- Beverage Aisle reported that Coca-Cola Co. has begun rolling out its Sprite ReMix Berryclear, a berry-flavored version of Sprite Remix. The company plans to phase out the tropical flavored ReMix, which it introduced a year ago to re-energize the Sprite brand.
- Carrefour opened an Asian flagship store in Beijing this week, its fifth unit in China's capital city.
The company has a stated goal of opening one hypermarket a month in China.
- Just days after calling for a consumer boycott of both Treasure island and Potash Bros. markets in Chicago, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) has filed a grievance against Treasure Island with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The union charges that Treasure Island is changing the previously negotiated health care plans offered to employees without getting the agreement of the union.
- Missouri legislators are considering a bill that would protect pharmacists who refuse to dispense the "morning after pill" that serves as a birth control option. The move comes as a Wisconsin pharmacist at a Kmart has come under criticism from state authorities for refusing not only to fill a "morning after pill" prescription, but also to transfer the prescription to another store.
- The Associated Press reports that the latest company to be planning to embrace the "healthy food" segment is disgraced Italian retailer Parmalat.
The court-appointed trustee for the company, who is responsible for turning Parmalat around in the wake of a major accounting fraud scandal, said that he wants to cut the number of brands produced by the company from 120 to 30m and focus on "healthy lifestyle" foods.
- PlanetRetail.net reports that UK retailer Somerfield is acquiring Aberness, a company that operates 36 c-stores, has franchised five c-stores, and is a distributor of groceries to 130 additional stores, all using the Mace name. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Aberness is valued at the equivalent of $8.7 million (US).
