CONSTABLEVILLE, N.Y. -- The swallows might return to Capistrano every spring, and like clockwork, every summer, Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes makes a splash at the retail level. This year's "summer project" is not the ground-up "Taj Mahal we've been building in past years," Fran Duskiewicz told CSP Daily News. "We're taking a left turn from the high-tech store concepts of the past and going back to the future."

ATLANTA -- Consumer complaints in Georgia about inaccurate or fraudulent dispensers have risen. Calls reporting problems at gas stations jumped to 1,053 in the first five months of 2008, up 65% from 2007, said the Georgia Agriculture Department. Complaints run the gamut, from allegations of watered-down fuel and wrong octane to complaints about being shorted. But of all the complaints—1,415 in 2007—inspectors found only 5% were valid, and 70% of inspections continue to reveal that pumps are giving customers more than they paid for.

CHICAGO -- Retailers may be riding a rising tide in tobacco sales, especially after a dramatic drop during the first two quarters , according to numbers reported exclusively at this week's CSP Tobacco Category Review Meeting. Though growth in retail dollars for cigarettes specifically is up 1.1% for the year (last July through this June), that movement reflects a growth rate of 3.6% through the latter half of 2007 and a dip of 4% in the first and second quarters of 2008, said IRI's Mike McClurg.