Jax Drops: New Fortune 500 list

[BridgeTroll]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=PRNI2&STORY=/www/story/04-06-2009/0005001804&EDATE=

Consumer Reports Survey Finds Wegmans, Trader Joe's and Publix Among the Best of 59 Grocery Chains


    Changing shopping habits can slash grocery bills by as much as 46
percent; New tips to save big and avoid costly in-store mistakes

    YONKERS, N.Y., April 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Shoppers found
Wegmans and Trader Joe's supermarkets among the most satisfying chains to
shop at according to Consumer Reports latest survey of the best national
and regional grocery chains.

    Consumer Reports asked 32,599 respondents about their experiences at
supermarkets, super centers, or warehouse clubs in the past year. In total,
Consumer Reports Ratings include information from 48,831 store visits.

    Rounding out some of the other top-rated chains shoppers found to be
very satisfying were Publix, Raley's, Harris Teeter, Fareway, Costco, Whole
Foods Market, Market Basket, WinCo Foods, and Stater Bros.

    Overall, grocers earned higher marks than in CR's last supermarket
survey (2005) for service, checkout speed, quality of store brands, baked
goods, and produce. But finding the perfect store was difficult. The few
chains that were spotless, offered standout meat and produce, and had
helpful and friendly staff and quick checkout earned only average scores
for price, at best.

    The survey found it's hard to find the perfect store. Respondents found
Trader Joe's, Costco, Market Basket, WinCo, Aldi, and Sav-a-Lot, to be
better than others at offering low prices. Wegmans and Whole Foods offered
praiseworthy meat and produce and Wegmans, Trader Joes and Raley's earned
high marks for service. On the other hand, the least expensive markets
generally offered so-so perishables and service.

    Walmart, the nation's largest grocer and the supermarket where the
highest percentage of survey respondents shopped (14 percent), landed near
the bottom of the CR's Ratings, with low scores for service and
perishables. Target proved better than many chains but has only 200
locations with a full grocery store inside.

    Respondents still had plenty to complain about. The biggest gripe was
mostly about not enough open checkout lanes. Walmart was the worst
offender: Half of the respondents who shopped there said that not enough
lanes were open. Other leading gripes: congested aisles and out-of stock
advertised specials. One-third of all respondents reported that they had
switched stores, usually in search of lower prices.

    Savvy Shoppers Can Slash Bills:

    Consumer Reports found several growing supermarket trends including
more visible value brands, expanded bonus-card programs, Web-site specials,
longer sales, discount drugs, and more coupons, giving consumers greater
opportunity to save. By doing a little homework and adjusting shopping
habits, consumers can shave thousands of dollars off their yearly grocery
bills.

    Tod Marks, author of the Consumer Reports Tightwad Tod money-saving
blog, found he could cut his bill by as much as 46 percent on the same 30
products at two stores over several days by changing his shopping
strategies. First he impulse-shopped and it cost $288.26 for all 30 items.
Then paying attention to price, Marks cut his cost significantly using
different strategies: Savvy at supermarket: $166.22, Bulk Shopping at
warehouse club: $156.16, Buying store brands at supermarket: $154.62.

    New Tips Save Big and Avoid Costly Traps:

    Supermarkets are giant selling machines in which traffic patterns,
product placements and even displays and smells lure shoppers to spend
more. CR offers 13 tips to help avoid the traps. Here are some highlights:


    --  Look high and low. Supermarkets are in the real-estate business, and
        prime selling space includes the middle or eye-level shelving. Vendors
        sometimes pay retailers hundreds, even thousands, of dollars in slotting
        fees to take on new products or display products prominently. Check
        whether similar products on top or bottom shelves are less expensive.
    --  Watch for sneaky signs. Many sales tempt you to buy more than one bag or
        box -- by touting, for example, four boxes of cake mix for $5. But
        rarely are you required to buy all four to get the discount. Retailers
        are just planting a number in your head, hoping you'll buy a lot.
    --  Buy bagged produce. Some produce is much cheaper by the bag than by the
        pound. One ShopRite location recently offered a 5-pound sack of potatoes
        for $2.99, compared with 99 cents per pound for loose ones in a bin. If
        the product has a long shelf life, bagged produce is a better buy,
        unless, of course, the only alternative is the 20-pound behemoth.
    --  Be selective when buying organics. Organic means expensive, so buy
        organic versions of produce that's most likely to harbor pesticides
        when grown conventionally, such as peaches, strawberries, and bell
        peppers. Organic meats and dairy foods might be worthwhile but not
        "organic" seafood because standards aren't in place.
    --  Look at the location. The same food might be sold in several places
        throughout the store. At Stop & Shop, "premium"
        store-brand Swiss cheese was on sale at the deli for $6.99 per pound
        with a bonus card. In the refrigerated case, the same sliced Swiss was
        $5.58 per pound -- no card necessary. A chunk of the same cheese was
        $4.69 per pound, also without a card.

    --  Buy at the bakery. More and more supermarkets sell store-made baked
        goods, often for less than the commercial alternatives. At ShopRite, six
        hot-from-the-oven rolls cost $1.99; a packaged half-dozen from
        Freihofer's cost $3.19.
    Complete grocery store ratings on all 59 major national and regional
changes, great everyday products more tips to save, and more on the latest
grocery store trends are available in the Consumer Reports May issue or
online at http://www.consumerreports.org starting May 6, 2009.

[ProjectMaximus]

Didn't this have something to do with Fidelity splitting its operations?

Partially.  One of the Fidelity companies (I get them all confused) split and another suffered from the housing market decline. 

I'm pretty sure it's just that Fidelity National Financial (the main company located in Jax) split when it merged with another national company, to create Fidelity National Information Services or something like that, in addition to the original FNF. So it went from one strong Fortune 500 to two weaker ones, which have both fallen a bit in this economy and real estate bust. At first this gave us a boost with technically "four" F-500s, but now it leaves us with just two.