As we welcome in 2022, I am eschewing all resolutions as I always do except one: we at Food Trade News will continue to inform, educate and entertain you, our readers, as only we can do. Be it in print or at foodtradenews.com, our goal is to make sure you are kept as up-to-date as possible with all the inside baseball info there is to know. Cheers to a better year than the last two! As C.W. Lewis said, “There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” Let’s hope he’s right.
Weis Markets began 2022 on a good foot as it opened its 198th store in Warminster, PA, on January 20, midway between their Doylestown and Huntingdon Valley locations. The site is their fourth Bucks County store, located at the site of an old Kmart and has been five years in the making. While some may say the area is overstored (a Giant and a ShopRite are just down the road, Amazon Fresh and Wegmans are 10 minutes away and a Lidl is supposedly slated for the old Pathmark), York Road has been without a market since Giant left the Jamison location for a “better” location on Rt. 611. At 46,000 square feet, this location employs more than 130 new full-time and part-time associates.
“We are pleased to expand our services in Bucks County to offer our customers in Warminster a strong combination of convenience, quality and low prices that help them live better and spend less,” said Kurt Schertle, COO. “We appreciate the welcome we’ve received and look forward to serving and becoming active members of the Warminster community.”
The new store has a good sized produce department with a wide selection of organic produce and value added items, a beer cave and wine café, a full-service seafood department with lobster tank, a full-service meat department with on-premise, custom-cut Certified Angus Beef, sushi prepared in-store daily, a deli offering a wide selection of sliced meats and cheeses along with a heat and serve meal section, organic and natural foods store within a store, in-store bakery, full-service floral department, 17 checkout lanes, fuel center and Weis 2 Go Online ordering with curbside pick-up.
Whew, that’s a lot! The Warminster store was built with several sustainability measures, underscoring the company’s longtime commitment to reducing its carbon footprint chain wide. These eco-friendly features include energy efficient LED lighting to reduce electric lighting; CO2 refrigeration to increase energy efficiency and reduce refrigerant use; cardboard and plastic recycling; and high-efficiency water fixtures.
Warminster customers will also benefit from Weis’ “Low, Low Prices program, which launched in 2019 and lowered the prices on more than 7,000 products to offer the lowest everyday price in the market. The multi-million-dollar investment in low prices is the company’s most ambitious price reduction program to date.
At the ribbon cutting ceremony, Weis donated $50,000 to Philabundance and $2,500 each to the Hartsville Fire Company, the Warminster Food Bank and the Centennial Baseball Club. The Aqua String Band, part of Philadelphia’s Mummers New Year’s Day tradition, entertained shoppers on opening day providing a festive atmosphere as well. Welcome to the neighborhood!
Since we’re talking about low pricing programs, the pandemic, labor, supply chain issues and every other problem you can imagine in our industry, I thought it was time to do one of my unscientific retail surveys. It all began when I went to buy Hellmann’s mayonnaise and noticed that the retail had gone through the roof ($4.69). The same size of the own brand mayonnaise at this particular retailer was on promotion for $1.24 (its regular price is now $2.99, still a large difference). No way, I thought. So, I decided to look at some mainstream items in different departments and visited the “Big 5”: Acme, Giant, ShopRite, Wegmans and Weis, and threw in a mass merch, Target. Store shelves continue to have huge craters resulting from supply chain issues and winter weather, but I saw numerous clerks stocking shelves in all departments. All hands were on deck. It didn’t look like there was a labor shortage anywhere, although “we’re hiring” signs were everywhere. Family packs in the meat and seafood departments were definitely the way to go, when available. And most stores had acceptable stock levels, especially in produce and deli. Interestingly, there’s plenty of toilet paper and wipes, but juice boxes and other center store items, not so much. That was not the case at Target where most departments were decimated and their perishables were non-existent. At one retailer, nobody behind the deli counter was wearing a mask while most of the shoppers were. Not a good look since we aren’t out of the COVID woods yet. Branded pricing is up dramatically, but isn’t all that different in each of these stores. The big difference is between branded and own brand products in all departments. Rhetorically, how can the leading bacon brand retail for $10 per pound while the own brand retails at just about half of that? The disparity is so great with many products, that if one is used to buying branded products, one begins to feel ripped off by the retailer. But at the end of the day, one will buy the brand because one wants the quality guarantee that comes with the branded product one has come to know and doesn’t want anyone telling them what to eat.
