Content about Safeway

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Building on the success of its store brands O Organics and Eating Right, Safeway is boosting its portfolio with a new line of healthy, nutritious food.

Open Nature includes more than 100 products made with 100% natural ingredients from natural sources. The first Open Nature items now are available in Safeway’s meat departments, with additional products to be added to the store brand throughout the year.

Current items up for grabs are priced between $3.99 and $5.99, the retailer said.

CLEVELAND — ECRM on Thursday announced the launch of a series of reports and a new blog on retail circular ads. The new resources provide a unique perspective on retail promotions from Walmart, Kroger, Walgreens, Safeway, Best Buy, OfficeMax, Aldi and 160 additional retailers in the United States and Canada.

Using ECRM’s trade promotion expertise, these reports and blog entries will enable retailers and suppliers to manage more effective trade spending, ECRM stated.

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway's board of directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of 12 cents per share. The cash dividend will be payable on Jan. 13, 2011, to stockholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 23.

In related news, the retail chain's board also increased the authorized level of the company’s stock repurchase program by $1 billion to $7 billion. Through the end of third quarter 2010, Safeway repurchased approximately $5.2 billion of its stock and had approximately $800 million remaining under its stock repurchase program, Safeway said.

MINNETONKA, Minn. — UnitedHealth Group will start a program next year that it said can reduce drug costs to as low as $2 per script, the company said Tuesday.

The program, Pharmacy Saver, will be available to Medicare Part D members and is a collaboration with Kroger, Safeway and Prescription Solutions. The program will allow members to purchase some scripts for $2 for 30- and some 90-day supplies and applies to hundreds of prescription drugs, including 8-of-the-10 most commonly used by UnitedHealthcare Medicare plan members.

PHILADELPHIA — Safeway will sell two stores in the Philadelphia area to one of Ahold’s supermarket banners, according to published reports.

The Philadelphia Business Journal reported Thursday that Giant-Carlisle will buy two Genuardi’s supermarkets in Bucks County, Pa.

Each store will be closed on Nov. 13 and will re-open in first quarter 2011 under the Giant banner. Store employees will have the opportunity to transfer to other Genuardi’s stores or interview to work at Giant.

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — The In-Store Marketing Institute announced the gold award winner for its “Design of the Times” contest.

The Safeway June Dairy multivendor program, developed by Safeway and Mars Advertising, sought to generate category sales, increase category awareness and leverage June Dairy Month to further drive traffic to Safeway’s dairy department. The program was supported with product sampling, shopper education on the benefits of dairy and out-of-store elements, including online sweepstakes and circulars.

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway pharmacies in California are responding to the state's whooping cough (pertussis) emergency and now are offering Adacel, a booster vaccine for people ages 11 through 64 years, the grocer announced Wednesday.

The Adacel vaccine is available at all Safeway, Vons and Pavilions pharmacies on a walk-in basis, the company stated.

PLEASANTON, Calif. Safeway on Tuesday announced that all Safeway pharmacies in the United States now have a new high-dose flu vaccine called Fluzone High-Dose, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in people 65 years of age and older.

RONKONKOMA, N.Y. NBTY on Tuesday announced the recall of its Air Shield, Air Protector, Immune System Support and AirHealth Effervescent 10-tablet containers, and its Stick Packs 8-stick containers -- all private-label versions of Airborne -- because they may contain undeclared soy, according to a posting of the release on the Food and Drug Administration website.

The recall impacts a host of pharmacy retailers, including CVS, Safeway, Supervalu, Target, Walgreens and Walmart. The products all fall under NBTY’s Leiner Health Solutions umbrella.