The Wild Harvest brand will initially feature approximately 150 items ranging from mealtime staples like milk, eggs, meat and fresh produce to pastas and sauces, cookies, crackers, cereal and juice. Long term, the brand will include approximately 250 to 300 products across various categories. In addition to a broad selection of products from which to choose, Wild Harvest is priced approximately 15 percent lower than branded organic and natural products and is positioned to meet or beat competitors' private-label organic prices.

"With the Wild Harvest brand, we're focused on helping consumers 'organify their world' by delivering a wide assortment of affordable, fresh, healthy and wholesome foods at their primary grocery shopping destination," said Adam Graham, Wild Harvest brand manager.

"Now, the entire family meal can be organic - at a lower cost - from products conveniently available at a local SUPERVALU-owned supermarket."

Organic and natural foods - a growing segment

Consumer demand for organic and natural foods, which has grown 10 to 15 percent annually over the past 15 years across all retail channels, is a sign of shifting priorities among grocery shoppers who are increasingly mindful of a product's ingredients, origin and methods by which it is made rather than a passing trend. These factors, along with consumers' evolving health-conscious lifestyles, provided the platform for the launch of Wild Harvest, which represents the first major brand initiative for SUPERVALU since the company's acquisition of select Albertsons properties in June 2006.

The retailer has cut prices on key grocery and other items like shampoo, juice and sports drinks, to coincide with the distribution of the rebates.

"Grocery bills represent a significant expenditure for the average American family. In fact, the average family of four spends between $105 and $235 per week on food purchased at a store and prepared at home," said David B. Dillon, Kroger chairman and chief executive officer. "Kroger's program allows our customers to stretch their grocery dollars further. We are excited about the opportunity to touch the lives of millions of families across the country by helping them extend their household budgets through this special program."

The program will be available throughout Kroger stores nationwide - including Kroger, Baker's, City Market, Dillons, Fred Meyer, Fry's, Gerbes, Hilander, Jay C, King Soopers, Owen's, Pay Less, Ralphs, Smith's and QFC stores. Kroger customers who are interested in exchanging their refunds or economic stimulus checks should present their check and customer loyalty card at their local store's Customer Service center from May 2, 2008 through July 31, 2008. The program is limited to one offer per household with a limit of $1,200.00.

"Central to Whole Foods Market's core values is caring for our communities and the environment, and this includes adopting wise environmental practices," said A.C. Gallo, co-president and chief operating officer for Whole Foods Market. "More and more cities and countries are beginning to place serious restrictions on single-use plastic shopping bags since they don't break down in our landfills, can harm nature by clogging waterways and endangering wildlife, and litter our roadsides. Together with our shoppers, our gift to the planet this Earth Day will be reducing our environmental impact as we estimate we will keep 100 million new plastic grocery bags out of our environment between Earth Day and the end of this year alone."

The first U.S. supermarket to commit to completely eliminating disposable plastic grocery bags to help protect the environment and conserve resources, Whole Foods Market has declared today "Bring Your Own Bag Day" and will give out over 50,000 reusable shopping bags to customers at the checkouts this morning to celebrate today's announcement. "We hope to inspire shoppers to prompt positive environmental change by adopting the reusable bag mindset," added Gallo.

"Doing away with plastic grocery bags won't just help protect marine life, it's a key move in shifting us away from a 'consume-and-dispose' mentality," says Lisa Mastny, editor of the Worldwatch Institute report Oceans in Peril. "Disposable plastic bags can linger in the environment for more than 1,000 years and are the major debris item found on the seabed, especially near the coast."

"During our International Coastal Cleanup each year, our volunteers find hundreds of thousands of bags on beaches and in the ocean posing a threat to birds, turtles and other marine life. As people continue to learn more about the impact their lifestyle has on the environment, we find they are looking for personal solutions to global problems," said Laura Capps, senior vice president of communications and outreach with Ocean Conservancy. "We applaud Whole Foods Market for encouraging their customers to bring re-usable bags when shopping and for making better stewardship of our environment a part of their everyday lives."

Beginning immediately, each store in the Company will work on depleting stocks of disposable plastic grocery bags at the checkouts and will help raise awareness about the benefits of reusable bags. Over the next three months, stores will reduce plastic grocery bag inventories and increase selections of reusable bags for purchase.

Whole Foods Market has encouraged shoppers to bring their own bags for years by offering a refund of either five or ten cents at the checkouts, depending on the store. The Company also sells different types of reusable bags, ranging from canvas to its new large, stylish "A Better Bag" - a sound environmental choice since 80 percent of its content comes from recycled plastic bottles and it is an economical choice as well since it costs only 99 cents.

"Before Whole Foods Market decided to do away with this disposable plastic grocery bags at our checkouts, we ran tests in San Francisco, Toronto and Austin. Customers have overwhelmingly supported the plastic bag ban initiated by Whole Foods Market in these cities and applauded the progressive stance the stores have taken," said Gallo. "The response has been incredibly positive, and our customers are thanking us for doing this. Additionally, our Team Members are excited and passionate about taking this initiative, and we're finding it's created a great forum for discussion and awareness at the checkout counters."

