Nonfoods

As the devastation grows in Hurricane Katrina's wake, grocers in the South and beyond do their best to cope, and to help. Here are some of the latest developments.

With an emphasis on good nutrition, innovative products, and savvy merchandising, retailers and manufacturers of natural/organic branded and private label RTE cereals are proving that health sells.

General merchandise and HBC have gone from grocery's stepchildren to leading players in Stop & Shop's prototype format.

CARTERET, N.J. -- Just in time for the long Labor Day weekend, Pathmark will open a 55,500-square-foot prototype store in an ethnically diverse part of Philadelphia, featuring what the company says are many new merchandising concepts.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- As a company that has been accused of muscling out its competition here in the States, it's almost shocking to hear Wal-Mart c.e.o. Lee Scott complaining about another retailer having too much market share.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Associated Food Stores, Inc. here has made the move to data synchronization, in a bid to clean up the data pool its shares with hundreds of independent retail accounts.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- Putting action behind its statement earlier this year that organics and other healthy foods will play a bigger part in its stores, Wal-Mart Stores here is conducting a limited test market of Chicago-based Lifeway Foods, Inc.'s kefir product in up to 17 of its Chicago-land stores. The news, which came late Thursday, sent shares of Lifeway Foods soaring more than 20 percent early Friday.

NEW YORK -- Online grocer here FreshDirect today launched a new home page for its e-commerce Web site, designed to streamline the navigation process, and to introduce a "shop by meal" category featuring chef-picked and -prepared meal packages.