Trading Partners

In the dog-eat-dog world of beer marketing, hometown regionals are brewing up a storm.

WICHITA, Kan. - As colorful new $20 bills circulate around the nation, more consumers are finding out that the notes don't work on automated payment machines like those found in self-service checkout counters at grocery stores.

BOULDER, Colo. - Wild Oats Markets, Inc. today released its preliminary third-quarter 2003 sales and earnings results. The national natural and organic foods retailer also announced that it has reached a decision with distributor Tree of Life, Inc. that mutual expectations under the two companies' primary distribution agreement were unlikely to be met and that Tree of Life would relinquish the primary distribution role.

TAMPA, Fla. - ADC, Inc., a provider of data communication technology to the supermarket industry, said today it has licensed its InterScale scales management system to Lowes Foods, a 106-store supermarket chain based in Winston-Salem, N.C.

WASHINGTON - After presiding over numerous fact-finding discussions with more than 70 different trade and producer groups, the U.S. Agriculture Department yesterday issued its proposed rules for the congressionally mandated country-of-origin labeling (COOL) program that was required by the 2002 Farm Bill.

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. - ACNielsen U.S., an operating unit of ACNielsen, a VNU business, this week announced plans to more than double the size of its Homescan consumer panel, the single largest expansion in the history of this industry-leading service.

ELMWOOD PARK, N.J. - As the countdown begins for the Food & Drug Administration's new bioterrorism rules that go into effect Dec. 12, the Food Institute here has added a condensed half-day version of its "Complying With FDA's Final Bioterrorism Rules" seminar, to be held Nov. 6.

Still busily blanketing the U.S. with stores, the largest retailer is also becoming a major presence in countries around the globe. So far, its prospects are bigger than its problems.