Supermarket News
Shareholders of Winn-Dixie Stores overwhelmingly approved the company's acquisition by Mauldin, S.C.-based Bi-Lo Holding, which will migrate its headquarters over time, the companies said last week.
CNBC
In April, a franchisee will launch Chick-fil-A's first food truck that will serve customers in the Washington, D.C., area. Currently, there is only one traditional Chick-fil-A restaurant in the nation's capital.
AutoAdOpolis
Chevrolet's new agency, a joint venture between Omnicom Group's Goodby, Silverstein and Partners in San Francisco and IPG's McCann Erickson in New York, is a "first of its kind" global agency. Jean Halliday writes that "global" may not be the right term. "Let's be clear on one thing," she writes, "the account is not truly global, since it doesn't include China, India or Uzbekistan, which are among the world's biggest and fastest-growing car markets."
Marketing Week
BlackBerry is going back to its roots in focusing on business users after failing to compete with Apple, Samsung and the like in the consumer world. The company says it will still have a consumer operation, although this is likely to be tailored to business people. No word on whether BlackBerry's "biggest ever marketing campaign" for the launch of its BB10 operating system will be scaled back or cancelled altogether.
Brand-e.biz
Nine out of 10 people view social networking sites as a new form of entertainment, and more than half say social media sites are important tastemakers in determining what to watch and buy, according to a survey of 750 social network users aged 13 to 49 carried out by the Hollywood Reporter and Penn Schoen Berland. And close to 80% of those surveyed say they always/sometimes visit Facebook while enjoying TV, while 41% tweet about the shows they are watching. More than half post on social networking sites while viewing television to feel connected to other who might be tuning …
Wall Street Journal
This year, Anheuser plans to launch 19 new products in the U.S., its biggest such push since Belgium's InBev acquired St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion in 2008. New offerings include small-batch "craft'' brews, cider and an expanded lineup of malt beverages that take their cues from tequila and tea instead of beer.
NYSportsJournalism.com
Dave Checketts says new, mega-expensive stadiums can also upgrade amenities like food, and seats. The chairman/CEO for Legends Hospitality Management, owned by the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys, and the man who has run the Knicks, Rangers, Jazz, Blues and Real Salt Lake is in a position to make that goal a reality.
San Francisco Chronicle
Australian entrepreneurs David Gillespie, Matthew Delprado and Johny Mair have made a get-rich-quick gimmick. With the tagline, "Social media has never been so disposable" and feces for an icon, they've created Shitter. Shitter takes your Twitter feeds and prints them on four rolls of toilet paper. The rolls cost $35 plus shipping.
Supermarket News
CVS/pharmacy runs the nation's largest loyalty program, offering 69 million cardholders 2% back on select purchases, plus other discounts. But not everyone uses their "ExtraBucks" rewards.
USA Today
Starbucks has the vegan community seeing red over what it recently began using to color its Strawberry Frappuccinos: beetles. That's beetles as in ground up cochineal beetles — mostly found in Mexico and
South America. The cochineal beetles are a common food coloring used widely throughout the food industry. A vegan website, ThisDishIsVeg.com, this month warned its readers that Strawberry Frappuccino was no longer vegan and now is using the beetles for coloring. Starbucks made the switch in January when it aggressively moved away from artificial ingredients.