Whole Foods Market has announced plans for a new loyalty program, which will launch across the U.S. in 2017.

The retailer has been piloting the idea since 2014, when it launched a similar program in Philadelphia. The initiative features a number of rewards, including 10 per cent off a new member’s first purchase, a one-time coupon good for 15 per cent off any department, and select free products.

According to Jason Buechel, Whole Foods’ executive vice-president and chief information officer, nearly 50,000 customers have already signed on for the program.

The retail giant notes that the rewards program will be part of an overall greater focus on digital marketing and promotions. Recently, Whole Foods has seen an increase in e-mail promotions, and plans to more digital coupons into the new loyalty program.

In addition to the rewards program, the company will also offer a greater variety of pre-cooked meals, which can be purchased in-store or ordered for home delivery. Whole Foods also plans to expand its partnership with Instacart, a grocery delivery service.

According to president and CEO Doug McMillon, Walmart will be entering a “new era of trust and transparency” over the next few years. Revealed at the Net Impact Conference in Philadelphia last week, the retailer’s new roadmap will guide the company’s role in society on critical issues.

The plan adds new points to Walmart’s sustainability agenda and contains new commitments to its impact on surrounding communities and the planet.

The retail giant notes that in the upcoming years, it will double its sales of locally-grown produce across the U.S., expand sustainable sourcing to cover 20 key products, including bananas, coffee and tea, and implement a new plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

This makes Walmart the first retailer with an emissions-reduction plan approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative. Under the approved plan, the company will use energy-efficiency measures and will source half of its energy needs from renewable sources to achieve an 18 per cent reduction of emissions by 2025.

Moreover, it will work with suppliers to reduce emissions by 1 Gigaton by 2030, equivalent to taking more than 211 million passenger vehicles off of U.S. roads and highways for a year.

Walmart will also provide hundreds of thousands of its American associates to move from entry-level positions to jobs with more responsibility and higher pay by the end of next year. Moreover, it pledges to take a leadership role in promoting ethical recruitment and treatment of workers in the global retail supply chain.

“We want to make sure Walmart is a company that our associates and customers are proud of – and that we are always doing right by them and by the communities they live in,” says McMillon.

This month, Whole Foods opened a new location in Victoria, B.C. Located at the Uptown Shopping Centre, this store is the first Whole Foods Market on Vancouver Island, and the 12^th location in Canada.

The 40,000 square-foot location features a variety of innovative in-store experiences, including the Discovery Coffee bar, a Bliss Juice bar, and the Fin and Pearl restaurant and bar, a sustainable seafood restaurant with 12 Vancouver Island craft beers and B.C. wines.

“For more than a decade, we’ve been building relationships in the communities we serve throughout British Columbia, and we’re excited to continue this growth on Vancouver Island,” says Angela Lorenzen, president of Whole Foods Market’s Pacific Northwest Region. “We’ve long believed that Victoria would be a wonderful home for a new store because of our shared values. Like us, this community is a champion for strong, local food systems and believes in environmental stewardship. Our team members, many of whom come from Vancouver Island, have been working hard to create a store experience that reflects what island residents tell us they want and need. (diazepam) We look forward to continuing to build relationships here and serving Greater Victoria.”

Giving back to the community is one of Whole Foods Market’s core values. For the past several years, Vancouver Island residents and Whole Foods Market teams have discussed the community’s priorities and where Whole Foods Market resources might make the greatest impact outside the store. From those conversations, Whole Foods Market has identified several local nonprofit organizations and is building long-range partnerships with the groups to support their great work. One of these partners is The Mustard Seed, a nonprofit devoted to fighting hunger and supporting food access work in Greater Victoria. On opening day, the store’s team members presented a $2,000 contribution to the charity.

