Shoprite

Abbotts, Harbisons, and Lehigh Valley are dairy names as synonymous with the Philadelphia area as Tastykake and Campbell Soup. But the fact is, all those milk brands come from the dairies of one company: Johanna Farms of Flemington, N.J. Johanna Farms has been steadily expanding its milk business, and in February bought its chief competitor, Atlantic Processing Inc. (API), an Allentown dairy that sells the Lehigh Valley brand of milk. In a deal estimated at $17 million, Johanna Farms bought all the milk plants run by API and took over all its business accounts.

The ShopRite supermarket at the Lawrence Park Shopping Center, a fixture to local food shoppers for 14 years, has been sold to Acme Markets Inc., and about 100 employees are temporarily - and possibly permanently - losing their jobs. The 30,000-square-foot ShopRite was scheduled to close yesterday, according to the disheartened employees. "It is like a family, the customers and the employees," said Patti Miller, 45, of Springfield, who has worked at the ShopRite since it opened in 1979.

The ShopRite LPGA Classic will have a new home next year, and a larger purse. The tournament, scheduled for June 26 to 28, is moving from Greate Bay Resort and Country Club in Somers Point, N.J., where it has been for the last decade, to Marriott's Seaview Resort in nearby Galloway Township. Seaview was the site in 1986 and '87, the event's first two years. Back then, the purse was only $225,000. Next year it will be $1 million, a $100,000 increase from this season. Only one non-major on the LPGA tour has a larger pot. "This dramatically underscores the extent of the growth of our tournament," said event chairman Larry Harrison.

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.

Maurice Brown, 49, bought hoagies and soda yesterday at a corner store on Allegheny Avenue, down the road from where he lives. But for a full grocery trip, he has to travel about a half hour by bus to get to the nearest supermarket. It's no wonder, then, that Brown and other Tioga residents are excited by plans for a ShopRite in their neighborhood. "It's more convenient for the neighborhood," said Brown, 49, who works at a moving company. "We need a supermarket around here," said Franklin Cooper, 51, who worked for PepsiCola Bottling Co. "I bet everyone's saying they're glad.

Anyone with a competitive bone knows that there are times when being No. 1 is a blessing of achievement, and times when it is a burden to defend. For Acme Markets these days - top dog in the race for the $10 billion that Philadelphia-area shoppers spend in supermarkets each year - front-runner status has become a bit of a watch-your-back game. The massive supermarket chain, whose year-after-year dominance has made it as much a regional fixture as soft pretzels on a Philadelphia hot dog cart, lost market share in the last year as the competition picked up ground, according to an annual survey by Food Trade News.

Two companies that do business in the township have donated $60,000 to a local youth association - the first contributions to a capital campaign for improvements to Hartford Crossing Park. After heated debate over the summer, the Township Council reduced a bond proposal that had included money to complete the park. The council approved a $2 million version of the bond, a plan that reduced spending on the park by $300,000. The trim sent township officials looking for corporate donations to fund some items that were cut. Among them: new lighting for the fields, an announcer's booth, and storage and restroom facilities.

Acme Markets remains the dominant supermarket chain in the region, according to the seventh annual market study by Food Trade News, a trade publication that follows the supermarket industry. Acme, with 204 stores in the region, posted nearly 25 percent of the $11.67 billion in total retail food sales for the 45-county area, the survey found. Acme is dominant in the city as well as the 45-county region encompassing Eastern Pennsylvania and 11 counties in New Jersey. It also leads the Food Trade News rankings for the eight-county Philadelphia metropolitan area.

The good citizens of Brooklawn have taken some potshots for the decision last month to name the local elementary school's gym after a nearby ShopRite supermarket. After a while, they probably won't notice the barbs. They will be too busy using the gym and the library that now - thanks to the $100,000 that ShopRite pledged - will be open to the community after hours. While Brooklawn's deal is causing some fuss, it's important to remember that moves by schools to offer marketing exposure in exchange for cash are nothing new. In fact, public schools and corporations have been finding ways to cooperate for decades.

