Grocery shopping in Israel is about to get much easier, with a new app allowing shoppers to pay for items using their smartphone and circumventing checkout lines. A new system produced by the Israeli startup SuperSmart allows users to perform their own checkouts, scanning product barcodes to tally up the total. For fruits and vegetables, a weighing machine gives shoppers digital barcodes which can then be scanned with the smartphone app. To prevent theft and mistaken purchases, customers bring their shopping carts to a large scanning machine which verifies the contents of the cart. (israelnationalnews.com)US: Former Marsh supplier to lay off nearly 190
Two Indiana subsidiaries of New Hampshire-based C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc. are closing their facilities in Indianapolis and Yorktown. In notices to the state, Indianapolis Haulage LLC and Indianapolis Logistics LLC say 186 employees will lose their jobs as a result of the parent company losing a contract with Indianapolis-based Marsh Supermarkets.UK: Sainsbury's takeover of Argos approved by CMA
Sainsbury's proposed takeover of Argos owner Home Retail Group has been approved by the Competition and Markets Authority. Sainsbury's tabled a bid worth around £1.4 billion in February. (itv.com)Dutch Sligro H1: EMTÉ underperforms as foodservice grows
While Sligro saw sales rise 6.3% to €1.36 bn, the performance hid the challenges being faced by its supermarket chain EMTÉ, where like-for-like sales fell by 2.2% and net sales contracted by 0.4%. Sligro noted that EMTÉ had seen like-for-like sales fall by 1.3% in its second quarter, pointing to a sequential improvement in performance, but not enough to turn the trend positive.Big Tarantula spider spotted between apples at supermarket (VIDEO)
Customers at a Swedish supermarket who fancied some fresh fruit were shocked when they discovered this huge tarantula among the apples. The terrifying discovery was made at an ICA store in Joenkoeping in the south of the Scandinavian country. (mirror.co.uk) Netherlands: PLUS reveals positive H1
In its first half PLUS saw revenues rise 4.3% to €1.1 bn, which it said enabled it to outperform the market (which it said grew by 2.8% in the same timeframe) and saw its market share reach its highest level since 2008Thailand: CP Group launches new convenience format
Charoen Pokphand Food, part of Thailand’s largest conglomerate CP Group, has rolled out a new concept store called Magnet Semi Wholesale by CP, which is a hybrid of convenience and wholesale formats. The store stocks over 2,000 items of fresh food and consumer products, with half of them coming from CP or CPF. Consumers can buy retail products while grocers can get wholesale prices for buying products in bulk. (igd.com)US: Apples instead of Mars: Supermarkets start offering fresh-only checkout aisles
Northgate Gonzalez Markets opened its 14th Orange County store and debuted a mostly sugar-free checkout lane after testing the concept at a store in South Los Angeles since May. The company plans to spread the program to all 41 of its Southern California stores. The healthy checkout aisle is advertised by a large bilingual sign overhead and smaller displays that say, “Botanas Saludables/Healthier Snacks.” Shoppers can reach into a basket for a fresh nectarine or apple and other healthy snacks. (fruitworldmedia.com)Fruit growers want supermarket backing in fight against illegal propagation
A group of fruit growers is taking their fight against illegally propagated varieties to the supermarkets, calling on Woolworths and Coles to not sell unaccredited fruit. Fruit Rights Australia wants to protect varieties owned by its members, such as the Jazz apple, from being produced by orchardists that do not have rights to the breed. Eight intellectual property (IP) managers have joined the group, auditing orchards to identify cases of illegal propagation and accrediting those who have permission to produce the fruit. (abc.net.au) 
UK: 26 My Local stores sold already with more deals to comeKPMG the administrators for the failed My Local convenience chain have revealed that they have sold 26 of the 125 stores so far with more deals expected in the weeks ahead. (igd.com)
US: Wegmans grocery store chain eyeing second N.C. location
Popular supermarket chain Wegmans Food Markets said Thursday that it’s considering multiple sites in the Raleigh-Durham area, but is staying stum on whether it is eyeing the Charlotte market. Wegmans, headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., said in January that it had signed a letter of intent to bring a store to Cary, its first foray into the state. On Thursday, the (Raleigh) News & Observerreported that preliminary plans filed with the town revealWegmans may add a second site in Cary. (charlotteobserver.com) 
OPINION: Loblaw brings Canadians into food pricing debatePlease, click here to read the article.
UK: Sainsbury's to launch same-day online delivery
Sainsbury's is ramping up the fight for a bigger share of the online grocery market by launching a same-day delivery service. The supermarket will test the service at three stores and plans to expand it to 30 outlets by Christmas. Amazon recently raised the pressure on UK supermarkets with the launch of same-day deliveries in London. The online retail giant signed a deal with Morrisons and now sells 130,000 products, including fresh goods. (BBC)Italy’s VéGé Group doubles market share
Italian food retailer VéGé Group has managed to double its market share over the past 12 months, rising from 1.6% in February 2015 to 3.4% in February 2016, according to Nielsen data. At the same time, overall supermarket and hypermarket sales in Italy grew by only 0.5 per cent in 2015. (esmmagazine.com) Study: Self-service checkouts normalise, excuse supermarket stealing
The rise of self-service checkouts is prompting more people to steal, research shows, with many using the impersonal nature of the experience to justify their theft. (abc.net.au)