Grocery

If you're feeling "bruised," "remorseful" or particularly "introspective" these days, wait before taking your woes to a shrink. First, try changing your grocery shopping habits. Pat Conroy, vice chairman of consulting firm Deloitte, says the American grocery shopper has been close to traumatized by this economy. If previous recessions "bruised" American shoppers, this recession left a "scar" that may never heal. At least, that's what Deloitte's new 2011 Consumer and Product Insight Survey shows.

Stop in for a sack of basmati rice, garam masala, or perhaps the British chocolates the owners have set under glass - in case a light-fingered Anglophile with a sweet tooth shows up. As you wander the aisles of this West Philadelphia grocery store, wondering what is what and how you would cook it, the sound of foreign voices, singing, catches your ear. Curious, you move to the back of the store and find a fluorescent-lit room with a predominantly...

After years of watching competitors cut into its local lead in supermarket sales, Acme Markets fell into second place over the last year, dethroned by ShopRite, according to an annual survey published by Food Trade News. ShopRite, ringing up $1.7 billion in sales across the eight-county Philadelphia region, grabbed the top spot from Acme, which has struggled to cut costs by shutting down underperforming stores and recently laid off 900 part-time employees. The survey studied the period from April 1, 2010, through March 31. During that time, Acme's sales were $1.6 billion, a drop from $1.8 billion a year earlier, according to data published this week in the trade publication's June editions.

Chester City will hold a gun exchange on Saturday, the Mayor's Office announced. In exchange for weapons during the "Goods for Guns" program, participants will receive $100 ShopRite supermarket gift cards that can be used at the Eddystone store. Those who turn over assault weapons will receive additional credit. There is a two-gun limit for the gift cards. Weapons will be collected between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. at either of Chester's firehouses: at 320 E. 14th St. and 1501 W. Third St. Last year, nearly 300 guns were exchanged in a similar program, the Mayor's Office said.

NEW YORK - Shoppers are showing signs of pulling back on spending for discretionary items such as clothing and home goods as gasoline and groceries eat up more of their paychecks. Those pressures led many retailers Thursday to report only modest revenue increases in May, the latest sign of the economy hitting a soft patch. Retailers that cater to wealthy shoppers and warehouse clubs that also sell gas, such as Costco, reported the biggest gains. For most of the spring, consumers seemed to shrug off rising prices.

Picking up a lost wallet in a Chester County grocery store proved costly for a Philadelphia woman, police said Tuesday. Natashia Greennagh, 20, was charged Friday with theft of mislaid or lost property and receiving stolen property after she allegedly helped herself on Wednesday to a wallet left at a self check-out register in the Giant supermarket in the Dilworthtown Crossing shopping center on Route 202, police said. Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Det. William Cahill said the victim reported that a single credit card in the wallet was used for three unauthorized purchases a short time after surveillance cameras showed the wallet being taken by Greennagh.

CINCINNATI - Households reeling from gasoline now costing near $4 also face bigger bills for everything from changing their babies' diapers to wiping their noses to treating themselves to ice cream. Major makers of everyday consumer products and groceries say they have to raise prices to offset soaring costs for their fuel as well as the materials and ingredients that go into their products. Retailers are trying to pass that along at the cash register, adding pressure on a sluggish U.S. economic recovery.

WASHINGTON - Americans are paying more for food and gas, a trend that threatens to slow the economy at a crucial time. So far, the spike in such necessities hasn't stopped businesses from stepping up hiring or slowed factory production, which rose in March for the ninth straight month. Still, higher gas prices have led some economists to lower their forecasts for growth for the January-March quarter. Consumer prices rose 0.5 percent last month, the Labor Department said yesterday.

CINCINNATI - Kroger Co., the nation's largest traditional-format grocer, said Thursday that its fourth-quarter net income jumped more than 9 percent while sales rose 7.4 percent as it kept increasing customer loyalty and its market share. The Cincinnati-based company said its net income was $278.8 million, or 44 cents per share, compared with $255.4 million and 39 cents per share a year earlier, a 9.2 percent increase. Kroger's quarterly revenue rose to $19.9 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected Kroger to earn 44 cents per share on $19.4 billion in revenue.

As Wal-Mart goes, so go many of the nation's retailing trends. That's why it's a big deal that the giant discount chain is launching plans to order up healthier ingredients in thousands of packaged foods on the shelves in its grocery aisles. The public-health impact could be substantial, since Wal-Mart is the nation's largest grocer. Americans' diets are high in salt, sugar, and fats - factors that contribute to obesity and various chronic health conditions. Obesity rates have been on a dangerous rise, especially among children.