In 2016, the Whole Kids Foundation, a Whole Foods Market foundation, awarded garden grants to four Vancouver Island schools; 17 Vancouver Island K-12 schools have received garden grants from the foundation since 2012. Whole Kids Foundation also funded farm-to-school grants at nine Vancouver Island schools in 2016. These grants engage students in gardening, cooking, preserving, purchasing and serving healthy local foods at school.

The company has also announced that a new Toronto will open in 2017 at Bayview and Eglington.

Whole Foods is eliminating its co-CEO structure, with John Mackey to take over as sole CEO. This change will become effective December 31, 2016. Previously, Mackey served as co-CEO with Walter Robb for six years.

Robb, a 25-year veteran of Whole Foods, will remain on the board. Additionally, he will continue to serve as chairman for both the Whole Kids Foundation and the Whole Cities Foundation.

“It is impossible to convey what Walter has done for Whole Foods Market since he joined us in 1991,” says Mackey. “His incredible passion for retail and sense of the customer makes him the most extraordinary retailer I’ve had the privilege to work with. During his 25 years of leadership, Walter has been an advocate for the Whole Foods Market culture and a champion for our Team Members. His genuine love for our mission and our team members truly reflects what it means to be a conscious leader.”

Whole Foods has also announced that EVP and CFO Glenda Flanagan will retire from her role after 29 years. Flanagan, the longest ever serving female CFO in the Fortune 500, will retire at the end of the 2017 fiscal year. She will continue to serve the company as a senior advisor.

“Glenda joined Whole Foods Market in 1988 and has helped guide us through significant growth from six stores to 464 stores and more than $15 billion in sales today,” say Mackey and Robb. “She has been an outstanding CFO. Her intelligence, wisdom, business acumen, kindness, and integrity have been at the heart of everything Whole Foods Market has done and accomplished over the past 28 years. Glenda is deeply loved and respected by us and everyone at Whole Foods Market who has had the opportunity to know her.”

Safeway has entered into an agreement to purchase five of Andronico’s Community Markets stores. This agreement comes after Renovo Capital, which acquired Andronico’s out of bankruptcy in 2011, approached Safeway about purchasing their stores.

With this, Renovo hopes to preserve union jobs as well as keep the stores operating in the same way their customers enjoy.

“Andronico’s Community Markets have developed a well-respected brand and loyal customer base, and we are committed to keeping the local heritage alive,” says Tom Schwilke, president of Safeway Northern California. “Our goal is to preserve everything great about Andronico’s while adding Safeway’s innovations and great Own Brands products including O Organics.”

“We’re proud that Safeway has chosen our stores and our teammates to join their dynamic company,” adds Andronico’s CEO Suzy Monford. “We’re synergistic retailers who share a commitment to best quality, local and artisanal foods, as well as in supporting union jobs within our communities.”

With consumer interest in healthy food on the rise, Sprouts Farmers Market is offering shoppers a wide selection of quality meats, fully prepared meals, catering trays, wines and cheeses, and great last-minute gift ideas.

“Healthy holiday meals shouldn’t have to be expensive to be memorable,” says Sprouts president and chief operating officer Jim Nielsen. “Sprouts’ better-for-you products provide an affordable, one-stop shop for busy families and all of their holiday needs.”

Sprouts’ Old Tyme Butcher Shop is loaded with quality holiday meats, like organic or natural turkeys, spiral-sliced hams and USDA Choice or Prime grade presidential cut beef rib roasts. Shoppers looking to save time may also reserve a fresh organic or natural turkey, or one of four fully prepared holiday meals in store or online. Fully prepared meals range from USD $29.99 to $79.99 and include a roasted boneless turkey breast (serves two), a natural whole turkey meal (serves six to eight) and a USDA Choice beef rib roast meal (serves six to eight).

With the holiday season fast approaching, consider offering a similar innovative service to your customers. Whether its pre-ordered fresh meats or full meals, they’re sure to appreciate your help during this hectic time.

According to Kari Gran’s second annual Green Beauty Barometer Survey, millennial interest in natural products is growing rapidly.

