Kroger

Kroger Co., the nation's largest supermarket retailer, on Thursday joined the growing list of companies that have dropped the beef product widely referred to as pink slime from their fresh meat cases. Both Kroger and the Stop & Shop chain said they would no longer sell fresh meat containing the product, known by the industry as lean finely textured beef. On Wednesday, supermarket chains Safeway, Supervalu and Food Lion said they would stop selling fresh meat containing the product because of widespread consumer concerns in the wake of media reports.

What happens to the 40% of food produced but never eaten in the U.S. each year, the mounds of perfect fruit passed over by grocery store shoppers, the tons of meat and milk left to expire? At Ralphs, one of the oldest and largest supermarket chains on the West Coast, it helps keep the power on. In a sprawling Compton distribution center that the company shares with its fellow Kroger Co. subsidiary Food 4 Less, organic matter otherwise destined for a landfill is rerouted instead into the facility's energy grid.

The owner of Ralphs Grocery Co. is paying the price for helping to launch Southern California's supermarket price wars. Kroger Co., the largest U.S. grocer, said Tuesday that it would take a $1.05-billion write-down in the value of Ralphs as the division contends with cautious consumers, rampant unemployment in the chain's core market and the slumping value of the real estate where its stores are located. The company's problems, including an $875-million quarterly loss, doesn't bode well for its Christmas season.

To your grocery list, add electricity. Kroger Co., the country's largest grocery store owner, with chains including Ralphs and Food 4 Less, plans to install a total of 225 vehicle charging stations at 125 supermarkets in California and Arizona. San Francisco-based Ecotality Inc., which operates the nation's second-largest network of public electric charging stations for vehicles, announced Monday that it would handle the installation. Kroger, based in Cincinnati, said it would invest about $1.5 million to install Ecotality's Blink charging stations and DC Fast Chargers.

Kroger Co. won preliminary approval of a $16-million settlement of a suit by black workers claiming discrimination. The 2001 lawsuit alleged the grocery chain discriminated against black workers in setting starting pay. Cincinnati-based Kroger also agreed to increase oversight of its pay decision-making, said the accord filed in federal court in Louisville, Ky.

Shares of Kroger Co. rose the most in more than three years after the operator of Ralphs and Food 4 Less boosted its annual profit forecast and announced a $1-billion share buyback. The Cincinnati company's shares advanced 6.1% to $22.58, the biggest gain since March 2009. The shares have dropped 6.8% this year. Profit for the fiscal year ending Jan. 31 will be as much as $2.40 a share, up from a prior forecast of as much as $2.38, the company said Thursday. That compared with the $2.32 average that analysts expected in a Bloomberg survey.

Kroger Co. recalled an undetermined amount of ground beef from stores in Michigan and Ohio because the meat might be contaminated with E. coli bacteria, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

Kroger Co., the biggest U.S. grocery chain and operator of Ralphs, increased its fiscal first-quarter profit more than analysts estimated by cutting prices and said full-year sales would exceed its previous forecast. Sales at stores open at least 15 months may climb as much as 5.5% this year, higher than its previous projection, Cincinnati-based Kroger said Tuesday. That estimate excludes gasoline sales at stores with service stations. Consumers bought more store-branded products after gas surged to more than $4 a gallon and food costs soared.

Albertsons Inc. has received a preliminary takeover bid from larger grocery store rival Kroger Co., while its drugstore unit has attracted bids from three pharmacy chains, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters on Friday. Albertsons put itself up for sale in September after struggling against competition from discounters such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

  The last thing a supermarket shopper wants to see is long lines and empty registers. Ten years ago, shoppers envisioned a day when radio-frequency identification tags would enable them to whisk shopping carts through a checkout without unloading them - or bypass the checkout lane and ring up groceries as they walked through the store. But RFID never got cheap enough for razor-thin grocery margins. And we're still stacking groceries on conveyor belts, a 19th-century invention.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Ralph's owner Kroger Co. and Sara Lee parent Grupo Bimbo are all said to be in the running to buy up assets from liquidating Twinkies maker Hostess, according to a report this week. The companies, along with Midwest baked products distributor Alpha Baking Co., are bidding to pick up all or parts of Hostess, according to Bloomberg News . The report cites an anonymous source familiar with negotiations. “There are rumors about Wal-Mart all the time and we just don't comment on them,” said Wal-Mart spokesman Randy Hargrove in an email.

