The holidays are a profitable time for retailers, but so is the period after New Year’s, when everyone flocks back to stores in search of post-party remedies. The Nielsen Company issued a short report profiling this activity, noting that U.S. consumers will purchase more than $61 million on stop-smoking aids and more than $46 million on diet solutions in the month of January.

Anti-smoking and smoking alternative products generated 8.7% of annual dollar sales in January last year, an above-average share; while complete nutritional diet aids generated 9.9% of their annual dollar sales during the same period.

The advice to supermarkets selling wellness solutions is to hit shoppers now, and hit them hard, because sales drop off significantly once the month passes. According to Nielsen researchers, anti-smoking products declined steadily from more than $61 million in sales in January to $49 million in September. After a high at nearly $47 million in January, sales of nutritional diet aids dropped more than 14% to $40 million in February.

What are you doing right now to promote your stores and your pharmacies as a destination? To be sure, consumers know what’s coming. They’re already thinking of the Day of Reckoning. So shove aside the holiday stuff and make room for the new personal improvement products people will be looking for. Make a sharp, comprehensive merchandising strategy your New Year’s resolution. Your shoppers might not thank you for it, but they’ll be grateful.

Del Monte is exposing everything it’s got starting today — everything about its fresh produce products, nutrition, recipe ideas and healthful lifestyle advice.

The Coral Gables, Fla.- based company today is launching www.fruits.com, a new consumer website that profiles the company’s products and shows how they can fit into a healthful lifestyle. Del Monte has been hanging onto the highly desirable domain name for quite some time now, and it’s the first time it’s being used to full advantage. The launch is actually part of a larger, multifaceted communications platform, but the consumer web program is among the first to be introduced.

The new site is divided into four sections: Products, Recipes, Nutrition and Fitness and a Kids Corner. The latter two are the most interactive. Nutrition and Fitness is overseen by Tracey Ryan, a registered dietician, and Bryan Fedor, a personal trainer; while Kids Corner includes games that carry a nutrition message.

Some might say it’s a bit late for Del Monte to be coming around with a consumer web site like this. But let’s face it: Consumers need all the help they can get, and with such a simple domain name to remember, www.fruits.com will become popular soon enough.

The Food and Drug Administration is soon expected to make room on the dinner table for products sourced from cloned animals. Everyone expects the idea to get the green light, given that regulators issued preliminary approval last year.

But shoppers and many in the food industry are far from convinced. Nearly two thirds of consumers say they don’t like the idea of ingesting milk or meat from clones, according to various polls. Washington, in response, passed an amendment in this year’s farm bill that delays the FDA’s decision until further testing can be done.

“Before we allow cloned animals in our food supply, we must know more about it,” said Senator Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who forwarded the amendment.

The cloning industry also has a response to the skepticism. Yesterday two of the countries leading cloning companies, ViaGen and Trans Ova, announced the implementation of a tracking system that will use electronic ear tags to follow cloned animals throughout the supply chain. Doing this, they say, will support marketing claims for retailers and manufacturers regarding whether or not a steak or jug of milk came from a cloned animal.

“This enables the food industry to segregate cloned animals from the food supply, should they choose to do so,” said Mark Walton, president of ViaGen.

But the system only goes so far. It’s voluntary (“mandatory from the perspective of our customers,” according to Walton); it also doesn’t cover the progeny of cloned animals, which are the ones that end up getting slaughtered (the actual clones are too expensive to lose). Walton said they don’t have to extend the label to cover subsequent generations because “the offspring of cloned animals are not clones.”

Technically, that’s correct. Intuitively, it might be a tough sell.

Consumer and retailer confidence surrounding the cloning issue is a must. That’s why it’s up to the food industry to demand a competent labeling system that will create transparency and a true market of choice.

It was just last week that we wrote about a store opening in California devoted to anything and everything local. But that one is situated in the bucolic Napa Valley area, while this one is located in the heart of Brooklyn, N.Y.

You gotta problem with that?

Good. Because the new store, Urban Rustic, is actually a full-service grocery store in the trendy Williamsburg section. It features produce, bulk and dry goods and frozen foods, meat, dairy and selected seafood, juice and coffee, cold beverages, health and beauty products, and household goods in 2,600 square feet of floor space. It also has an elevated café area seating 18 people and patio space in back.

Dan Cipriani, co-owner along with Luis Illades and Aaron Woolf, told us the name of the store describes the balance the trio is seeking between connection and community, and authenticity and ethics.

Opening a store in Brooklyn during a cold, snowy week in December has required balance of a different sort, though.

“If we were opening in the summer, it would have been a lot easier because there’s such an abundance of things available,” he said. Nevertheless, demand has created a larger pool of potential vendors to pull from, he added.

“I’ve found a lot more locally than I actually expected for this time of year. It’s been really kind of encouraging that we’ve been able to fill the shelves quite well.”