The eco-friendly skin care and colour cosmetics brand notes that women will be buying natural beauty products for the foreseeable future. Its survey showed that 50 per cent of women over 35 feel green beauty products important, while 73 per cent of millennial women feel this way.

The survey shows that 35 per cent of women plan to purchase more all-natural beauty products over the next two years, with skin care seeing the biggest increase at 34 per cent. Meanwhile, 32 per cent will buy natural hair care, 26 per cent will buy natural cosmetics, 24 per cent will buy natural sun care, 17 per cent will buy natural fragrance, and 17 per cent will purchase natural nail care.

Moreover, says the report, the natural beauty product assortment in specialty drug and grocery stores disappoints 12 per cent of women shopping for beauty, while 14 per cent of mass market retailers dissatisfy consumers.

With natural beauty certainly becoming a trend in the market, consider revamping your store’s selection of green cosmetics and personal care items. Your customers—and your profits—will certainly thank you.

DuPont Nutrition & Health has announced a significant investment to expand probiotics production capacity in the United States.  The investment is the second phase of a broader probiotics expansion project due to the rapidly growing global demand for probiotics.

Phase One is ongoing in Madison, Wisconsin, and Rochester, New York, and will be partially complete by the end of 2016. The second phase is scheduled to span two years, and represents an investment of approximately $100 million. This phase will increase the company’s probiotics production capacity by an additional 70 per cent. Production will be optimized with the installation of new, high-volume fermenters and other processing equipment.

“This investment reinforces our commitment to the probiotics industry. We see strong growth worldwide, and increasing our capacity enables our partners to continue growing and capturing the opportunities from very favorable market trends,” says Matthias Heinzel, president of DuPont Nutrition & Health. “As we phase in more capacity, we will continue to maintain the high potency, stability and efficacy in our products that have made DuPont the globalprobiotics leader. Quality is extremely important in probiotic production, and our reputation for manufacturing quality has always been a differentiator with DuPont probiotics.”

Probiotics have become increasingly popular in recent times. According to the Natural Marketing Institute, consumer awareness is at an all-time high (75 per cent), in the U.S. Euromonitor data also shows worldwide probiotic acceptance in an increase in the compound annual growth rate for 2015 to 2020 in every global region.

“Consumers want to proactively take care of their health, and they’re increasingly turning to probiotics to fill that need,” says John Rea, global business unit leader for Probiotics, Cultures, Food Protection and HMOs. “We have found through proprietary research that consumers feel probiotics offer a great way to improve their overall health and wellness. And they see probiotics playing the role of a ‘balancer’ in the midst of a stress-filled, fast-paced lifestyle.”

Whole Foods Market has finished its release of its simplified “Responsibly Grown” in-store produce labelling initiative. The process, which began earlier this year, reflects a streamlining of the Texas-based company’s three-step fresh produce labelling to a one-size-fits-all Responsibly Grown label.

“We launched Responsibly Grown with the goal of creating a dynamic program that we would continuously evolve with our suppliers to address important agriculture issues affecting human health and the environment,” says Edmund LaMacchia, Whole Foods global VP of perishable purchasing and the primary executive over the Responsibly Grown program.

The new initiative came with added support and training to “help growers through the onboarding process and [outline] new food safety regulations and traceability requirements,” continues LaMacchia. The program also evaluates areas of sustainability, including farmworker welfare, pollinator protection, water conservation, soil health ecosystems, biodiversity, waste, energy use, recycling, and packaging.

Whole Foods notes that the previous three-step label, known as the “good-better-best” system, created some confusion for customers, producers, and produce managers.

“We were having to separate each grower’s products on the stand and having to label each separately with the good, better or best,” Erik Henderson, produce manager for an Orlando-based Whole Foods, told Supermarket News. “We also had some conventional farmers with produce that was rated ‘best,’ and some organic farmers that weren’t rated at all.”

The new system aims to put all growers on an even playing field and simplify customer experience.