J Sainsbury Company

Britain's biggest supermarket chain, J. Sainsbury, will pay $325 million to buy a 16% stake in Giant Food Inc. from the family of a co-founder of the Washington-based grocery company.

These are scary times for advertisers. New technologies such as digital video recorders are giving consumers the ability to avoid marketing messages, and that means the advertising of the future will have to do more than the advertising of today. It will no longer be enough for companies to interrupt television programs to tell people about products. They will need to produce communications of various kinds that are so entertaining or so helpful that consumers will seek them out.

British retailer J. Sainsbury bowed to a threat of legal action from Nike Inc. by withdrawing from sale some unofficially obtained polo shirts that the giant U.S. company said are fakes. Beaverton, Ore.-based Nike said it received a letter from the British superstore group's lawyers, saying Sainsbury Savacentre outlets have been told to take the Nike "Golf" polo shirts off the shelves. Sainsbury was not commenting.

Albertsons Inc., one of the nation's largest food and drug retailers, is getting a foothold in six New England states by buying the U.S. grocery business of British supermarket chain J. Sainsbury for more than $2.1 billion. The deal announced Friday would give Albertsons 202 Shaw's and Star Market stores and would raise its total holdings to more than 2,500 stores in 37 states.

U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and British grocer J. Sainsbury each are expected to bid for Safeway Plc in what could become a three-way battle for Britain's fourth-largest supermarket chain, sources close to the situation said Sunday. Sainsbury is poised to bid about $4.8 billion for rival Safeway after another British grocer, William Morrison Supermarkets, agreed to a $4.25-billion all-stock deal to acquire Safeway last week. (Britain's Safeway is not associated with U.S.

* British retailer J. Sainsbury bowed to a threat of legal action from Nike Inc. by withdrawing from sale some unofficially obtained polo shirts that the giant U.S. company said are fakes.

Britain's biggest supermarket chain this week took on Coca-Cola Co., the world's most famous trademark, by launching its own brand of soft drink in what the country's media have dubbed a cola war. J. Sainsbury unveiled the look-alike Classic Cola in its 341 stores nationwide alongside familiar Coca-Cola cans from the U.S. soft-drinks giant. Sainsbury's brand boasts of "original American taste."

These are scary times for advertisers. New technologies such as digital video recorders are giving consumers the ability to avoid marketing messages, and that means the advertising of the future will have to do more than the advertising of today. It will no longer be enough for companies to interrupt television programs to tell people about products. They will need to produce communications of various kinds that are so entertaining or so helpful that consumers will seek them out.

Albertsons Inc., one of the nation's largest food and drug retailers, is getting a foothold in six New England states by buying the U.S. grocery business of British supermarket chain J. Sainsbury for more than $2.1 billion. The deal announced Friday would give Albertsons 202 Shaw's and Star Market stores and would raise its total holdings to more than 2,500 stores in 37 states.

U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and British grocer J. Sainsbury each are expected to bid for Safeway Plc in what could become a three-way battle for Britain's fourth-largest supermarket chain, sources close to the situation said Sunday. Sainsbury is poised to bid about $4.8 billion for rival Safeway after another British grocer, William Morrison Supermarkets, agreed to a $4.25-billion all-stock deal to acquire Safeway last week. (Britain's Safeway is not associated with U.S.

British retailer J. Sainsbury bowed to a threat of legal action from Nike Inc. by withdrawing from sale some unofficially obtained polo shirts that the giant U.S. company said are fakes. Beaverton, Ore.-based Nike said it received a letter from the British superstore group's lawyers, saying Sainsbury Savacentre outlets have been told to take the Nike "Golf" polo shirts off the shelves. Sainsbury was not commenting.

* British retailer J. Sainsbury bowed to a threat of legal action from Nike Inc. by withdrawing from sale some unofficially obtained polo shirts that the giant U.S. company said are fakes.

Britain's biggest supermarket chain, J. Sainsbury, will pay $325 million to buy a 16% stake in Giant Food Inc. from the family of a co-founder of the Washington-based grocery company.

Britain's biggest supermarket chain this week took on Coca-Cola Co., the world's most famous trademark, by launching its own brand of soft drink in what the country's media have dubbed a cola war. J. Sainsbury unveiled the look-alike Classic Cola in its 341 stores nationwide alongside familiar Coca-Cola cans from the U.S. soft-drinks giant. Sainsbury's brand boasts of "original American taste."