Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc. and its group of grocers and operators submitted the winning bid last week at the Belle Foods bankruptcy auction in Birmingham, AL. In the next few weeks, Rouses Markets will take ownership of six former Belle Foods stores from AWG, a retail-owner cooperative of which Rouses Markets is a member.

This is Rouses Markets' first expansion into Alabama. The company currently operates 38 stores in Louisiana and Mississippi. Three new stores in Louisiana were also recently announced.

MYRTLE BEACH, SC — The Southeast Produce Council surprised one of its own with a very special honor Friday evening, Sept. 27, during the council's 2013 fall conference, held here at the Marriott Resort & Spa at Grande Dunes, Sept. 25-28.

Whole Foods Market will launch a comprehensive rating system for produce and flowers sold in its stores to help shoppers make more informed purchases, the company announced Sept. 26.

The Kroger Co. promoted Steve McKinney to president of the Fry's Food Stores division.

McKinney, 57, has been vice president of operations at the company's Ralphs division since 2007. He succeeds Jon Flora, who passed away unexpectedly two weeks ago.

Noting that the company’s onion acreage was increased slightly in 2013, Champion Produce Sales President John Wong said the Parma, ID, facility has also added 5,000 square feet in additional storage this year as well.

The new storage is computer programmed for temperature and humidity control, and Wong said it can be adapted for refrigeration if the need arises.

A new consumer pack machine and updated codes for traceability are among the changes at Murakami Produce in Ontario, OR, for the 2013-14 onion shipping season.

Grant Kitamura, general manager of the operation, said in early September the consumer pack machine is “faster and better.”

He continued, “We’re going with new codes this year, GTIN among them. We’ve had positive lot ID for a long time, and we know the grower, field, lot, date of pack and shipment date of all our onions.”