Are you wasting money on brand names?

(msnbc) Any smart supermarket shopper knows that buying store-brand products instead of big names can save big bucks. In our latest price study, filling a shopping cart with store brands saved us an average of 30 percent. If you spend $100 a week on groceries, those savings add up to more than $1,500 a year. (Click HERE for full story.)

Consumers Continue Shift to Low-cost Retailers, Acceptance of Store Brands
(Progressive Grocer) Sixty-two percent of surveyed shoppers who earn less than $35,000 per year consider themselves worse off than a year ago, and this sentiment ripples through consumers at all income brackets this back-to-school season, according to new research from Chicago-based SymphonyIRI Group Inc. (Click HERE for full story.)

Giant Eagle opens Valu King in Johnstown, a grocery format focusing on 'great deals'

(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) The big yellow sign at the entrance to the new Valu King grocery store in Johnstown's Westwood Plaza seemed to be an instruction manual on what to expect when shoppers get inside. (Click HERE for full story.)

Soda Brands Lose Fizz
(Brandweek) With summer coming to an end, the buzz scores of the major soda brands have cooled off as well. Research firm YouGov attributes the drop to U.S. consumers' growing focus on healthier beverages. (Click HERE for full story.)

Diamond chews on acquisitions

(San Francisco Business Times) Diamond Foods Inc. is looking to expand its pantry by acquiring stronger — and more profitable — brands than traditional commodities like nut. (Click HERE for full story.)

Tyson CEO Counts Chickens, Hatches Plan
(The Wall Street Journal) Since being named Tyson Foods Inc.'s chief executive in November, Donnie Smith has helped steer the biggest U.S. meat company out of one of its worst periods ever. Now that profits have replaced record quarterly losses, the hard part looms.

Meatpackers have a history of spoiling good times by increasing production too aggressively in a dash for market share, which pushes their livestock costs higher and helps keep them hostage to the boom-and-bust commodity price cycle.

Federal antitrust regulators are airing concerns about whether big agribusiness companies have too much power over farmers. Tyson, which annually slaughters two billion chickens, 20 million pigs and seven million cattle, sells meat to some of the world's biggest fast-food chains and supermarkets.

Mr. Smith thinks the U.S. economy will remain flat for a while, but is optimistic that the Springdale, Ark., company has gotten its costs down enough to gain customers. He worries that the recession has fomented a "big is bad" feeling about companies.

The lanky 50-year-old works in the shadow of one of the most powerful families in food. The family of Don Tyson, the 80-year-old mogul who helped bring industrial scale to chicken farming, controls about 70% of Tyson's voting shares, and his son, John, is chairman.

Mr. Smith, who teaches a Sunday school class, says one of his most important jobs as CEO is to promote an ethical culture. The company employs 120 chaplains and he blogs about integrity.

From his egg-shaped office, Mr. Smith shared his views on leading his flock.

Excerpts:

WSJ: How long will the economy be flat?

Mr. Smith: I don't necessarily think we are headed to a double-dip recession. But I don't think it is going to be a quick pull out of the hole, either. If we are going to gain share in this market, we need a good cost structure.

WSJ: How are you lowering the cost of chicken?

Mr. Smith: We were very uncompetitive in our yield of breast meat. The primary reason is that several years ago we made a move towards more mechanical deboning. Now we have made a move back to hand deboning, and we've seen a tremendous yield improvement... which drives out cost.

WSJ: Has government support for the corn-to-ethanol fuel industry affected your business?

Mr. Smith: Prior to 2006, before ethanol became the user of one third of the corn crop, the cost of producing a pound of chicken was in the mid-20 [cents] range. Today, it is mid-30s.

WSJ: What do you want to see done with the ethanol industry?

Mr. Smith: Let industries compete without tax incentives.

WSJ: What's your management style?

Mr. Smith: I've got this little saying: the answer is always in the room. We have to free people up to operate in an environment where there is no fear. We are going to make mistakes. Don't worry about it. Let's fail fast and fail forward. Then take that empowering spirit, and let's go solve some problems.

WSJ: On your internal company blog, you mention the Bible as a favorite book. Does your faith affect the way you manage?

Mr. Smith: I don't think you can say, "I do all my church stuff on Sunday between nine and noon, and the rest of the time I am either out for myself or running my business."

My faith influences how I think, what I do, what I say. There are a lot of great biblical principles that are fundamental to operating a good business. Being fair and telling the truth are biblical principles.

WSJ: How moral can a company be?

Mr. Smith: We are going to do what is right. And we're going to do what is right for one reason: because it is right. Now listen, we've got 117,000 people. There might be somebody that steps out of line occasionally. We will correct that.

WSJ: The Bible says the chances of a rich man getting into Heaven aren't good. Can a Fortune 500 CEO get into Heaven?

Mr. Smith: This one will, because I did what the Bible said I had to do to get into heaven. Feeding people is a laudable purpose in life.

WSJ: The recession has brought widespread complaints of Wall Street greed. What do you think?

