Price Chopper/Market 32 is expected to save 3,000 tons of food from potential waste over the next three years, thanks to Invafresh item management software. The platform will allow the grocer to better forecast product needs, thus improving inventory amounts to reduce food waste and methane emissions.

Price Chopper/Market 32 has added a new perk to its AdvantEdge Rewards Program that allows customers to use their loyalty points to support several charitable causes, as well as to enter periodic contests or buy specialty products. The grocer, which introduced the rewards program in 2006 as Fuel AdvantEdge, has joined with the tcc marketing company to further personalize the experience and offer a "variety of options to engage and reward more customers," said Price Chopper's Glen Bradley.

The merger deal between Price Chopper/Market 32 and Tops Markets will create a powerhouse grocer with nearly 300 stores in six Northeastern states, giving it the scale and experience to succeed, Price Chopper CEO Scott Grimmett and Tops Markets CEO Frank Curci said in this interview. The deal will keep the grocers operating separately but under a new umbrella company with Grimmett as CEO, and will "put us in a position to help us better compete with the changing marketplace," he said.

Price Chopper/Market 32 and Hannaford will end tests with the Misfits brand of "ugly" produce after the programs failed to gain shopper interest during trial periods at the retailers. Price Chopper/Market 32 began testing Misfits produce items at 15 stores in August last year, and Hannaford launched its trial at 14 stores in May 2016.

Royal Ahold has accepted the resignation of Frank Curci, who was president and CEO of Tops Markets since 2000. Curci, who took responsibility for the $29 million in accounting irregularities at Tops, was supposed to become the second-in-command of Ahold subsidiary, Giant Food this summer.