Nonfoods

NEW YORK -- Now it's not just people who are using premium shampoos, therapeutic skin care, and products featuring botanical ingredients. According to "Market Trends: Pet Grooming and Spa Products," a new report from market research publisher Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, consumers are increasingly treating their pets to similar items, but they're not going to supermarkets to purchase them.

NEW YORK -- The New York City Council yesterday overrode a veto by Mayor Mike Bloomberg of the Health Care Security Act, which requires large supermarkets and big-box stores selling groceries to pay for a portion of their employees' health care.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Retail nonfoods and pharmacy trade association General Merchandise Distributors Council recognized Norm Loringer, retired from Colgate-Palmolive, with its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2005.

WASHINGTON -- Milk doesn't always do a body good, or at least that's the argument being made by 10 Washington-area residents who filed a class-action lawsuit yesterday in the District of Columbia's Superior Court.

WASHINGTON -- Following the highly successful launch of United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association's Retail Produce Manager Awards Program in 2005, the association, based here, said it plans to expand the awards program to 20 store-level recipients in 2006, and include their corporate produce directors in formal recognition at the 2006 United Produce Show at FMI.

CHICAGO -- With gasoline costs soaring and projected to only rise higher, the average U.S. consumer is reconsidering purchasing decisions. So far, some of them are purchasing more CPG products, which bodes well for grocers.

RICHMOND, Va. -- Ukrop's Super Markets, Inc., said yesterday that, starting this month, it has expanded its previously seasonal Golden Gift community-giving program into a yearround initiative, using automation tied to its loyalty card program to more easily track consumer purchases and charitable donations.

PLEASANTON, Calif. -- Safeway Inc.'s "Retail Management Training Track" won the Food Marketing Institute's (FMI) Maximizing People Potential (Maxx) Award, which recognizes an exceptional human resources or training program that significantly enhances employee performance or leads to accomplishment of a key business goal.