Safeway

Stores can now ask consumers using credit cards to pay a surcharge or "swipe fee," as a result of a proposed legal settlement. Experts suggest that small retailers are the most likely to pass along the fees they're charged by Visa and MasterCard. Any merchant who does is required, under the agreement, to inform shoppers as they enter a store and as they pay, with any such fees noted on receipts. Debit cards would not be affected. Ten states - including New York, Florida, Texas and California - forbid such surcharges, but they're legal in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, according to reports.

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.

Grocery shoppers turned up their noses at Campbell Soup Co.'s February price increase on Chunky and Select soups - the first in five years. Sales of those and other typically fast-growing ready-to-serve soups fell 6 percent in the third quarter, the Camden company reported yesterday. Despite the decrease in those key product lines, Campbell's third-quarter net income climbed by 3 percent to $146 million on revenue of $1.74 billion. The company earned $142 million on revenue of $1.67 billion in the same period a year earlier.

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled yesterday that states and private citizens have the right to sue to break up corporate mergers even though the federal government has approved them. The ruling enables the California Attorney General's Office, which brought the issue to the high court, to seek to dismantle in Southern California the $2.5 billion merger of Lucky Stores Inc., the state's largest supermarket chain, and American Stores Co., owner of the Alpha Beta Stores chain, the fourth-largest.

Discussions between the Dart Group and Supermarkets General Corp., the operator of Pathmark stores, have degenerated into an acrimonious exchange of letters that make the prospect of a friendly merger look increasingly slim. The Dart Group, headed by Washington's acquisitive and wealthy Haft family, stepped up its pressure on Supermarkets General late Tuesday by increasing its $1.6 billion offer for the company by $127 million, to $45 per share. But the sweetened offer was met with a tersely worded statement from Supermarkets General chairman Leonard Leiberman, who accused the Haft family of "haranguing us in the press because they are being forced to offer higher values for our shareholders.

Profit fell 29 percent in the latest quarter at Albertson's Inc. as the nation's second-largest supermarket chain closed stores and cut prices to compete with discount retailers. Albertson's is the parent of Acme Markets Inc., of Malvern, Pa. The company said yesterday that net income for the fourth quarter, which ended Jan. 30, fell to $205 million, or 54 cents a share, from $290 million, or 71 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding onetime items, Albertson's earned $195 million, or 52 cents a share, for the quarter, matching analysts' expectations.

The Dart Group said yesterday it was withdrawing its offer for a $1.7 billion acquisition of Supermarkets General Corp., the operator of Pathmark stores and the nation's eighth-largest food retailer. The firm, headed by Washington's wealthy Haft family, which has been often frustrated in its role as as corporate raider, explained that "prudent business" dictated that the offer should not "remain open indefinitely, without reponse or negotiation" from Supermarkets General. In a public letter to Supermarkets General, Dart chairman Herbert Haft warned, however, "We continue to . . . have an interest in acquiring Supermarkets General and are prepared to compete to that end. " The Dart Group owns approximately 1.9 million shares of Supermarkets General, slightly less than 5 percent.

The beef industry has succeeded in convincing itself that "consumers have developed a taste for lean beef. " No longer, it seems, do they want flavor, taste, mouth-watering, finger lickin' goodness in their steaks like they used to a few years or months - or was it only weeks? - ago. Back in those days, people like Julia Child, James Beard and almost anyone else who knew anything about good food was telling us to "look for a little 'marbling' when you're looking for a good steak. " "Marbling" is the term used to describe those little flecks of fat interspersed throughout the lean muscle in top quality beef.

NEW YORK - The Dow Jones industrial average made another run at 13,000 but couldn't quite get there. Stocks recovered from an early loss Thursday and pushed the Dow within four points of the milestone for a time. Investors were encouraged by more good news on U.S. jobs, but gains were limited by poor results from retailers such as Safeway and Kohl's. The Dow finished up 46.02 points at 12,984.69. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 5.80 points to close at 1,363.46. The Nasdaq composite index climbed 23.81 points to 2,956.98.

As Italy's wine scandal claimed its 21st victim, the U.S. government said yesterday that it would embargo any Italian wine imports lacking certification that they are not contaminated with methanol. In Turin, Italian Premier Bettino Craxi convened his cabinet to approve measures designed to "provide better consumer protection and restore credibility to the Italian product," according to an official communique. Doctors in Turin said that Maria Pellegrino, 58, died after having been in a coma since March 21. She is the 21st person to die from drinking cheap table wine laced with methyl alcohol, added to increase the wine's alcohol content.