Shoppers Drug Mart has been steadily branching out to the grocery industry by naturally taking advantage of their convenient locations and it’s looking like a positive move so far. The project to remodel several stores and provide fresh produce to customers began in 2014 and has how escalated to 29 stores as of today.

Convenience is a big factor in the success of this new venture, because traveling out to Walmart can add a significant amount of effort to a trip a customer may just wanted to be quick and painles.

A large part of the food retail industry consumers will go out of their way for a low price and don’t have an issue taking advantage of convenience and sacrificing a few extra dollars. “More and more people are pressed for time,” notes Charlebois. Targeting the demographic that needs to save time means they stand apart from threatening companies trying to dominate like Walmart and Costco.

Retailers pushing for the number one spot have the capacity to do so, and it’s lighting a fire to the competition. Loblaw reported within the previous year its net profit dropped by nearly 15 per cent in the second quarter. Their solution has been to not only support Shoppers Drug Mart with fresh food, but open their own CityMarkets with the same idea in mind.

Loblaws and Shoppers Drug Mart success with their new plans won’t come easy but they are willing to take the risk. “Execution and scale, all of this stuff is going to be difficult for them,” says Kevin Grier, an independent food-industry analyst based in Guelph, Ont.

Native to North America, cranberries can be used to help with your immune system cardiac health, stomach health, and more. Pharmatoka, has now joined the 40 companies involved in The American Botanical Council’s (ABC) Adopt-an-Herb botanical education program by adopting cranberry.

The educational program means resources and the ability to further research the herb is always made available. “ABC is deeply grateful to Pharmatoka for its financial support of the curation and expansion of ABC’s HerbMedPro database by adopting cranberry,” said Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of ABC. “Pharmatoka is a world leader in the development of high quality, clinically researched, standardized cranberry extracts that have applications in the dietary supplement and pharmaceutical industries” says Blumenthal.

ABC is an independent research and educational organization therefore “herb adopters do not influence the scientific information that is compiled for their respective adopted herbs” says Blumenthal.

For more than 10 years, Pharmatoka has remained committed to high quality products and recognizing the importance of safety and efficacy. “We are proud to work actively with ABC, and we follow ABC’s leadership in keeping the botanical world clean and efficacious” says Gunter Haesaerts, founder and CEO of Pharmatoka.

This year the the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP) shared new information about cranberries which pointed out the remarkable potential health benefits of the herb’s numerous elements.

The dietary supplement company Land Art produces and distributes their products across Canada. A leader in the field since 1992 has announced they plan to team M2 Brand Management to help propel their expansion into the western region. M2 Brand Management plans to represent Land Art in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan & Manitoba.

Five years ago Walgreens obtained drugstore.com at the equity value of $429 million, and now they have made the decision to no longer keep the website and beauty.com running. Then CEO of Walgreens Greg Wasson had hopes to “accelerate our online strategy to leverage the best community store network in America by becoming the most convenient choice for health and daily living needs.”

Walgreen’s focus for the company is being taken in a different direction. “Over the past year, we have been focusing on building new omni-channel capabilities on Walgreens.com with initiatives that improved assortment and website user experiences, enhanced our digital coupon capabilities to provide more customer value, and added digital tools into our stores to elevate our shopping experiences,” says Walgreens.

Though some employment positions with Drugstore.com at the Bellevue office will not be moving forward, the company’s spokesperson Phill Caruso, says they plan to figure out a permanent path for those remaining.

Walgreen is aware closing down Drugstore.com will force pre-taxe charges of estimated nearly $115 million but will take action with their decision in September.

After consistent acquisitions in the natural products business, companies are demonstrating to the public the strength that still remains in this industry. The latest purchase is by Clarions Brand who recently bought the probiotics line Florajen.

Florajen demonstrate the company’s dedication to potency, freshness and quality by providing a product that requires refrigeration. “Florajen is the perfect addition to our portfolio. We have a longstanding history of partnering with healthcare professionals to provide consumers with trusted solutions to their everyday health needs, and Florajen represents both an exciting and strategic next step for us,” says Clarion Brands CEO Gary Downing.

Clarion Brands is in the portfolio of companies owned by Swander Pace Capital, and this will be the second acquisition by Swander Pace in the dietary supplement industry this year. Leading up to this deal, InterHealth was recently involved in an acquisition purchase, along with Jamieson Labs, therefore Swander Pace is the latest to add to the private equity capital trend.

“Even though we’ve been subject to a lot of negative publicity over the past year there is still a very active market in this regard, says Scott Steinford president of both Natural Algae Astaxanthin Association (NAXA) and the CoQ10 Association.

Friday’s GDP report saw new levels that indicate the housing boom is doing more than just providing unaffordable homes for wealthy buyers. Canada’s economy is at a standstill and bank lending, accompanied by Vancouver and Toronto’s housing market is helping keep it afloat.

