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NEWS ROUNDUP

Streamline Enters New Jersey the Internet grocery company here, has entered into an agreement to lease a 102,000-square-foot distribution facility in New Jersey. "We did sign a lease agreement for a distribution center in Carlstadt, N.J.," said Streamline spokeswoman Donna Gadomski. She added that the retailer, who announced its availability in the New Jersey area Oct. 28, would run the facility.

Streamline Enters New Jersey

the Internet grocery company here, has entered into an agreement to lease a 102,000-square-foot distribution facility in New Jersey. "We did sign a lease agreement for a distribution center in Carlstadt, N.J.," said Streamline spokeswoman Donna Gadomski. She added that the retailer, who announced its availability in the New Jersey area Oct. 28, would run the facility. The depot, which will serve the retailer's New Jersey area customers, will be operational sometime in 2000. The facility is leased from ProLogis, Denver. The retailer's largest distribution center is located in the Washington area and measures about 104,000 square feet, according to Gadomski.

Three Rainbows Get ESLs

HOPKINS, Minn. -- Rainbow Foods here, a corporate division of Fleming, has installed electronic shelf labels at three locations in the Minneapolis area. About 20,000 wireless labels have been installed in each store. The wireless technology allows the retailer to transmit prices from the item-price database used by a store's point-of-sale system to digital information displays throughout the store. The shelf-label solution should help the retailer automate shelf pricing as well as convey promotional messages to shoppers, including special offers, frequent-shopper items and nutritional information, according to a source familiar with the situation. The solution, called DecisioNet, is from NCR Corp., Dayton, Ohio.

Priceline.com Inks Grand Union

STAMFORD, Conn. -- The name-your-price-for-groceries service launched by Priceline.com here has already attracted more than 15,000 consumers, according to the company. Also according to the company, consumers have purchased more than 188,000 grocery items through the Internet, with an average savings of $12 per store visit on a basket of more than 10 items. The company also said that better customers were saving more per store visit. "Our best customers are saving $35 per store visit, in a shopping cart filled with 25 different grocery items," said Priceline.com founder Jay Walker. Kevin Goldman, a company spokesman, added that the company believes that this program is encouraging shoppers to make more trips to the supermarket than they otherwise would. The Top 5 products consumers are purchasing are: diapers, chicken, cola, steaks and orange juice.

In another development, Grand Union Co, Wayne, N.J., added its name to the growing list of retailers who will be working with Priceline.com's WebHouse Club. The WebHouse Club is a privately held affiliate licensee of Priceline.com.

The retailer will begin accepting the WebHouse Club member cards as soon as Priceline's computer system is fully integrated and tested with Grand Union's system, according to Don Vaillancourt, corporate vice president of corporate affairs for Grand Union. With the addition of Grand Union, Priceline.com will now be working with almost 900 supermarkets in the Tri-State area. During its first week of operation, Priceline.com's WebHouse Club served 15,000 consumers with the average member saving $12 per basket on each visit to the grocery store, according to a source familiar with the situation.