Although the natural and organic grocer hopes to inspire shoppers to bring their own reusable bags, the Company will continue to offer an environmentally sensitive option when needed - 100 percent recycled paper grocery bags. Last year, Whole Foods Market became the first and only food retailer in North America to offer these recycled paper grocery bags made with 100 percent recycled fiber content, which also are completely recyclable.

Discontinuing disposable plastic grocery bags at the checkouts is another step in the Company's ongoing effort to provide more Earth-friendly bags and containers in its stores. Recently, Whole Foods Market stores began using all-natural fiber packaging at its salad and food bars. The fibers for the new containers come from plants that are cultivated or grow wild and are harvested annually. Additionally, the Company continues to seek alternatives to plastic bags in its bulk, produce, bakery and seafood departments.

"We realize there are many more steps to take, and we recognize it's an ongoing process to provide as much Earth-friendly packaging as possible," said Gallo. "We will continue to evaluate each department within our stores as we seek to continually improve."

About Dollar General
Founded in 1939, the company pioneered the dollar store concept in 1955, opening retail stores that sold all items for $1. Today the company offers a broad mix of national and private branded products at discount prices.

According to the company 30% of their products are still priced at $1 or less. The stores average approximately 7,000 square feet, and are concentrated in "under-served rural and urban neighborhoods."

These antibiotics account for almost 50 percent of the generic, pediatric prescriptions filled at Publix. New or current customers simply need to provide their Publix pharmacist with their prescription, up to a 14-day supply, and it will be filled at no charge. Publix is not limiting the number of prescriptions customers may fill for free.

"Health and wellness is crucial to every Floridian's quality of life and paramount to the vitality of our state," said Florida Governor Charlie Crist. "We appreciate great partners like Publix Super Markets working to further provide affordability and accessibility to quality prescription drugs for working families and seniors."

"We are always striving to provide our customers with service and value," said Dwaine Stevens, Publix media and community relations manager. "With health care and prescription costs on the rise, our free prescription drug program will reinforce our commitment to the total health and wellness of our customers and their families."

The free antibiotics are offered to customers regardless of their prescription insurance provider.

Publix
Founded by the late George W. Jenkins in 1930 in Winter Haven, Fla., it is the largest employee-owned supermarket chain in the United States. Publix is also one of the 10 largest-volume supermarket chains in the United States with 2006 retail sales of $21.7 billion. They currently employee more than 143,000 people in their warehouses and store locations.

Store locations in Florida (655), Georgia (168), South Carolina (39), Alabama (28) and Tennessee (17) for a total of 907 supermarkets.

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Registered trademarks property of Publix Asset Management Company.

Kroger Co., the nation's largest traditional grocery chain, is marketing a new milk brand for its cholesterol-reducing potential.

"There's a major trend toward health and wellness in the country," said Linda Severin, Kroger's vice president for corporate brands. "Managing cholesterol is just a key need for many of our customers. This is a way we can help our customers be proactive with their heart health."

The milk uses an ingredient with plant sterols, found naturally in some vegetables, fruits, nuts, and other foods. It is recognized by the Food and Drug Administration as potentially helping reduce the risk of heart disease.

The Kroger Co. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, is one of the nation's largest grocery retailers, with fiscal 2006 sales of $66.1 billion.

Kroger operates 2,458 supermarkets and multi-department stores in 31 states, under two dozen local banners that include Ralphs, Fred Meyer, Food 4 Less, King Soopers, Smith's, Fry's, Dillons, QFC Farmer Jack and City Market.

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Albertsons grocery stores in Arizona will end their preferred customer card programs and eliminate the discounts cardholders receive on special items, returning to a general discounting strategy for all customers.

On Wednesday, the company abandoned the "Preferred Card" program, which it has had since 2003 in favor of "Bonus Buys" promotions for individual items available to all comers.

The program is being terminated in 79 Southwest stores, including those in Arizona. The grocery chain already ended the card program at its 46 stores in Colorado and Wyoming.

"Our objective is to give all the consumers in the marketplace the same great deals (regardless) of having to have a loyalty card," said Bob Colgrove, Albertsons Southwest division president.

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Whether it is to demonstrate their support for the growing concerns over global warming or simply to try to find new savings in grocery store operations, more and more grocery chains are introducing change.

Kroger says energy consumption is down 20 percent, Food Lion says it has cut energy use 27 percent for its 1,300 supermarkets.

Wal-Mart opened what it calls "High-Efficiency Supercenter" stores in Kansas City, Mo., and Rockton, Ill., which use 20 percent less energy than typical grocery stores. By incorporating innovations in heating, cooling, water, lighting and construction materials the company expects to notice big savings.

So will this mean lower prices for the grocery shoppers, better profits for the shareholders a better world or . . .

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A year ago last March Wal-Mart surprised consumers with the announcement that they were making a major push to increase their commitment to organic foods.

Stephen Quinn, a top marketing executive, told investors at a conference that the company would double the number of organic food items in its stores to 400 and offer them "at the Wal-Mart price" But now Karen Burk, a spokeswoman for the company, says that the majority of Wal-Mart stores are offering between 100 and 200 organic food items.

What is behind the shift is strategy on organic foods? Was it that Wal-Mart grocery shoppers were not willing to pay the higher prices that organic foods command or was it supplier issues? From the various stories floating around it looks like Wal-Mart had mis-judged the organic food sector on multiple levels.

Read more: Business Week