Budgets/Spending/Market Size

Retailers are continuing to spend money on store design even in these uncertain economic times, according to the results of the 12th Annual Store Fixture survey conducted by Display & Design Ideas (DDI) Magazine with cooperation from the National Association of Store Fixture Manufacturers (NASFM).

Britain's Safeway Plc reported strong second quarter sales on Thursday with like-for-like sales rising 5.4 percent, keeping the country's fourth biggest food retailer in the running among its top competitors.

Business Wire ACNielsen U.S. today announced its first delivery to clients of sales information and insights from its new Wal-Mart Channel Service.

Safeway Inc. will hold a conference for analysts and institutional investors today to review its performance in the last year and its prospects for continued growth. The company is targeting five-year annual earnings per share growth of 13% - 15%.

Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman today announced that President Bush has proposed the allocation of $45.2 million to USDA as part of a $20 billion submission to Congress for emergency funding to strengthen essential programs and services related to biosecurity issues.

A major forecaster of future economic activity predicts the weakness will continue into 2002.

Retail/wholesale grocers and foodservice distributors experienced a 12 percent increase in healthcare costs over the last two years and they expect costs to rise another 14.5 percent in 2001, according to a new survey.

U.S. retailers are expected to experience the weakest holiday season since the recession of 1991, senior economists from the Retail Intelligence System (RIS) of PricewaterhouseCoopers forecast.