Real estate and financial services make up 20 per cent of the economy, a percentage that hasn’t been recorded since the early 1960s. But this might not be the best news, since Canada has ended up in record household debt. Policy makers are under pressure to slow the price increase that makes home buying less of a possibility for many Canadians.

The GDP also shared data that Canada’s economic expansion reached an incredibly low expansion of 1.2 per cent. This is compared to previous years of typically expecting a growth of at least 5 per cent in the span of two years. Canada’s economy has essentially hit a halt over the last 10 months, mostly due to Alberta wildfires in May and the impact on oil production.

Despite these disappointing numbers, expectations are that this information will bring a sense of urgency from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau to push towards positive growth for 2017.

The grocery industry has become more competitive than before, prices have declined dramatically and the reason goes beyond food retailers winning the battle with vendors.

The food retailing landscape has taken a new shape with Walmart turning entirely focused on food, and Costco holding 10 per cent of food retailing market share. The two stand-outs are successfully satisfying the consumers who are not looking to fuss over change but survive.

Costco and Walmart are dominating the industry because of their reliably affordable prices, this leaves other companies under pressure to stay in the race.

This shift in the industry puts Loblaws, Sobeys and Metro in a position to try their best to compete with lower prices. Prices are dropping so everyone can hold place as a strong competition, even if that means accommodating lower prices.

In a marketplace where one retailer stands apart from the rest, consumers who find themselves at any grocery store are benefiting from this battle for the best prices.

The retail sector in Winnipeg is back on the rise following national Target closures and downsizing. The vacancy rate is finally pushing its way to recovery after facing a 5.8 per cent increase, a level that hasn’t been seen in nearly 20 years.

“We’re as busy as we’ve ever been. We’re actually filling up a lot of our (strip malls) that historically had some vacancies,” said Michael Stronger, a retail sales and leasing specialist with Shindico Realty Inc.

New industries are finding their home in Winnipeg, taking up space made by national and international retail chains, for example Carlton Cards and International Clothier and more, either shutting down or reducing their presence in Canada.

Industry officials believe the worst is behind them, with the anticipation of new businesses that range from European clothing stores to pizza parlours. While leasing continues to be on a steady up-rise, Winnipeg is on their way to a more positive close to the year.

Although American retailers are turned off by the idea of investing in Canada’s low value dollar, European retailers are open to the idea. One of the new arrivals includes U.K. based outdoor clothing chain Mountain Warehouse, is expected to open its first Winnipeg store in Kildonan Place mall.

There’s a bright future for Winnipeg, and landlords are doing their best to provide the right prices and bring in businesses that are the best fit.

According to industry analysts, all three divisions of Supervalu—including its wholesale division, its conventional retail banners and discount grocer Save-A-Lot—experienced challenges in its first quarter, as the Minneapolis-based company reported sales and earnings that triggered a stock price nosedive of more than 12 per cent.

Despite a 4 per cent decline in revenues in the quarter, the company remained optimistic due to its acquisition of the Marsh Supermarkets wholesale account and promising results from new initiatives at Save-A-Lot.

However, the company’s retail division saw quarterly comps decline by 4.5 per cent, despite pricing and promotional investments at its Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher’s, Shoppers, and Shop n’ Save banners.

Supervalu CEO Mark Gross says that the company’s approach to improving retail involves investing behind “elements of customer satisfaction,” including operations and product selection.

“In our conventional retail division, other retailers are making better offerings [in terms of products available and price],” he says. “We’re finding that you have to [cater to those needs] to succeed in this business.”

In previous months, Gross outlined five initiatives designed to improve results in retail, including lowered prices and aggressive promotions.

Whole Foods has reported lower earnings and comparable store sales for its third quarter, which ended on July 3.

This quarter, net earnings fell 22.1 per cent to $120 million, while sales rose 2 per cent to a record $3.7 billion and comps dropped 2.6 per cent, with transaction size down 2.7 per cent and basket size up 0.1 per cent. The company notes that while the average price per item decreased, it was more than offset by an increase in items per basket.

For the year to date, net income fell 12.5 per cent to $419 million, while sales increased 2.3 per cent to $12.2 billion and comps were down 2.4 per cent. Additionally, average weekly sales per store were $695,000.

“We are continuing to make measurable progress on fundamentally evolving our business, including the successful launch of our new 365 format, expanded value investments and increased efforts to better understand and provide personalized offers to our customers,” says Walter Robb, co-CEO. “We are seeing some encouraging signs in terms of our sales and believe our nine-point plan will produce strong returns over the long term.”

The company adds that sales in the fourth quarter are expected to rise approximately 2 per cent.