Welcome to 2022! Here’s hoping that we are all on the other side of the mountain on this pandemic, and by the time the warm weather arrives in a few months, we will all be getting back to more normal routines.
Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace unveiled its 10th supermarket (and second in New Jersey) when they opened the doors to their newest location in Morris Plains, NJ. The 42,000 square foot marvel on Route 10 was formerly an old Village ShopRite (nearly 10 years ago) which then remained vacant. Enter Philip DelPrete, Carl DelPrete and Thomas Barresi, the partners in Uncle Giuseppe’s.
“We are thrilled to be opening our second location in the great State of New Jersey, specifically in the wonderful community of Morris Plains,” said Phil DelPrete, co-founder and president. “This store is a premier location in Morris Plains, and we are thrilled to introduce the community to our unique, gourmet offerings and full-service shopping experience.” Co-founder and CEO Carl DelPrete added, “We look forward to bringing the Uncle Giuseppe’s experience to our new friends in Morris Plains. From our old-world recipes, to our customer service – we have over 250 team members working around the clock to deliver the customer experience the people of Morris Plains will enjoy! Customers can also look forward to sampling our food and listening to live singers on the weekends as they shop.”
The new store is a premier, full-service supermarket featuring a gourmet Italian theme and follows the success of its first Jersey location in Ramsey. A full-service gourmet deli, specialty butcher, gourmet bakery as well as its famous viewing rooms where pasta and mozzarella are made fresh daily. Additionally, the store will include a full grocery, dairy, and frozen food department to ensure a complete shopping experience. Uncle Giuseppe’s will also offer home delivery and curbside pickup and full-service catering. Best wishes to the boys and the entire team at Uncle G’s on another fabulous store!
Happy retirement wishes go out to Dennis Stickley of Associated Supermarket Group (ASG). After a 50-year career, the industry veteran of credit and finance lending is putting away his abacus for good. Dennis got into the business after college and a U.S. Army career as a business writer for Dun & Bradstreet before taking a credit manager position with a Dutch entertainment company. He transitioned into the grocery business when he joined White Rose Foods in 1984 as the director of financial services and credit. Thirty years later he joined ASG as VP of credit operations.
“We are grateful for Dennis’ dedication to ASG and our customers and for his many contributions to the business,” said ASG co-presidents and co-CEOs Joe Garcia and Zulema Wiscovitch. “Dennis brought his credibility, knowledge and experience to ASG at a time when the market was troubled by the folding of legacy wholesaler White Rose. Making Dennis a part of our leadership team allowed ASG to offer the continuity and expertise needed to successfully run our credit department. He was instrumental in shaping opportunities for customers to establish supermarket, making the stores a part of the fabric of the communities they serve. On behalf of our management team and all of the ASG employees we wish Dennis all the best as he embarks in this new chapter of his life.” Replacing Dennis will be Fausto Mercado who joins ASG from Goya Foods where he served as director of credit and collections.
Wakefern announced a deal with Trigo, an Israeli computer vision company, “to pilot an autonomous supermarket making use of Trigo’s AI-based frictionless checkout technology. Trigo transforms existing supermarkets into fully autonomous digital stores, combining their technology with Trigo computer vision to create a seamless shopping experience. Applying Trigo’s technology to various locations will allow Wakefern to scale their business while maintaining their character and layout. Customers use an app to scan a QR code as they enter and then will be free to pick up items and leave without having to checkout. As related by Trigo, after downloading the app and registering a credit card, you scan the QR code and enter through train station style gates. You cannot enter the store without the app as barriers will prevent you. There are no checkouts, no assistants and in theory, no chance of shoplifting! Once inside the technology follows you around the store recording every item you select and when you are done you just walk out. A few minutes later your phone alerts you as to how much you have just spent. Pretty frictionless. The technology is currently being utilized in Europe by Tesco, REWE, and Aldi as well as others. The Wakefern deal is the initial foray into the United States for Trigo.
