Leading Retail Chains Plan Business Exchange

Eleven of the world’s leading food, drug and discount chains, including U.S. giants Safeway Inc. and Kmart Corp., unveiled a Web-based exchange to share information and cut costs in one more example of the Internet’s huge impact on global business. Combined, the retailers operate more than 30,000 stores with combined 1999 revenues of $300 billion. The group includes U.S. industry giants Albertson’s Inc., Target Corp. and drugstore chain CVS Corp. Foreign participants are, in Britain, food retailer Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Kingfisher; French groups Casino and Auchan; and Dutch group Royal Ahold. The business-to-business exchange, which is expected to open by midyear, will allow retailers to comparison-shop among more than 100,000 suppliers, partners and distributors to get the best price.