Texas Retailers Association

On May 3, Kroger presented the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce a check for $5,000.  These funds will go for the Stars on the Rise Scholarship Fund.  The ceremony was held at the opening of the new Kroger Fresh Fare at the Medical District in Dallas.  ”Kroger has been a huge supporter of education for many years” , stated Mayor Rawlings  ”The Stars on the Rise Scholarship fund helps a number of deserving students obtain a college degree.”

(left to right)  Gabriela Quezada, VP GDHCC, Rick Ortiz, President GDHCC, Mike Rawlings, Mayor City of Dallas, Bill Breetz, Division President.

Purchase eligible ENERGY STAR products from May 26-28 and save the sales tax instantly!

• Air conditioners ($6,000 or less)
• Refrigerators ($2,000 or less)
• Ceiling fans
• Incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs
• Clothes washers
• Dishwashers
• Dehumidifiers
• Programmable thermostats*

This Memorial Day weekend, you can plant a seed of energy savings that will grow all year long. When you purchase eligible ENERGY STAR products during the last weekend in May, you’ll save the sales tax instantly. Even better, when you upgrade to energy-efficient ENERGY STAR qualified products, you’ll also save energy and lower your utility bill month after month. Save a little today and save more over time.

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On Thursday, May 3, 2012, at 5:00PM, Kroger opened the Kroger Fresh Fare store in the Medical District of Dallas.  Cutting the ceremonial ribbon was Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, Mayor Pro tem Pauline Medrano, Deputy Mayor Pro tem Tennell Atkins, Kroger Division President, Bill Breetz and store manager, Elizabeth Smith.  

Congresswoman Johnson praised Kroger for investing in an underserved part of Dallas and for the commitment to the North Texas Food Bank.  Mayor Rawlings stated “This store will serve many customers for years to come.  Kroger knows how to sell food and serve the customer.”

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Walmart, Target, Kmart and Kohl’s are all celebrating a milestone 50th anniversary this year. It’s hard to believe that all four were founded in the same year, but combined these stores changed the way America shops. Happy Birthday to modern retail!

Three of the four began as department store offshoots. Target sprang from Minnesota’s Dayton‘s and Kmart from Detroit-based S.S. Kresge. Both were developed as formats to reach shoppers beyond their core businesses. Kohl’s started as a department store when the Wisconsin based supermarket chain branched out into a new format from the Kohl family.

Only Walmart started organically. Sam Walton — “Mr. Sam” — sold low cost goods to people well outside the trading areas of most retailers. It’s telling that the one retail brand with the most difficult path ultimately became not only the biggest retailer in the world, but at one point was the largest company on the planet too.

Kmart grew the fastest, and fell first. In its first three years it had 150 locations and $1 billion in sales; 271 Kmart stores opened in a single year, 1976.

Target, always slow and steady, plodded along. It took the retailer five years to expand beyond its home state of Minnesota with a Target store in Denver.

Walmart expansion was solely funded by the Walton family. In 10 years Walmart had opened just 15 stores, but once the company went public growth kicked into high gear and in 1975, Forbes named Walmart the top general retailer in the nation, and then awarded it the same title for eight consecutive years. By its 25th anniversary, Walmart operated nearly 2,000 U.S. stores.

Kohl’s inched along, as well. In 1986 there were just 40 locations, although the concept had been sold (to Batus Retail Group) and ultimately bought back by the Kohl family.

Each of these four retailers helped change the way America shopped. Kmart may seem an irrelevant relic today, but it brought discount shopping to the masses the fastest. The “Blue Light Special” became synonymous with deals. Celebrity design partnerships were born with Jaclyn Smith and Kathy Ireland; and let’s not forget that Kmart helped to make Martha Stewart a household name.

Target took the concept of designer partnerships to new heights and coined the phrase “cheap chic.” It created a discount store so successful and appealing to a demographic not accustomed to buying at discount that it put its made its own department store business an after thought. Middle class, and even affluent shoppers were so comfortable at a Target store,

Dayton Hudson renamed the company Target and sold off all remaining formats not part of the discount chain.

