- Expect a bid for New Jersey-based Kings Supermarkets any day now from Gristedes, now that the planned sale of Kings by Marks & Spencer to D’Agostino’s has fallen through. The question is price… D’Agostino’s was going to spend $160 million, but couldn’t get the financing; Gristedes had offered $155 million, but also couldn’t close the deal with Marks & Spencer. Marks & Spencer bought Kings in 1988 for $116 million.
- A report out of Germany says that the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (A&P) plans to convert most of its US supermarkets in the United States to the Food Basics banner, an everyday-low-price, limited-assortment (7,500 SKUs) format, within the next year-and-a-half. A&P is controlled by the Germany-based Tengelmann Group.
- Target announced that it will open a new store in the Bronx, its first in that borough of New York City. While the company does not have a store in Manhattan, it currently has a mini-store in a boat docked in that borough’s waterfront. Target also has stores in Queens and Brooklyn, plus another 1,100 or so elsewhere in the US.
- Two Tennessee men pleaded guilty to federal fraud and conspiracy charges in a six-state scam against Wal-Mart. The defendants reportedly took Wal-Mart gift cards to cashiers to have them encoded with a certain value, and then switch them with a blank card before paying and then leave the store. They would later use the cards to buy goods or get cash refunds.
