Safeway

Four men, two of them from Frederick, were arrested yesterday in the beating of a Canton Safeway employee that many residents believe was racially motivated.The arrests bring to five the number of suspects charged with assaulting an 18-year-old African-American youth Dec. 8. All of the men who were arrested are white."We're pleased to be able to identify all of the suspects ," said Maj. Timothy Longo, commander of the Southeastern District. "We certainly hope these arrests bring a sense of closure to the community."

In the biggest Safeway on the East Coast, shoppers can relax over coffee and biscotti at Starbucks, drop off the dry cleaning, pick up pizza to go, or even do their grocery shopping. The expanded, gourmet supermarket, which Safeway calls its "next generation" design, opens today in Bowie Town Center. The store's new look and layout, wider assortments of produce and prepared foods and mix of specialty departments are designed to lure shoppers - and give Safeway an edge over competitors.

PLEASANTON, Calif. -- Safeway Inc. offered to buy out Vons Cos. for $2.3 billion in stock and assumed debt yesterday, a bid to return the grocer to the lucrative Southern California market it exited in 1988.Safeway, which owns 34.5 percent of Vons, offered 1.34 shares for each Vons share for a total of $1.7 billion, or $58 a share based on yesterday's closing price. Safeway, majority owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., said Vons has about $600 million in debt.The fast-growing grocers make a great match, analysts said, because they share management styles and a history of working together, including a joint private-label program.

SENATE President Thomas V. Mike Miller is busy steering his chamber through the budget and proposals on gay rights, lobbying and gambling. Yet, somehow Mr. Miller has found time this session to meddle in local Anne Arundel County business. He's proposing a bill that aims to stop the controversial 77,000 square-foot Safeway supermarket and strip mall that county officials have approved for Deale. His bill would prohibit storm water systems on residential land within a half mile of the Chesapeake Bay or its main tributaries.

A once-active bald eagle nest near the site of a proposed Safeway supermarket in Deale is empty, state natural resources officials said yesterday. That means a ban on construction there could be lifted before the end of the breeding season June 15. "The nest failed," said Glenn D. Therres, Maryland's bald eagle biologist, adding that he isn't sure why. Safeway's opponents are worried that the grocery chain might clear its wooded 16-acre site - even...

The talk in southern Anne Arundel County has long centered on the specter of a supermarket - the Safeway - that by some accounts will never open, and by others is just a few permits shy of groundbreaking. Of late, a proposed zoning change that would block the chain from building a 55,000-square-foot store in Deale's tiny commercial district has given some activists cause to celebrate. But not everyone is happy. Quietly, and out of earshot of neighbors and customers who might oppose the Safeway, business owners and real estate investors are expressing concern about what some view as a widening community movement against growth and business, home-grown and otherwise.

Safeway Inc. may have won its two-year battle to build a strip mall in a bayside South County community, after county officials ruled that the property is not in a flood plain. The county announced yesterdaythat Safeway does not need a flood-plain waiver to build on a16-acre site at Routes 256 and 258 in Deale. In January, the county had denied the grocery store chain the waiver, which is needed to build on a 100-year flood plain. Officials from the county's Department of Planning and Code Enforcement said yesterday that the proposed site is not on a flood plain, based on the county's definition of flood plain, known as the "48-Inch Pipe Rule."

Safeway Inc., the nation's third-largest supermarket chain, proposes building a 62,500-square-foot store in the Canton area of Baltimore, the site of earlier community opposition over plans to develop the property.Safeway has an option to buy 5 acres at the site of the formerAmerican Can Co. factory in the 2600 block of Boston Street. The waterfront area around the site has been dubbed Baltimore's "Gold Coast" because of the large number of new condominiums and town house developments in the vicinity.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller will try again today to assuage County Executive Janet S. Owens' concerns about his bill aimed at blocking or downsizing a proposed Safeway supermarket in south Anne Arundel County, a key member of the county's House delegation said. Del. Michael E. Busch, an Annapolis Democrat, said Miller told him yesterday afternoon: "We've got it worked out." Busch said, "There is an amendment that's going to be offered that they've both agreed to," meaning Miller and Owens.

Safeway Inc. has signed a letter of intent with the Rouse Co. to open a 55,000-square-foot grocery store at Columbia's aging Harper's Choice Village Center and to nearly double the size of its store in the Long Reach Village Center.The new and expanded stores could open by late 1997.The plans -- announced at Rouse's annual shareholders meeting in Columbia yesterday -- came as welcome news to both communities, particularly at the Harper's Choice center, which in December lost Valu Food, its previous supermarket anchor.