earlier this year. Franklins now operates 83 supermarkets throughout the state of New South Wales, seven of which are franchise stores. Three new corporate stores... ...Read more »