February 28, 2014 CSNews TOKYO — Japanese convenience stores, including Lawson Inc. and Seven & i Holdings Co., are getting their hands dirty for fresh fruits and vegetables. The two retailers are among a growing number of companies investing in corporate farms. Takeshi Niinami, CEO of Lawson, has started 12 farming joint ventures since 2010 and plans to establish 28 more. He also heads an agricultural reform committee that advises Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The move into farming by c-store retailers comes as the prime minister cuts subsidy payments to food/rice growers and creates land banks to consolidate small holdings into large tracts that can be leased by companies as older farmers put down their plows. Abe also has raised the idea of establishing special economic zones this year that could test majority corporate ownership of farmland, something that’s blocked by current laws, Bloomberg reported. “Farm output will keep…

March 7, 2014 Convenience Store Decisions More than ever, consumers are looking for variety, convenience, speedy service and value when it comes to purchasing cold and frozen dispensed beverages, said Tandy Arrant, business manager for Lubbock, Texas-based United Express convenience stores. Over the past year, Arrant said, the stores have experienced double-digit sales increases in this category, and he expects that trend to continue over the next year or more. Arrant said that equipment, such as the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine, give c-stores a leg up on competing with quick-service restaurants, such as Sonic, which has long promoted its wide selection of beverage flavors and combinations as a competitive advantage. United Express has installed Freestyle machines in two of its stores, a brand new store and an existing one. “We expect big things from this machine because we feel that customers, especially younger ones, are looking for more variety in their…

Joanna Blythman 20 March 2014 The Guardian Expensive, inconvenient and boring. No wonder we’ve grown to hate supermarkets and their last-century business model Supermarkets are in trouble. The money men are worried. Nine years of growing sales have juddered to a standstill at Sainsbury’s. And it’s not just a dip in the cycle, or limited to Sainsbury’s. According to the retail analyst David McCarthy of HSBC, the sector “is in structural decline, with no end in sight”. Chris Haskins, whose company used to supply supermarkets with ready meals, recently told the BBC: “They [mid-range supermarkets] believed their formula would last forever, but they’re being left high and dry.” And do we detect a hint of schadenfreude? “I think they’ll get their comeuppance,” he added. Is a seismic shift in Britain’s shopping habits now under way? British supermarket chains have thrived on three myths – that they are cheap, convenient and…

Steve Myall Mar 18, 2014 Around the world dozens of well-known brands have been given bizarre twists to appeal to the local market – here are our favourites Popular breakfast cereal Weetabix is to go on sale in China with a green tea flavour to help appeal to the savoury tastes of the oriental market. The iconic cereal brand is hoping to crack the overseas market by adapting the traditional cereal to Chinese preferences and experiment with a raft of different flavours, one of which would be the tea which originated in China. Around the world there are dozens of well-known brands which have slightly altered the product which we love in the UK to appeal to the locals. Here is our list of famous food brands with a twist. McLobster McDonaldsCheap in Canada: Lobster at Maccy D’s We’ve all had a Big Mac or a chicken McNugget, but how…

Melanie Mahoney March 19, 2014 Sadly, it’s nothing to new to hear of mums being shamed for breastfeeding in public. But we also often hear about how mums who formula-feed their babies are judged, too – like the Albury mum who was recently told by a senior supermarket staff member that she shouldn’t be giving her baby formula. Reannon Spencer, a mum of three, was shopping for baby formula in her local Woolworths in Thurgoona, NSW, when she couldn’t find the brand she was after. She later emailed store management about the matter, asking why there were toddler milk substitutes available but only a limited number of baby formulas in the store. She eventually received a phone call from the manager of the baby products section of the store. “[The manager] first started to explain to me the reasons why Woolworths couldn’t supply the stock,” she told Melbourne radio station…