There was a question sent to me by a reader on how to get his URL listed on www.agplus.net . I told him the service was free, but if he had a Links page on his site we would appreciate it if he listed us as well. If you have a web site there is no reason to wait, send me an e-mail with your URL and we will add it.
CBS News
CINCINNATI, Jan. 25, 2007
By DAN SEWELL AP Business Writer
(AP) When Roberta Mand needs groceries, she has a world of choices in her own backyard.
For regular shopping, she goes to her neighborhood Kroger Co. store. But for steaks, she prefers the Costco Wholesale Corp. store. For a pecan-encrusted tilapia to take home for dinner, she's off to The Fresh Market. And if she's hankering for sushi, she hits the Wild Oats Markets Inc. store a couple of minutes away.
"It just depends on what I'm looking for," said Mand, a married mother of two who works from her suburban home and typically cooks five nights a week. "I like variety."
These are spicy times for those who like variety in their grocery shopping choices, in price, selection and convenience. More retailers are using food to lure customers, intensifying competition while taking bites of the nearly $6,000 a year American households spend on groceries.
For most households, the days when nearly all grocery shopping was done weekly at a supermarket with a meticulously detailed list are fading into the past. Now there are club stores to buy in bulk at discount prices, supercenters for combining grocery with clothes and other shopping, specialty stores for gourmet choices, and, for quick pickups of basic grocery items and snacks, not just convenience stores but expanded gas stations, drugstores, dollar stores and big-box retailers.
A local shopper this week could go to the Sam's Club store to stock up on macaroni and cheese at 15 boxes for $7.76; or run into the Shell gas station to buy one box for $1.39. Besides clothes and electronics, the Target store advertised four boxes of snack crackers for $7 total, barely half the grocery price. And a Kroger store sold a range of fare far beyond what would have been found in the supermarket a generation ago _ Chilean sea bass, Indian chutney, African-grown coffee; a whole "Nature's Market" section catering to the fast-growing organic foods market
By NANCY LUNA
The Orange County Register
A proposal by an Irvine trade group to create mandatory handling procedures for green, leafy produce grown in California moved one step closer to reality Wednesday.The state Department of Food and Agriculture – which would enforce the guidelines – is asking about 130 companies that handle green, leafy produce to voluntarily agree to the procedures by Feb. 5, said Steve Lyle, an agency spokesman. The rules – proposed by the Western Growers Association in Irvine – call for all types of lettuce, arugula, cabbage and spinach to be certified with an official seal of approval similar to a USDA label on meat. Handlers – the middlemen who take the produce from the farm and prepare it for shipping – must agree to be inspected before the program can be launched by state agricultural officials. "Once handlers commit to the agreement, compliance is mandatory," the agency said in a statement. It is unclear how many handlers need to sign the agreement before it can be certified by the state, Lyle said.
