Northeast supermarket chain Hannaford has opened a community wellness center Albany, N.Y., that offers group exercise, weight management programs and personal training. The 5,277-square-foot "Healthy Living Center," located inside a Hannaford supermarket, offers programs that address specific health needs, such as Pedaling for Parkinson's and diabetes prevention.

For Nike's Hypervenom football boot, it partnered with BBH Asia Pacific. The campaign involved real football with virtual challenges in the city of Bangkok. The House Of Deadly gameplay experience challenged passersby to show off their actual football skills with an adaptive digital interface using projection mapping and motion detection to reproduce the look and feel of a professional game.

Williams-Sonoma is getting hit by "showrooming." That's when you go look at what you want in a showroom and then go buy it somewhere else. Never used to happen at luxury stores with exclusive merchandise. But rivals in the $12.3 housewares market like Cutlery and More LLC, not to mention Macy's and Amazon.com, sell for less. Williams-Sonoma has posted comparable sales declines in five of the last seven quarters.

Jeep dealers want the Jeep Cherokee real bad, but they want it to be real good. "I don't want to sell 35 Cherokees in a month and have 34 come back to the service department the next month," David Kelleher, a member of Chrysler's national dealer council and a dealer in Philadelphia. Chrysler delayed the first shipments of the new Cherokee due to a desire to improve the new nine-speed transmission.

The ongoing government shutdown is taking its toll on Americans at the margins, the chief executive of Family Dollar said this week. "The threat of the shutdown, the uncertainty regarding some of the government assistance ... the uncertainty around job growth are very real to our customer every day," said Howard Levine, the CEO of the discounter. He said over half of Family Dollar's customers are on some sort of government assistance.

The video games industry contributes GBP1 billion a year to the UK economy. Digital game and downloadable content sales are growing at a rate of 33% a year in the US and EU, and spending on games in China, which is almost all digital, is projected to grow over 10% annually for the next three years, per Rebellion's Chris Kingsley, who will speak at Game On: Engaging Consumers With Online Play. Brands should be playing.

It features 24 brands, including Burberry, NARS, Jack Black and L'Occitane En Provence. Categories include makeup, skin care, nail products, fragrance, hair care, and tools and accessories. Earlier this year, the online retailer unveiled a men's grooming platform with male products and "how-to guides" and "problem-solvers."

Industry observers have known for a while that GM (and Ford and Chrysler) vehicle quality and value are on par with everyone else, and sometimes better. But consumers still tend to believe cars from Toyota and Honda are more reliable in spite of the fact that General Motors products and brands have Toyota in a number of recent surveys, including the most influential ones from J.D. Power. But consumers are still skeptical about the reliability and durability of GM products and irritated by the government bailout.

Snacking has become a meal and the focus of a category management-track educational session, "Destination Refresh and Recharge," presented by Coca-Cola Refreshments' Doug Middlebrooks, assistant vice president of shopper marketing, and Amy Valenzuela, senior shopper insights manager. Some clear data were revealed: the majority of consumers report eating a snack each day, and one out of five eating occasions includes a snack.

Will Ferrell's eccentric ads for the Dodge Durango appear to be working. The automaker launched it over the weekend with a big presence on SNL. Kontera, a firm that measures Internet content and social media impressions says consumption, the amount of Web interest being stirred up on a topic, shot up 524.18% on Durango from Friday to Monday compared to the same period the week before. Durango got 37% more of a bump than Ferrell or Ron Burgundy on Kontera's Brand Consumption Index.