NEW YORK (AP) --The chairman, president and chief executive of supermarket chain operator Safeway Inc. exercised options for 100,000 shares of common stock under a prearranged trading plan, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. In a Form 4 filed with the SEC Friday, Steven A. Burd reported he exercised the options Wednesday for $2.81 apiece and then sold all 100,000 of them on the same day for $34.27 to $34.56 apiece.The stock sale was conducted under a prearranged 10b5-1 trading plan which allows a company insider to set up a program in advance for such transactions and proceed with them even if he or she comes into possession of material non-public information. Insiders file Form 4s with the SEC to report transactions in their companies' shares. Open market purchases and sales must be reported within two business days of the transaction.

The dollar amount of exercised options equaled $3,154,523.80 according to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.