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Famous for trendy apparel and home goods, Target is now scoring a direct hit with its “guests” on groceries and perishables with its PFresh format.

Every supermarket operator wishes they had this predicament—shelves, freezers and refrigerated cases picked bare of merchandise nearly every weekend evening. Not because of striking stockers, trouble with the warehouse or broken down trucks, mind you, but because of a perfect storm of sheer customer traffic coupled with the right assortment of national brands and high-quality private labels at more than competitive prices merchandised in a pleasant, clean, easy-to-shop atmosphere.

Take a walk through a local Target at 6:00 p.m. on a Sunday evening and chances are that will be the case. While there, glance into the shopping carts of some of the “guests”—Target shoppers are above customer status. In addition to Converse One Star sneakers, Nick & Nora pajamas, a Taylor Swift CD, Cherokee jeans, Kitchen Essentials from Calphalon cookware and perhaps a Smith & Hawken watering can or garden gnome, chances are there will be a box of Cheerios, can of Campbell’s soup, sack of King Arthur’s flour, pouch of Jack Link’s Beef Jerky, pound of Hormel Black Label bacon, cup of Chobani yogurt, jar of McCormick spices, bag of Fresh Express salad, bottle of Panera Bread salad dressing, box of Ellio’s frozen pizza and a Hungry-Man TV dinner.

“Target has successfully transitioned from a mass merchant discounter to a full service household shopping needs provider,” says Richard J. George, Ph.D., chair and professor of food marketing, Gerald E. Peck Fellow, Haub School of Business, at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. “While ‘everyone is selling food’ for traffic purposes, Target’s new format represents an attractive and different way of presenting food in a discount setting.”

That format, which is called PFresh, will have been implemented in about 1,100 of Target’s 1,755 stores by the end of this year, say company officials. With its wide, clutter-free aisles, fixed-weight produce, freezer coffin cases stocked with the latest specials and a huge assortment of unique and upscale private label offerings, Target is bringing to the grocery side of the business the same excitement, panache and je ne sais quoi that have made its nonfoods side legendary, exemplified by the current catchy Alouette “Color Changes Everything” campaign.

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On May 5, millions of people will tune in to NBC to watch 20 horses run a mile and a quarter in the 138th Kentucky Derby. When the winner arrives in the Winner’s Circle, fans will cheer as a blanket of roses is placed on his back.

First run in 1875, the Kentucky Derby is known as “The Greatest Two Minutes in Sports.” It is also known as the first jewel in the prized Triple Crown. Another, more common name for it however, is the “Run for the Roses,” so named because of the rose garland that has been awarded to the winner since 1896.

Since 1987, The Kroger Company has been the official florist of the Kentucky Derby, supplying Churchill Downs with the well-known garland, as well as a 60-rose bouquet for the winning jockey. Each year, Kroger florists at the Middletown, Ky., Kroger sew together some 550 roses to create the symbolic garland. When the garland is completed, it weighs roughly 40 pounds. Click here to see last year’s making of the garland of roses video.

The garland is adorned with a “crown” of roses, green fern and ribbon, and sewn into a green satin backing with the seal of the Commonwealth on one end and the Twin Spires and number of the race’s current renewal on the other. The “crown” is a single rose placed in the center of the garland pointing upward. This rose symbolizes the struggle and heart necessary to reach the Derby Winner’s Circle.


The roses, shipped all the way from Ecuador, arrive at Kroger the Tuesday before the race. They arrive in a refrigerated tractor trailer that is required to stay at a strict 34 degrees. Upon arrival, Kroger loss prevention staff are with the roses 24/7 until they are placed on the winner’s back.

Don Stearns, Loss Prevention Manager, Mid South Division for Kroger has been in charge of overseeing security for the roses for 21 years.

“[We] provide loss prevention staff 24 hours a day to monitor the temperature of the trailer and also to prevent anyone from tampering with [the garland],” Don said. “It’s a one shot deal. If something were to happen to it, everyone would look to the loss prevention team.”