GALLOWAY, N.J. - Since she won the 2012 ShopRite LPGA Classic, Stacy Lewis has been making history. She was the first U.S. player in 18 years to win LPGA player of the year and only the second American to be No. 1 since the women's world rankings were introduced in 2006. Note the key word here: American. Despite the presence of outstanding players from the United States such as Juli Inkster, Cristie Kerr, and Paula Creamer, Americans had been shut out of the top for quite some time until Lewis, 28, ascended.

Wakefern Food Corp., the cooperative that supplies ShopRite stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and elsewhere, donated $1 million to the Academy of Food Marketing at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Wakefern said.   The money will be used to pay for scholarships and educational costs for 540 undergraduates in the food marketing program, which is one of four such undergraduate programs in the United States, Wakefern said.   Wakefern, which is based in Keasbey, N.J., raised the money through ShopRite stores and vendors.

Inside Oscar's Personal Touch Barbershop in Lawnside, enthusiasm was building Tuesday afternoon about a soon-to-open supermarket. "I personally think it's a big deal," said Taj Enlow, kicking off a conversation among several men about what they hoped the new store would offer: variety, good sales, fresh seafood. None of those have been readily available for Lawnside residents since a longtime Pathmark shut down a year ago, forcing people to drive or take the bus farther from home to shop for groceries.

A sealed-bid liquor license auction held Tuesday by the Township of Cherry Hill drew just one bidder: a company run by the family that owns a group of ShopRite supermarkets. Brett, Jason, and Shawn Ravitz are partners in Empire Liquors L.L.C., which township officials said bid $501,000 on the distribution license. The Ravitzes intend to sell alcohol inside the ShopRite store at the Garden State Pavilion, said ShopRite spokeswoman Karen Meleta. "It's really a convenience to our customers," Meleta said.

The ShopRite LPGA Classic announced Thursday that the 2013 tournament is scheduled for May 27-June 2 on the Bay Course at Stockton Seaview Hotel & Golf Club in Galloway, N.J. Top women from the Ladies Professional Golf Association will compete for a $1.5 million purse in the 54-hole, LPGA-sanctioned official event. It is scheduled to be televised on the Golf Channel. For more tournament news and information, go to www.ShopRiteLPGAclassic.com .

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Afflicted with scoliosis as a girl and undergoing surgery at 18 to straighten her spine, Stacy Lewis just hoped to get a taste of what it meant to be a player on the LPGA Tour. Now, just nine years later, with a 4-stroke victory in the ShopRite LPGA Classic that wasn't as close as the margin indicated, Lewis is the top-ranked American in the world rankings. Lewis finished her romp at the Shore on Sunday with an even-par 71, good for a 54-hole score of 12-under 201 over the Bay Course at Seaview Resort.

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Stacy Lewis is running away with the ShopRite LPGA Classic through two rounds, but don't be surprised if she goes out for her final 18 thinking that the best players on the women's tour are right on her heels. Lewis, ranked No. 7 in the world, fired her second consecutive 6-under-par 65 Saturday over the Bay Course at Seaview Resort to take a 6-stroke lead. Her 12-under 130 total tied the tournament's 36-hole record. There's no predicting what might happen during Sunday's last round, but what can definitely be expected is for Lewis to keep her foot on the accelerator.

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Afflicted with scoliosis as a girl and undergoing surgery at 18 to straighten her spine, Stacy Lewis just hoped to get a taste of what it meant to be a player on the LPGA Tour. Now, just nine years later, with a 4-stroke victory in the ShopRite LPGA Classic that wasn't as close as the margin indicated, Lewis is the top-ranked American in the world rankings. Lewis finished her romp at the Shore on Sunday with an even-par 71, good for a 54-hole score of 12-under 201 over the Bay Course at Seaview Resort.