Mr. Smith: There seems to be this attitude that big is bad. And it really does bother me. Big banks are bad. Big Ag is bad. And you know what? We're not bad.

We provide jobs for 117,000 people around the world. We make great, safe food products.

WSJ: Last thing: Which of your beef customers makes the best hamburger?

Mr. Smith: There is zero chance I am answering that question. No, I will tell you who makes the best hamburger: I do.

WSJ: So it's not McDonald's? Burger King? Wendy's?

Mr. Smith: On my grill.

Rite Aid to Add Save-A-Lot Grocery Stores to Rite Aid Pharmacies in Greenville, South Carolina, Market

(EON: Enhanced Online News) Rite Aid Corporation and Save-A-Lot, a SUPERVALU company, announced today that Rite Aid has entered into a licensing agreement with Save-A-Lot to add the discount, limited assortment grocery store concept to Rite Aid’s ten existing stores in the Greenville, SC, market. (Click HERE for full story.)

Tops Markets CEO says Syracuse area market is 'the gem'

(The Post Standard) In January, Buffalo-based Tops Markets acquired the assets of the defunct Syracuse-based The Penn Traffic Co. Since then, Tops has never stopped remaking Penn Traffic’s P&C stores and other supermarket chains. (Click HERE for full story.)

Marketing Fanciful Items in the Lands of Make Believe
(The New York Times) Intrigued by the willingness of millions of consumers to pay real money for things that do not exist, some large companies are testing whether they can raise awareness of their brands — and sell more actual goods — by creating and offering their own pretend merchandise. (Click HERE for full story.)

5 Generic Products That Are Just as Good

(Yahoo) In today's tough economy, consumers are pinching pennies by choosing generic over big name brands in their supermarket aisles. From chips and dips to pain relievers and peanut butter, there's a cheaper generic version of almost every product (Click HERE for full story.)

Retailers Post Surprisingly Strong August Sales

(CNBC) Retailers turned in surprisingly strong monthly sales reports in August, as sales-tax-free holidays and discounting coaxed shoppers to open their wallets and stock up on back-to-school items. (Click HERE for full story.)

Grocery stores increase social networking

(Business Courier of Cincinnati) The U.S. grocery industry is increasing using social media practices as part of a plan to gain market share, according to new data released by Greensboro-based Pace Communications. (Click HERE for full story.)

A&P Mulls Selling Food Emporium Chain

(The Wall Street Journal) Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., operator of the struggling A&P supermarket chain, is considering selling its Food Emporium stores as part of a boarder effort to rid itself of some assets and boost its liquidity, according to people familiar with the matter.

The supermarket operator has publicly said it will consider the sale of "non-core assets" as it looks to improve its liquidity after absorbing some big losses in recent months. Food Emporium is the company's gourmet supermarket banner and one of the more attractive chains it owns.

Great Atlantic couldn't immediately be reached for comment. The company operates a little more than 400 stores under several brands including A&P, Waldbaum's, Pathmark, Food Emporium and Food Basics. It recently announced it would close 25 under-performing or non-core locations.

In recent weeks, investment bank Peter J. Solomon has made an effort to gauge potential buyer interest in the Food Emporium chain for A&P, according to one private equity investor, although it wasn't immediately clear which other banks may be involved.

Analysts estimate Food Emporium could fetch more than $200 million in a sale.

Some private equity firms that could be possible bidders are Angelo, Gordon & Co., which owns Kings Super Markets Inc., and Sterling Investment Partners, owners of the Fairway Market grocery chain, industry analysts say.

Representatives of Angelo, Gordon and Sterling Investment had no comment.

Great Atlantic's efforts to sell assets come as the firm has faced mounting losses. For its fiscal first quarter ended June 19, A&P reported a loss of $122.6 million, or $4.83 a share. In July, the company named its second chief executive in fewer than six months as the company posted the quarterly loss on weakening sales and profit margins. Sam Martin was named president and chief executive in July, replacing Ron Marshall, who had joined A&P in January.

Investor concerns have driven Great Atlantic's shares down sharply this year.

The stock is down about 74% for the year, trading recently at $3.03.

Food Emporium's footprint includes 16 stores in Manhattan, many with long-standing rents that are well-below the current going rates, giving it a lower cost base, said Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of the retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group. Manhattan has a high cost of entry for competitors, leaving Food Emporium isolated from some of the competition pressuring suburban grocery stores. It's a well-known brand in New York and occupies some valuable real estate space.

"Food Emporium's been one of the crown-jewel properties in food retailing for decades, but has been under-managed by A&P," Mr. Flickinger said. "It's the company's most readily saleable asset."

San Clemente shop echoes gluten-free growth

(The Orange County Register) Two years after people told Josie Rietkerk she was crazy to open a gluten-free grocery store, her business has grown so much that she's had to move to a new shop twice the original size. (Click HERE for full story.)

Barrow boy grocer instincts give Tesco's Ken Towle an edge with Chinese shoppers
(Telegraph) In five years, he plans to open more new retail space in China (40m sq ft) than Tesco has built up in the UK in the nine decades since it was founded. (Click HERE for full story.)