Feb 23, 2009 10:28 am US/Central
Jewel Stores Spruce Up Their Presentation
Report: Efforts Are Intended To Battle Wal-Mart
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Dozens of Chicago's Jewels are getting a little more polish – the grocery stores, that is.
Jewel-Osco parent company Supervalu Inc. is spending up to $125 million to fix up 25 Jewel stores around the area. This is on top of 26 Jewel stores that were remodeled last year, a store media representative confirmed to CBS 2.
Among the upgrades are new shiny displays and bigger meat and produce departments.
The Jewel representative could not confirm a
Crain's Chicago Business report that the purpose behind the upgrades is to battle Wal-Mart, where prices are as much as 15 percent cheaper. Crain's reported that Jewel's share of grocery store sales in the Chicago area dropped to 20 percent from 23 percent last year, while Wal-Mart's rose from 4.6 percent to 7.7 percent.
Wal-Mart is also reportedly hoping to open more stores
within the Chicago city limits, in an effort to help boost the city's sagging economy. Presently, there is only one Wal-Mart in the city, at North and Kilpatrick avenues on the city's West Side.
Organized labor fought for years to stop a Wal-Mart from coming in, because Wal-Mart is a non-union operation.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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