On the shelves and in the cases are products from the immediate Northeast region: bread from Amy’s in Manhattan; meats from Stone & Thistle Farm in upstate New York; Blue cheese from Berkshire Blue in Massachusetts; and even a number of products from the borough itself, including Six Point beers and ales, Skinnyskinny soaps, McClure’s pickles, M.J.’s herbal salves.

Stores like Urban Rustic and Oxbow Public Market in California might not directly compete with mainstream retailers. But they are still important. Conventional operators should note these concepts provide consumers with a stronger connection to the foods they’re purchasing. It’s a demand shoppers will soon be bringing with them into their regular supermarket, if they haven’t already. Are you prepared?

We thought this past summer’s debate over the environmental impact of bottled water containers had frozen over for the winter. But it appears that the controversy keeps thawing itself out.

Earlier this month, Canada’s Mountain Equipment Co-op removed from its shelves all water bottles and other containers made with bisphenol-a, a chemical used in the manufacturing process to strengthen plastic. What’s interesting here is that BPA, as it’s called, is not only found in disposable bottles, but many durable, reusable containers — ones that are supposed to be the eco-friendly alternative to the disposable alternatives, which are at the heart of the debate.

Mountain Equipment, which Toronto’s Globe and Mail cites as “the country’s largest specialty outdoor-goods retailer,” said the decision reflects skepticism about the safety of BPA, which studies have shown can mimic estrogen in the body and potentially disrupt the reproductive system. But most evidence up to now seems to indicate that the chemical is safe when used in small amounts.

Medical findings aside, the outcry against BPA has a ways to go before it reaches the full-blown campaigning of this year’s bottled water protests. Still, it’s something to watch, especially as more studies on BPA pour in. Health Canada, the country’s version of our Food and Drug Administration will release a more comprehensive report on the safety of BPA in May 2008.

Animal rights activists and vegans are applauding the decision by Morningstar Farms to use one million fewer eggs in 2008 in an effort to combat factory farms, and in the process promote cage-free operations.

The company should be pleased with itself as well. It did the right thing, got great press and perhaps most importantly — demonstrated how a big mainstream company can change with consumer demand and actually, truly, benefit from it.

Morningstar made the decision after it became the focus of a letter-writing campaign organized by two animal rights groups, Compassion Over Killing and Vegan Outreach. According to COK’s executive director, Erica Meier, Morningstar was chosen because it already had a reputation as a progressive manufacturer of vegetarian foods. Yet the company was using eggs from large farms prone to employing wire mesh battery cages that basically reduce the hens to egg-laying machines.

The press release notes that, by giving up the eggs, Morningstar Farms will reduce “factory farm” demand by 4,000 hens. It also notes there will be more egg-less products, which really cheered the vegans.

The company gets the most points, however, for realizing that consumer dynamics have changed. These days, healthfulness in a food product is a given. Shoppers are asking, “What else have you got?”

Humane treatment of animals is certainly one option that ranks near the top of the list, and Morningstar Farms was smart to acknowledge just how dearly many consumers feel about the matter.

The next step in the local food movement opens this weekend in — you guessed it — California. Oxbow Public Market, located in the up-and-coming city of Napa (“down valley” from the famous wine region), is a 40,000-square-foot retail space that’s shaped like a modernistic barn. Inside, mostly local vendors work out of stalls and stands, selling everything from artisan meats and cheeses to books, kitchen antiques and organic ice cream.

These type of action stations make Oxbow more farmers market than supermarket, since it emphasizes face-to-face interaction between customers and the people behind the products. But the connections get even closer in this store. Many of Oxbow’s butchers, bakers and wine makers (specifically Michael Mondavi) make what they sell on-site, and in full view for everyone to see. That includes the casks used to age the wine.

Being able to see everything might cause some queasiness for those who can’t stand the sight of a flank steak being sheared off a side of beef. On the whole, however, this is just the sort of intimacy that developer Steve Carlin envisioned when he dreamed up the idea. He’s already looking to expand in the Bay Area, and if Oxbow is a success he says he’d like to spread out along the West Coast.

Traditional supermarkets should keep an eye on Carlin and other mavericks in the industry. Their level of success may herald the future of local food retailing and, more immediately, demonstrate the value of transparency.

A new report out notes that Americans guzzled about 262 million gallons of energy drinks last year, up 47% from the year before. To keep up with demand, retailers have needed a few swigs themselves as they busily swap out cases of slower-moving carbonated soft drinks and juices for anything containing caffeine, taurine or guarana.

A lot of the sales activity is taking place in the convenience channel, but most of the movement there is in single-serve cans. Supermarkets are benefiting by selling multi-packs at a pretty good premium.

