More Marketing Appetizers

• Michigan based grocery chain Meijer joins the “small is beautiful” movement in food retailing with a 102,000-square-foot test store in Niles, MI, about ½ the size of the average Meijer.

• In other store news, the no-frills discounter PriceRite is continuing its slow expansion in the Northeast adding a 42nd store. The chain doesn’t advertise, and requires shoppers to use their own grocery bags or purchase them.

• While both Nestlé and Unilever have long resisted extending their food brands through licensing, both have agreed to let Chicago cupcake retailer Phoebe’s sell individual-sized servings of both Haagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

• Frozen yogurt has surpassed ice cream where sales are flat or declining, and probiotics are all the rage, so Red Mango’s decision to become the first retailer to offer iced teas fortified with GanedenBC30, a patented strain of probiotic is a man bites two dogs story. Claimed to “support the immune system and regulate the digestive track,” GanedenBC30 will also be added to Red Mango’s Original, Pomegranate by POM Wonderful, and Tangomonium frozen yogurt flavors.

• Sales of organic food in the Canadian market were C$2.1-C$2.6bn last year ($1.9-$2.4bn) with the four main categories fresh fruits & vegetables (41%), beverages (17%), and prepared foods (14%) with most of the remaining 28% packaged organic foods. The market is expanding 15-20% annually, though domestic production is rising only 4%.

• The UK trade journal Retail Bulletin has ranked Tesco’s website the top retail site.

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