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NEWS WATCH

STATER BROS. MARKETS, Colton, Calif., last week began accepting electronic benefit transfer cards at one of its San Bernardino county stores. Stater Bros., the first supermarket chain in the state to roll out EBT technology, said it will accept EBT cards in all 45 San Bernardino stores by March 1998. Federal legislation mandates EBT implementation by 2002.holly owned subsidiary of Jitney-Jungle Stores

STATER BROS. MARKETS, Colton, Calif., last week began accepting electronic benefit transfer cards at one of its San Bernardino county stores. Stater Bros., the first supermarket chain in the state to roll out EBT technology, said it will accept EBT cards in all 45 San Bernardino stores by March 1998. Federal legislation mandates EBT implementation by 2002.

holly owned subsidiary of Jitney-Jungle Stores of America, Jackson, Miss. The vote was the final step in the merger process. Jitney now operates 220 stores throughout Mississippi and Alabama, and in select markets in Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and Florida.

THE SUPREME COURT last week overturned a long-standing doctrine that gave retailers the freedom to charge as much as the market would bear. Left intact was an antitrust law that prohibits manufacturers or suppliers from setting minimum prices. A spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers of America, Washington, said it supported the decision.

METRO-RICHELIEU, the Montreal-based distributor, said it will comply with a court order to re-establish a transportation organization at a local distribution center and recall drivers who had been let go when the operation was closed down in January 1995. The Confederation of National Trade Unions filed suit, claiming the shutdown violated its collective bargaining agreement.

DOMINICK'S FINER FOODS, Northlake, Ill., said last week it will open a new Fresh Store next fall in "a neighborhood once written off by business" -- Chicago's inner-city Lawndale section. The 50,000-square-foot store will be the first full-service supermarket to open there in 30 years, the company said.

AMERICAN STORES CO., Salt Lake City, and Longs Drug Stores Corp., Walnut Creek, Calif., last week signed a joint-venture agreement to merge RxAmerica and Integrated Health Concepts. Both RxAmerica, a unit of American Stores, and Integrated Health, a unit of Longs, provide pharmacy-benefits management services. American Stores said the companies would be equal partners in the joint venture, which would retain the name RxAmerica.