A recent study of more than 10,000 consumers conducted by Market Force Information, the leading customer experience information and insights partner for multi-location businesses, has crowned Wegmans “America’s Favorite Grocery Retailer,” knocking Trader Joe’s (which held the top spot for the past four years) down to third. This is a great feat, especially considering that Wegmans didn’t even earn enough votes to make the list in 2015. In order to determine the rankings, survey participants were asked to rate their satisfaction with their most recent grocery shopping experience and their likelihood to refer that retailer to others. The results were then averaged to rank each retailer on a Composite Loyalty Index. Publix, the Lakeland, FL based retailer, kept a tight grip on second place for the fourth year running, with Hy-Vee, Aldi, Costco, HEB, and Kroger rounding out the top eight. For more information about Market Force Information, go to at www.marketforce.com.
While we are on the subject of Kroger, its Matthews, NC-based division Harris Teeter, just started testing a delivery partnership in its Constitution Square store in Washington, DC. with popular online transportation service Uber. The orders, which will be placed from the Harris Teeter’s mobile app, allows customers to shop from the entire store’s inventory. Customers will be able to receive updates on their groceries’ whereabouts through the store app in the same way Uber customers are able to keep track of their arriving car. The catch, though, at least for the time being, is that you must be within a five-mile radius of the store and it is not currently available for the desktop version. “Harris Teeter is excited to enhance the online ordering process by offering home delivery,” said Danna Robinson, communication manager for Harris Teeter. “UberRUSH delivery will help us reach our customers where they are by making the grocery shopping experience even more convenient.” And, late last month, Harris Teeter collaborated with Smithfield to donate 25,000 pounds of protein to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina which benefited the Wilmington area and five surrounding communities as part of the pork processor’s 2016 nationwide “Helping Hungry Homes” donation tour. “We are so grateful to Smithfield Foods for this generous donation,” said Beth Gaglione, Wilmington branch director for the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. “Protein is a vital part of any diet and one many of our hungry neighbors cannot fit into their strained budgets.” Smithfield’s senior director of corporate communications and public affairs Dennis Pittman added, “Smithfield is proud to partner with Harris Teeter and the Grower’s Expo to provide the local Wilmington food bank with this donation through our “Helping Hungry Homes” donation program. This donation will provide more than 100,000 servings of much-needed protein to families and individuals that suffer from food insecurity.” The food donation tour, which is in its eighth year, will help fight hunger through more than 30 large scale donations to food banks across the U.S. To date, the program has provided more than 37 million servings of protein to food banks across the country.
Weis Markets held its annual Strategic Alignment Summit on April 12 where they presented their Strategic Alignment Partnership Awards. Congratulations to the following vendors for being recognized by the Sunbury, PA- based retailer: Sea Best, CMI (which, according to Neilsen FreshFacts data, became the number one selling apple brand in U.S. supermarkets this past year); John F. Martin & Sons; Gourmet Foods International (GFI); Telebrands (“As Seen on TV” products); Global Floral (GFR); Pinnacle Foods (this is the second year in a row that they have received this honor); and Pepsico. I would also like to give a special honorable mention to Lucy Jason, director of floral at Weis, and Kandy Baier, floral merchandiser from GFR, for doing an outstanding job on the floral arrangements which almost stole the show at the vendor meeting. These ladies never fail to impress with the artistry they bring to their floral displays. Plus, Weis offers floral arranging services for large scale events such as weddings at many of their retail locations, so keep them in mind for your next big affair. Beautiful job as always, ladies – keep up the good work! And while we are still on the topic of Weis Markets, I would like to give kudos to the retailer for setting into motion plans to only sell cage-free eggs. “Our goal is to convert our egg category to 100 percent cage-free by 2026,” stated Richard Gunn, Weis’ Markets’ vice president, merchandising and marketing. “In the coming years, we will be working with our locally-based egg suppliers to implement our program. This is an enormous undertaking for our egg suppliers and involves an extensive conversion process. We are encouraged by their commitment to helping us achieve our goal and believe it is the right thing to do.” It’s great to see a company taking steps towards sustainable retailing such as this – way to go, Weis!
Another retailer that is focused on selling locally sourced food items is Giant/Landover, which now carries locally grown produce year round from Culpeper County, VA-based BrightFarms Capitol Greenhouse, a 150,000 square foot greenhouse farm. The produce supplied, which will total almost one million pound per year, includes an assortment of the freshest salad mixes such as baby kale, baby spinach, baby arugula, Asian greens, spring mix, spinach blend, as well as basil and a variety of tomatoes. The state-of-the-art greenhouse farms are specifically designed to conserve water and land and help the environment by locating farms close to markets in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that typically result from product transportation. In addition to being environmentally conscious, Brightfarms also creates “green collar” jobs for local farmers, allowing more money to stay within the community it serves. The Culpeper greenhouse will also soon be supplying the Martin’s Food Markets stores and Peapod within the Giant Landover market.
While we are on the topic of sustainability, H&S Bakery and U.S. Gain, the compressed natural gas division (CNG) of U.S. Venture, Inc., have teamed up to open up a new CNG station located at the intersection of I-95 and I-895 in Baltimore, which is open to all CNG fleets and the public. “We are excited to partner with U.S. Gain as we transition a significant portion of our fleet to CNG,” said Chuck Paterakis, vice president of transportation logistics for Northeast Foods/H&S Bakery. “We selected U.S. Gain as our partner based on the company’s ability to meet our customer’s extremely high operational and environmental standards. This business decision allows us to benefit from the future growth of CNG in the transportation industry.” CNG is a cost effective alternative to diesel. It is also cleaner burning than gasoline or diesel, with natural gas vehicles showing an average reduction of ozone-forming emissions of 80 percent compared to gasoline vehicles.
“In addition to the cost savings, CNG has lower carbon emissions, which is better for the environment,” stated Bill Renz, GAIN Clean Fuel’s general manager. “For companies like H&S Bakery, it fits perfectly into the environmental policies they have for their business.” Another advantage is that it is domestically produced which protects it from global influences that create price volatility in other fuels such as diesel. Renz continued, “Fleets that are making the decision to convert to CNG are doing it for two reasons. One, because it’s more efficient from an environmental perspective, and two, because it’s a smart business decision,” adds Renz. “Those companies that don’t begin to convert their fleets to CNG will have to catch up down the road.” Located near the bakery’s distribution center, the Baltimore station not only gives the H&S Bakery fleet a strategic fueling location, but also contributes to the company’s commitment to improve sustainability efforts. A $500,000 award from the Maryland Natural Gas Refilling Station Grant Program helped to fund the project.
The Network of Executive Women (NEW) Mid-Atlantic chapter will be hosting its second in a series of three “Executive Straight Talk!” panels on Thursday, April 28. The event, which will delve into the topic of “Driving Financial Results: Finance for Non-Financial Managers,” will feature panelists: Susan Grafton, EVP and CFO of Supervalu; Monica Bonamego, CFO of Kings Food Markets; and Lisa Meyers, director of finance, Hershey’s. The always charming and engaging Judy Spires, chairman and CEO of Kings Food Markets, will be there to moderate. To sign up, go to www.newonline.org or email [email protected] for more information about the event or NEW in general.
Before I sign off, I want to extend my warmest congratulations to ACME Markets on 125 years in business! Be sure to check out the special section commemorating this momentous anniversary in this month’s issues of Food World and Food Trade News.
Until next month…