Then there is the issue of “shrinkflation”: reducing the size of a product while maintaining its retail price. It’s happening and whether consumers recognize it or not is up for grabs (they aren’t as dumb as one might think). One ounce less in the package is a huge amount of profit in the manufacturers’ pockets. This is nothing new, it began years ago with coffee, orange juice, ice cream and even Kleenex. It just requires a closer look in these times. Sometimes, it may be easier to accept the price increase because the amount of product in one package may be exactly what is needed and won’t require the consumer to buy two packages (or is that yet another ploy?). There are so many issues and questions yet to be resolved and answered; it is thought-provoking and certainly on the minds of many in the food industry. Let’s keep the conversation going.
Kreider Farms, a leading producer and distributor of premium eggs, milk, and ice cream, has just launched one of the nation’s first-ever hemp-fed cage-free egg. Sold under the Chiques Creek brand, the egg is packed with nutrients and offers three times the amount of Omega-3 of a traditional egg. The new hemp egg, produced on the company’s 3,000 acre farm in Central PA, is available at select chain and independent supermarkets in the Philadelphia and Central PA areas. The company produces premium cage-free and organic eggs sold under the Noah’s Pride brand and is the only full-scale egg and dairy farm in the United States. Chiques Creek Hemp Eggs are nutrient-rich brown eggs from cage-free birds, fed a specially formulated and all-vegetarian diet consisting of 20 percent hemp seed meal. Hemp is abundant in protein, a good source of soluble and insoluble fiber, and fatty acids, including Omega-3s and gamma-linolenic acid. Hemp has played an integral part in the rich agricultural and farming industry of Pennsylvania and Lancaster County in particular. Chiques Creek Hemp Eggs celebrate the contributions our ancestors had to the hemp industry and support the revitalization of hemp agriculture in Lancaster County and beyond.
“Our Lancaster farming heritage dates back to the 1700s when our colonial ancestors began growing hemp for food, clothing, rope, paper, and canvas for Conestoga Wagons,” states Ron Kreider, president and CEO. “Being able to build upon that history by creating the first hemp egg that comes from a farm where the cage-free hens are American Humane Certified and recognized for our sustainable and regenerative farming practices is an exciting accomplishment.”
Kreider Farms’ commitment to caring for the environment is seen through its innovative sustainability and regenerative farming practices and invests in technology that improves waste management, protects precious water resources, and generates clean energy. Their state-of-the-art hen houses feature daily manure removal belt systems. Manure is dried with ventilation which retains nutrients. The dried chicken manure is then delivered to farms throughout the Northeastern United States for use as a nutrient-rich and low-cost fertilizer. Since 1935, Kreider Farms has been a top-quality producer and distributor of fresh eggs. With more than 82 years of experience and four modern layer facilities, Kreider Farms has become a top supplier of fresh eggs to some of the finest supermarkets and wholesalers in the northeastern United States.
It seems like December isn’t the only time people are choosing to hang up their food industry careers. Joe Hallinan of Brown’s ShopRites, whose family has been part of the Philadelphia retail scene for decades (his father was with Penn Fruit, Pantry Pride and Acme), has decided to call it a day. Himself a retail lifer, Joe began his career working for Charles Shorday’s Great Scot Markets while in high school and at Saint Joseph’s University, where he received his bachelor of science in food marketing. Joe then went to Acme for 20 years where he worked his way up to store director. In 2004, Jeff Brown came calling and Joe brought his knowledge and expertise to the Brown’s Super Stores leadership team. Over the past 17 years he has held various positions, including store director, operations supervisor and most recently district manager. Joe grew relationships with vendors, worked diligently to improve store operations, helped grow bottom line profitability, and insured the development of Brown’s younger management teams. In his retirement, Joe plans to enjoy time with his wife and family with some trips to the Sunshine State and of course, the Jersey shore. Rick Dolan is retiring from Herr Foods after a 38-year career with the snack company. Upon graduation from Elizabethtown University, Rick went to Beecham Products for a couple of years before landing at Herr’s. He began as a key account manager and worked his way up to vice president of key accounts. He found that the corporate culture was a good fit for him and that’s what kept him from going elsewhere. Additionally, in 2001 he received his MBA in food marketing from Saint Joseph’s University. Upon his return from the Redner’s trip to Cancun, Rick plans to hang out on the golf course when the weather permits, travel with his wife Darlene, and visiting with his grandchildren. Happy trails to these lifetime food industry members!
Taking another trip around the sun this January are: Linda Doherty, NJFC; Eve Gigis, Acme Markets; Gary Larkin, retired, Paul G. Nester and Co.; David Patragnoni, Silver Fern Farms; George Latella, Saint Joseph’s University; Loree D. Smith, Philabundance; Tim Musgrove, Herr Foods; Karen Fernandez, Food World; and Food Trade News alumni Meg Major, Bob Ingram and Scott Lichterman. Buon compleanno a tutti!
Quote of the month: “I always find the positive. It takes up too much energy being negative.” Betty White