Retail & FoodService

Tops Friendly Markets, a leading full-service grocery retailer in western New York, central New York, and northwestern Pennsylvania, announced that the company has launched TOPS in Education, a new program aimed at helping schools (k-12) raise funds for improvements and programming. …

The six neighborhood market stores planned for the area — four in Omaha, one each in La Vista and Bellevue — are part of an aggressive national rollout of a concept Walmart has been testing and honing for more than a decade. The stores' arrival in 2013, analysts say, will be a real threat to existing supermarkets, especially those that compete most aggressively on price rather than service. …

Sodexo Inc., the leading provider of Quality of Life Services in North America, today announced that by July 2014, all of the 39 million shelled eggs it purchases each year will be sourced from cage-free hens. It is a decision applauded by The Humane Society of the United States, which says the shift will improve the welfare of nearly 150,000 hens annually. Today's announcement comes just weeks after Sodexo committed to the removal of gestation stalls from its pork supply chain. …

A steakhouse that is scheduled to open in a month in South Burlington will be affiliated with a meat processing operation that will supply the restaurant with steaks and other meat, said Jed Davis, one of the restauranteurs involved in the development. …

Throughout September, diners who eat at restaurants participating in Maryland's True Blue program can win a pair of tickets to the Mermaid's Kiss Oyster Fest, an after-hours celebration of Maryland seafood on Oct. 3 at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. …