Shares of Kroger Co. rose the most in more than three years after the operator of Ralphs and Food 4 Less boosted its annual profit forecast and announced a $1-billion share buyback. The Cincinnati company's shares advanced 6.1% to $22.58, the biggest gain since March 2009. The shares have dropped 6.8% this year. Profit for the fiscal year ending Jan. 31 will be as much as $2.40 a share, up from a prior forecast of as much as $2.38, the company said Thursday. That compared with the $2.32 average that analysts expected in a Bloomberg survey.

  The last thing a supermarket shopper wants to see is long lines and empty registers. Ten years ago, shoppers envisioned a day when radio-frequency identification tags would enable them to whisk shopping carts through a checkout without unloading them - or bypass the checkout lane and ring up groceries as they walked through the store. But RFID never got cheap enough for razor-thin grocery margins. And we're still stacking groceries on conveyor belts, a 19th-century invention.

Kroger Co., the nation's largest supermarket retailer, on Thursday joined the growing list of companies that have dropped the beef product widely referred to as pink slime from their fresh meat cases. Both Kroger and the Stop & Shop chain said they would no longer sell fresh meat containing the product, known by the industry as lean finely textured beef. On Wednesday, supermarket chains Safeway, Supervalu and Food Lion said they would stop selling fresh meat containing the product because of widespread consumer concerns in the wake of media reports.

Ralphs operator Kroger Co. rang up double-digit increases in fiscal first-quarter revenue and net income as the grocery chain's fuel stations and loyalty discounts helped draw more frequent shoppers when gasoline and food prices rose. The nation's largest traditional grocery operator now expects better results for the full year than earlier projected, even though U.S. economic improvement appears to be stagnating. That could help Kroger if people eat more meals at home instead of in restaurants and look for ways to manage spending because of high gas prices.

A huge Internet security breach that exposed countless names and email addresses also focused attention on an increasingly popular target for hackers: data firms that store customers' personal information for banks, retailers and other companies. Customers of as many as 50 firms, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Kroger Co., TiVo Inc., Best Buy Co., Walgreen Co. and Capital One Financial Corp., found out over the weekend that their email addresses were exposed to hackers who had broken into the system of Epsilon Data Management, a Dallas company that provides online mail services to 2,500 companies.

Regarding "Kroger settles racial bias suit" (Business Briefing, June 27): There are many persons within our society who, wrongly, argue that racism is no longer a social problem. Unfortunately, when an employer like Kroger Co. makes an out-of-court settlement for $16 million in a case alleging it discriminates against African Americans, it serves as a painful reminder that racial discrimination continues to be an important social issue. One cannot help but wonder what it will take and how long it will be before racial justice is achieved in a nation that espouses equal rights for all of its citizens.

Sentencing for supermarket giant Ralphs Grocery Co. was set for next Wednesday on 62 criminal counts of overcharging customers, false advertising and false labeling at more than a dozen stores in Los Angeles County. The company, which pleaded no contest to the charges in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday, faces up to $43,000 in penalties. When charged in May, Ralphs and its parent company, Cincinnati-based Kroger Co., faced fines and penalties of up to $256,000 each.

Sentencing for supermarket giant Ralphs Grocery Co. was set for next Wednesday on 62 criminal counts of overcharging customers, false advertising and false labeling at more than a dozen stores in Los Angeles County. The company, which pleaded no contest to the charges in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday, faces up to $43,000 in penalties. When charged in May, Ralphs and its parent company, Cincinnati-based Kroger Co., faced fines and penalties of up to $256,000 each.

Supermarket giant Ralphs and its parent company were charged Tuesday with overcharging customers, false advertising and false labeling after an undercover operation by Los Angeles county officials. The multicount criminal case, filed by the Los Angeles city attorney's criminal branch, said Ralphs overcharged on prepackaged and weighed products such as fried chicken, bulk coffee, salads and fish. The chain was fined for similar violations in 2008 and 2009. Ralphs and parent company Kroger Co. could face fines and penalties of up to $256,000 each.