MORE GOVERNMENT RED TAPE

Opinion: The government is creating more hoops for food service operators to jump through. It should be acceptable that calorie and nutrition information be available on a standard sheet of paper or in a digital kiosk. Some supermarkets and fuel centers have computer kiosks for placing orders. Have seen these at Wawa fuel stations and at Ukrop's supermarkets in Virginia. The nutrition information could be part of this system. Might cost big money to have the system upgraded. Just another additional cost of doing business thrust upon the business enterprise.

Washington News

U.S. Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced the Labeling Education and Nutrition Act, which would require restaurants and grocery stores that serve prepared foods and have 20 or more locations to disclose calories for each menu item. Under the bill, calories will be posted directly on the menu, menu board or in one of the approved alternative ways, such as a menu insert or a sign directly next to the menu board. Full Story

WSJ: "WALGREEN TOPS CVS OFFER FOR LONGS"

DRUG RETAIL WARS

The Wall Street Journal has an article about Walgreen made an offer for Longs Drug Stores. CVS has previously made an offer to buy the Longs Drug Store chain. This offer was accepted and the deal was nearly completed.

NEW YORK -- Walgreen Co. made an offer late Friday to buy Longs Drug Stores Corp. for $2.8 billion, hoping to unseat a rival offer from CVS Caremark Corp. that Longs had already accepted.

Walgreens said it would pay $75 a share in cash to buy the California-based Longs, besting CVS's price of $71.50 per share, ...

Takeaway
Walgreen made this offer to force CVS to pay a higher price. This may or may not happen. The cost of this move is limited for Walgreeen. The more money CVS pays the less they have for remodeling and competing.

CVS may have to match the $75 a share offer. There is little possibility that Walgreen actually thought their offer could, would or will go through.

This move is intended to slow their fiercest direct competitor. Both Walgreen and CVS are in a battle against Walmart, Target, COSTCO, Kroger etc.