Alfa-Beta Vassilopoulos, a food retailer based in Athens, Greece, and part of the Brussels, Belgium-based Delhaize Group, has experienced a 16 percent year-on-year increase in the number of CHEP pallets it handles — and a resulting boost to its supply chain efficiencies — as the number of its suppliers joining the pallet network continues to grow.

Convenience is a key driver for consumers who are increasingly turning to foods prepared in the supermarket deli for in-home suppers,

Against a trying backdrop of persistently weak economic conditions, fierce competition and financially wary shoppers, supermarket produce departments faced much harsher headwinds during the past 12- month period than they have in recent years, as evidenced by marginal comparable-sales gains and a tentative outlook for the balance of the year, according to results of Progressive Grocer's 2009 Annual Produce Operations Review.

Total supermarket sales were $430.3 billion, up $13.2 billion from the $417.2 billion recorded in 2007 -- continuing the trend of slightly higher percentage increases in each of the past five years, according to Progressive Grocer's 62nd Annual Consumer Expenditures Study (CES), now greatly expanded from the eight-page print edition to 35 pages of research.