The race to provide charging stations for electric vehicles heats up on the West Coast after Kroger (NYSE:KR) joins Walgreen (WAG), Whole Foods (WFM), and IKEA to provide customers parking lot charging stations. What to watch: Retailers continue to slowly edge into the field in an effort not to get left behind, but until a major restaurant chain (say McDonald's (NYSE:MCD)?) jumps in with a partnership to offer a national network of charging stations along major interstates the phenomenon will remain a primarily limited to affluent urban areas.