E&M Logistics Inc., a distributor of Haagen-Dazs ice cream and Tombstone and DiGiorno frozen pizza in the metropolitan area, wants to construct a headquarters and warehouse in Hauppauge, NJ, officials said this month. The distributor, based in the Bronx, plans to replace the current building at 380 Oser Avenue with a facility more than double its size. The $13.4 million project will include installation of a larger freezer.
The company was awarded $1.3 million in tax breaks by the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency, including $714,777 off property taxes over 15 years, representing a 26.5 percent savings. E&M’s real state attorney said the company had considered putting the new HQ and warehouse at 200 Crossways Park Drive West in Woodbury, a parcel it now plans to sell. E&M also rents two buildings in the Bronx and one in Hicksville, he also said.
The company employs 249 people in the metro area and has promised to bring 85 jobs to Hauppauge within two years in return for IDA aid. Additional jobs will be created by the “sub-distributors” who will pick up food from the warehouse for delivery to stores, said Martin Kelly, who founded E&M in 2003.
“I think we’re not only going to bring jobs, I think we’re going to create a sub-distribution businesses” in the Hauppauge area, he told the IDA board.
Besides ice cream and frozen pizza, Kelly said E&M provides stores with milk, juices, fresh fruit and dry goods. “We’re in every supermarket, drug store, deli and bodega in New York. We’ve grown a lot outside of ice cream,” he said.
In September, Kelly sold a controlling interest in E&M to the private equity firm Mill Point Capital LLC in Manhattan. Earlier this month, Mill Point Capital invested in Jack & Jill, a distributor in Moorestown, NJ.
And finally, on the technology front, King Kullen has selected CitrusAd’s retail media platform to boost online and instore sales for CPG suppliers. A recent grocery study across multiple categories demonstrated the impact CitrusAd can have on a brand’s online sales and in-store sales. Four campaigns went live for one week only and the advertised SKUs experienced an average 97 percent lift in online sales plus an average 26.5 percent increase for in-store sales. When the campaigns were switched off, the SKUs experienced an average 53 percent drop in online sales from the previous advertised week online and a 24.5 percent decrease for in-store sales. By selecting the right technology, King Kullen is offering brands the best in digital advertising activity and measurement to broaden results on an easy-to-use, self-serve platform to enhance and personalize shopping experiences for customers. King Kullen’s first-party data combines with CitrusAd’s algorithms to deliver relevant ads to consumers at scale. The CitrusAd technology also features fully-transparent, closed-loop analytics to determine return on ad spend (ROAS). “Our founder Michael J. Cullen was a great innovator; we proudly continue his legacy by bringing new, innovative technology from CitrusAd to enhance shopping experiences, improve product discovery and overall sales in a relevant manner,” said Tracey Cullen, the retailer’s VP of corporate strategy and initiatives. King Kullen joins CitrusAd’s expansive ecommerce ad network, which provides one platform for brands to reach omnichannel shoppers nationally, across many retail accounts. Sponsored product ads are available in the retailer’s most visible, top positions online for desktop and mobile. The new retail media technology is now accessible for natively-served, media inventory on King Kullen’s online shopping website, empowering brands with the ability to engage with King Kullen’s shoppers. “We are honored to provide King Kullen, a legendary and visionary retail chain, with our innovative, leading retail media technology to serve them and their supplier brands with expansive growth opportunities,” said Brian DeCoveny, SVP Retail Media Partnerships for CitrusAd.
King Kullen is the latest retailer to join a growing list of companies including Albertsons, CUB, Lowe’s, Gopuff, Shipt, Groupon, Petco, Price Chopper, Hy-Vee, Wakefern Food Corp, Harris Teeter and others that are combining the strength of first party data with CitrusAd’s retail media technology to help brands connect with shoppers in a more relevant and personalized manner.
Well, that will do it for this month. Let’s all try and remain as diligent as possible in our health and safety protocols during these last couple of winter months, so we can all get out come springtime and start fully networking again! As always, you can reach me at 201.250.2217 or [email protected]