The report, by the marketing research firm Zenith International, found the average U.S. consumer downs more than half a gallon each year — second only to the zippy citizenry of Thailand, which enjoys a per capita consumption rate of just over 3 gallons. But all eyes are on the United States, where, according to the researchers, consumption will grow the fastest, doubling by 2011.

The category is dominated by the top five brands. Just about anyone can name at least a few of them: Red Bull, Monster, Rock Star, Full Throttle and SoBe No Fear. With names like these, it’s obvious the drinks are aimed at young male teens. Luckily for the rest of us, the study notes a maturing category may result in softer, less-hyper formulations for women and adults. The buzz will continue to come from natural sources.

Amid all the action, though, is a real downer, at least as far as one of the stimulants is concerned. An oft-cited study on caffeine abuse found more than 250 cases of medical complications from caffeine supplements called in to a Chicago poison control center over three years. Of those, 12% ended in hospitalization.

Right now, the Food and Drug Administration does not require drink manufacturers to list the amount of caffeine they put in their products. Maybe they should. As the energy drink category grows, safety questions are going to start popping up. In California, they already have. An advisory board is calling for a study on the effects highly-caffeinated beverages have on pregnant women.

For low-income families, buying cheap, high-calorie processed foods isn’t just an easy decision — it’s often a necessity. According to a study published by researchers at the University of California-Davis, most low-income families can’t fit the USDA’s recommended amount of fruits and vegetables into their tight food budgets.

Whole health advocates would like this year’s farm bill to narrow the price gap between the snack food aisle and the produce bin, which sits at just under $17 per 1,000 calories, according to a recent study by the University of Washington’s Center for Obesity Research. But it appears that’s a bust. The bill, which just recently regained momentum after being stalled for weeks, has many of the same staple crop subsidies in place that it’s had in the past.

The USDA, however, has decided to step up. Last week the agency announced significant changes to its supplemental nutrition program Women, Infants and Children (WIC), which supplies vouchers for specific foods to approximately 8 million low-income individuals. This overhaul — the first in nearly thirty years for the program, according to the USDA — will rearrange WIC’s payouts so that it gives more for whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, and less for dairy, eggs and juice. These changes will go into effect next February.

Under the new guidelines, monthly vouchers for fruits and vegetables will be $6 for children, $8 for women, and $10 for breast-feeding women. That’s higher than previous years, but it may not be enough to adequately cover the rising cost of produce, which has jumped nearly 20% in the past two years (unlike the price of Twinkies, Doritos and the like, which has remained relatively stable).

Indeed, there’s been a string of studies and articles recently highlighting the negative link between the nation’s poor and the rising cost of healthy food.

“The gap between what we say people should eat and what they can afford is becoming unacceptably wide,” noted University of Washington researcher Adam Drewnowski.

Beyond the price issue, there’s also the troubling fact that low-income areas often lack access to grocery stores with healthy selections — “food deserts”, as they’ve come to be known. Last month, Louisville’s Courier-Journal commissioned a study that found the poorer west side of town to have only one full-service supermarket per 25,000 residents, while the rest of the metropolitan area had one for every 12,500 residents.

Supermarkets and the food industry as a whole have their work cut out for them. Whether they choose to actually take action is another story altogether.

When it comes to the meat category, the term “natural” is as wide open as a Midwest cattle range. That’s because the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s definition, which dates back to the early 1980s, merely stipulates that the product be “minimally processed.” This, of course, fails to cover the way animals are raised, and as a result numerous processors today are slapping a “natural” claim on their meat even as they pump their animals full of hormones and antibiotics.

There are companies out there, like Coleman Natural Meats, who actually do raise and process without additives. But who can tell the difference at the supermarket level? “We need to get the labeling changed so that when you see a ‘natural’ label at retail, it specifically defines how the animal is raised,” CEO Mel Coleman, Jr. told us earlier this year. To differentiate themselves and prove their integrity, some companies have started adding their own claims. Ken Chapin, meat director at Yoke’s Fresh Market in Spokane Wash., for example, carries a line of “true natural” meat.

The USDA plans to take action, but it doesn’t plan to do as Coleman, Jr. would like and revise the “natural” marketing claim. Rather, they’ve decided to put forth a “naturally raised” label. Up for public comment until the end of January, it’s a voluntary standard wherein manufacturers raise their animals without hormones, antibiotics or animal by-products. It stops short of organic, which has been troubled by high prices.

The agency’s Agriculture Marketing Service, which oversees these claims, says it’s cutting through the confusion and setting a clear standard for something that many manufacturers have decided to define on their own.

“We are just trying to do what the industry and consumers want,” said USDA spokesman Billy Cox.

But is simply adding another label — and a voluntary one at that — really the way to go? “Naturally raised” covers a hole that needed to be filled, but consumers who want to eat right will just grow more confused with this, yet another claim. The USDA should work towards cutting down on the clutter, not add to it.