Don explains that the LP staff aren’t there in an aggressive way; they’re just there in the chance someone would try to do anything. The garland is such an iconic symbol for the Kentucky Derby and they only have one chance to make it right. The LP staff makes sure anyone thinks twice before trying to touch the famous roses.

On Friday the Kroger florists will begin assembly of the garland. Since this procedure is open to the public, at least four loss prevention staff will be on site the entire time. At any given time, there may be up to eight LP staff with the garland, something which may seem a tedious task. However, the LP team doesn’t look at it that way.

“They all just love to do it, they volunteer to do it,” Don said. Typically, the same people volunteer for the job every year.

On Saturday morning around 9 a.m., the Garland of Roses will be loaded up into a trailer and taken to Churchill Downs, complete with a police escort. Along with the florists who worked on the garland, four LP staff will also ride in the trailer.

In preparing for the garland’s arrival, Don said they coordinate closely with police at Churchill Downs to ensure everything runs smoothly. However, in this instance the LP team does a lot more than just protect the roses from people; they also have to protect the roses from the elements.

“We don’t want to get them there too early because of the temperature of the roses,” Don said. They also don’t want to get them there too late.

Upon arrival at Churchill Downs, the garland is displayed in a 12-foot glass case until the end of the race, when it is draped across the back of the winning horse.

So when you sit in front of your TV screen this Saturday for the 138th Run for the Roses, take the time to appreciate everything that goes into getting that winner’s garland to the track, from beginning to end. It’s not just about the winner who wears it, or the florists who put it together, it’s also about the Kroger LP team members who spent their week watching over each tiny rose.

Ron Johnson, the new Chairman and CEO of J.C. Penney had an epiphany when he worked for Steve Jobs at Apple. He was planning the first Apple store, according to Walter Isaacson’s chronicle of Steve Jobs (2011, Simon & Schuster 630pp), when he suddenly woke up to the fact that he did not want to sell Apple products arranged by classifications, but rather by lifestyle.

That is a clue to what is happening now in J.C. Penney stores. They will, in the next few years, transform into lifestyle stores. And they will appeal to a younger customer who lives in a different world than the traditional J.C. Penney customer. That’s quite a transformation that is being planned for the stores. They look different already, since on February 1^st the promotional needle was suddenly yanked from the stores, and they now look cleaner, neater and very orderly. Departments have been realigned and clearly identified with colored columns and good displays. Customers are sparse, since there are few incentives to shop in the stores.

The fair and square pricing, that the company has embarked on is based on three concepts. Everyday prices are attached to the products that will be sold at “great prices” every day. Month long values can be found on products for a single month – and they are often marked with regular price tags on a special promotional rack and best prices, which are put on sale every 1^st and 3^rd Friday at sharp markdowns – usually merchandise from prior selling periods.

All of this is revolutionary. The industry is watching to see whether it works, and so far, the customer is confused and the traffic is minimal in the stores, suggesting that at the current rate it will take a herculean effort to convince the customer that the products are at sharp prices, are timed right and are wanted.

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The Walgreens Way to Well Health Tour with AARP is dedicated to providing free prevention and early detection health services to the nation’s underserved communities. Now through December, the tour travels the country providing free tests, assessment, education and consulting services to populations of communities with the highest prevalence for leading diseases and uninsured and unemployed community members.

These free health tests include: total cholesterol, glucose, blood pressure, body mass index, body composition, skeletal muscle, resting metabolism, visceral fat, real body age and body weight.

The Way to Well Health Tour is a charitable component of Walgreens Way to Well Commitment^®, a four-year, $100 million initiative improving the everyday health of Americans nationwide. The initiative also provides accessible, affordable resources for prevention and early detection of major chronic diseases – heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Click here to find the dates and times of stops in Houston and Dallas now through May 7. 

                                     2008                                  2011

Participants:             2,532,047                  3,977,273      57.07% increase

Ave Monthly Benefit:      $100.98                $125.57         24.35% increase

Annual Total Benefit State-Wide:      

                            $3,068,232,722          $5,993,125,493    95.33% increase                                            

* Note- You must be US Citizen to participate.