NEWS WATCH 1996-06-17

Dominick's Finer Foods, Northlake, Ill., plans to open seven new stores and remodel 13 units in its metro Chicago market during the rest of fiscal 1996. The total expenditure will be about $38 million, according to Dominick's, which operates 97 stores.

G store is slated to open in February 1997, the 165-store chain reported.

In Denver, negotiations with striking meatcutters in United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 7 were scheduled to resume late last week as the strike by clerks and meatcutters against King Soopers and the subsequent lockout at Safeway entered its fifth week. A federal mediator asked chain and union representatives to meet to discuss the meatcutter part of the contract as a starting point that could lead toward possible talks on the retail clerk part of the agreement. The contract expired May 11, and the strike-lockout began May 14.

A&P, Montvale, N.J., is slated to close six of its 200 supermarkets in Ontario by the end of August, including units in Guelph, Kingston, St. Catherines, London and Thornhill. A&P executives also announced that the company will drop its Miracle FoodMart banner. Those stores will be changed to other A&P banners: A&P, Dominion, Dominion Plus, Save-a-Centre and Super Fresh. Last year 15 Miracle FoodMarts were closed. The downsizing is part of a program initiated last year to make the Ontario grocery chain more profitable.

Peapod, Evanston, Ill., the computerized shop-at-home service provider, said it has reached an agreement to provide Kroger Co., Cincinnati, with on-line shopping and delivery

service in the Columbus, Ohio, metro area beginning in September. The arrangement will be facilitated by Dispatch Interactive Television, which is launching an interactive television network that will include the Kroger-Peapod service.

Safeway, Oakland, Calif., will relocate its corporate headquarters into a 135,000-square-foot facility in Pleasanton, Calif., effective July 1. The relocation is part of a company move to consolidate its northern California division office with its corporate office. Safeway has been based in Oakland since 1926, the year of its incorporation. The three-building headquarters there has been put up for sale. The company's new address will be 5918 Stoneridge Mall Road, Pleasanton, Calif., 94588-3229. The switchboard phone number will be (510) 467-3000.

The Food Industry Crusade Against Hunger, Washington, will hold its "Neighbors Helping Neighbors: The Food Industry Campaign Against Hunger" fund-raiser Oct. 27, 1996, to Jan. 4, 1997. The point-of-purchase program includes bar-coded debit coupons. More than 6,000 retailers are slated to participate, including Albertson's, Bruno's, Dominick's, Food Lion, Hughes, Lucky Stores, Marsh Supermarkets, Publix, Shaw's, Smith's Food & Drug and Stater Bros.