Nonfoods

MILL VALLEY, Calif. -- Readers of "J The Jewish News Weekly" chose Mollie Stone's Markets as best grocery store with a kosher section, in a recent reader's poll.

REEDLEY, Calif. -- A&P, Safeway/Vons, Food City, Cub Foods, Hannaford; and Kroger and several of its subsidiaries are participating in a unique promotion from the California Tree Fruit Agreement here and Fresh Express, in which shoppers can download music from iTunes Music Store for free.

NEW YORK -- This is a tough town for c-store retailers, as Dallas-based 7-Eleven Inc. learned a long time ago. The company left the Manhattan market in 1982 and abandoned plans for a Times Square location in 2002. But now, after testing an urban format in Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago, president and CEO Jim Keyes thinks his company has it right, and opened a new store in Manhattan yesterday.

ONALASKA, Wis. -- Dave Skogen, president and c.e.o. of eight Festival Foods stores in Wisconsin, won't officially receive his Wisconsin Grocers Association (WGA) 2005 Grocer of the Year award until the trade association's annual meeting next month in Green Bay, but he was honored at a surprise ceremony at company headquarters here Friday, with WGA president Brandon Scholz in attendance.

COMPTON, Calif. -- As Ralphs awaits action from the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) regarding last week's Mexican grape controversy, it's business as usual among the Kroger-owned grocer's shoppers.

WASHINGTON -- The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) here is beefing up its security expertise by contracting services from William "Bill" A. Alford, a certified fraud examiner who is founder and president of risk management firm International Lighthouse Group, Inc., the trade group said Friday.

BOULDER, Colo. -- Things were looking up for Wild Oats Markets here at the end of last week, after a stock analyst from RBC Capital Market gave the chain's stock an upgrade to outperform from sector perform, giving as his reason evidence that same-store sales were accelerating faster than expected, and healthy performance in the California market.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- A 64,000-square-foot, 28-year-old Wegmans on Dick Road store in Depew, N.Y. closed Saturday evening so it could be torn down to make way for a bigger, better version.