Happy fall to our readers! I hope you are enjoying the spectacular weather we’ve been enjoying as we said through the month of October.
Stupid question – who hasn’t heard or seen anything about Taylor Swift in the news or online lately? I have to admit not knowing much about the woman’s music, although I’m pretty sure that makes me an outlier (especially among women), but that doesn’t mean I am not aware of the impact she is having on popular culture these days. Between her wildly successful Eras Tour, the upcoming theater release of the movie from that tour and her impactful message to her fans about the need for them to all register to vote, now there’s her foray into world of professional football. She is definitely hard to miss.
It looks like even ketchup can’t escape the Taylor Swift phenomenon. According to several published reports, Heinz will release a limited-edition sauce, “Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch,” that was inspired by a viral tweet about the singer’s choice of condiments at a recent Kansas City Chiefs football game. The moment was part of an internet-breaking event a couple of weekends ago as the pop star was allegedly at the game to watch Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, spurring rumors about their relationship status.
A tweet from a fan account that included a picture of Swift “eating a piece of chicken with ketchup and seemingly ranch!” has had more than 32 million views as of press time. To capitalize on the viral moment, Heinz and agency Rethink came up with the new condiment and campaign in less than 24 hours. The CPG biggie is running a contest on Instagram @heinz, and is offering fans the chance to win one of the first 100 bottles of the product. While, alas, the contest will most likely be over by the time this column prints, in case they expand the numbers of giveaways, you might be able to try winning a bottle by liking their “Seemingly” post on Instagram, and tagging a person you want to share it with using the hashtags #SeeminglyRanch, #ItHasToBeHeinz or #Sweepstakes. Good luck!
A tip of the hat to Klein’s Family Markets, operators of ShopRite stores in Maryland, on their annual Charity Golf Tournament held last month at the beautiful Bulle Rock golf course in Havre de Grace, MD. Event organizer Sarah Klein told us that 140 golfers played in the tourney, which raised $115,000 for the Klein’s ShopRite Charitable fund. Throughout the year, the fund helps support programs in Harford and Baltimore Counties as well as Baltimore City, where they operate their nine stores. Sarah told us that the retailer supports charities whose mission involve health, education and hunger. It’s great to see the next generation of the Klein family at the helm of the business, including David and Stephen, sons of the late Howard Klein; Marshall and Sarah, children of the late Andy Klein, and Jake, son of Michael Klein, who is also still going active in the biz, although maybe at a slower pace these days, as he says he’s letting the younger generation do the heavy lifting. You can see some photos from the event of page 8 of this issue. Keep up the great work, Klein family!
A couple of employers in the food industry have been lauded recently as great places to work. In what shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, Wegmans has once again topped Fortune’s list of best retail places to work. The 107-year-old grocery chain has topped the magazine’s Best Companies list every year since the inception of the list in 1998. According to Fortune, Wegmans has been recognized so consistently because, with 53,000 workers, it maintains a $15 minimum wage, nearly double the national average.
Additionally, the Rochester, NY-based, family-owned uber-retailer invests heavily in employee education, awarding $135 million in scholarships to more than 44,000 employees since it launched the scholarship program in 1984.
Joining Wegmans on the list of grocery retailers in the “large” company category published last month, were: Target Corp. at number two; Sheetz at number three; Publix at number six; Southeastern Grocers at number 13; and Aldi at number 15.
And, for the second year in a row, UNFI has earned a top score of 100 in the 2023 Disability Equality Index (DEI) and is being recognized as a DEI Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion for the second year in a row. The Providence, RI-based company is once again the only North American grocery wholesaler to achieve this score and recognition in 2023.
The DEI is a comprehensive benchmarking tool that helps companies build a roadmap of measurable, tangible actions they can take to achieve disability inclusion and equality. It is a joint initiative of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the nation’s largest disability rights organization, and Disability:IN, the global business disability inclusion network, to collectively advance the inclusion of rights of people with disabilities.
In analyzing companies for possible inclusion in the DEI, each company receives a score on a scale from zero to 100, with those earning 80 and above recognized as a Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion. Of the 485 companies that participated in the voluntary program, 405 had scores of 80 or higher. Good news!
Kudos to Giant Food as the retailer continues to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to keeping its promise to “Be A Better Neighbor.” The Landover, MD-based division of Ahold Delhaize USA recently reported it processed nearly 31 million pounds of wasted food in the first year of its collaboration with Divert, Inc., an impact technology company on a mission to “Protect the Value of Food.”
In June 2022, Divert launched a wasted food recycling program with Giant Food to reduce the amount of organic waste going to landfills. In the program, Giant stores mark down, repurpose or donate unsold and still-edible food to local food banks whenever possible. For the food that cannot be repurposed or donated, Divert is able to recycle it and recoup its value by processing the unused food until renewable energy.
“We recognize our responsibility as a leader in the grocery space to make a positive impact on the environment and tackle waste reduction,” said Diane Hicks, SVP-operations. “We’re proud of the success of our collaboration with Divert thus far and look forward to continuing our work together and expanding our efforts toward a healthier planet.”
Since its launch last year, the collaboration has expanded to include all 165 stores under the Giant banner in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia, processing an average of 500 pounds of wasted food each day per store.
“Wasted food is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and can cost the average grocery store about $40,000 in lost profit daily,” said Ryan Begin, CEO and co-founder of Divert. “Giant Food shares our commitment to tackling these issues through wasted food prevention and food donations that benefit our environment, communities and, ultimately, retailers’ bottom lines.”
Giant and Divert said they intend to expand the partnership in the coming year to further increase diversion and donation efforts. By leveraging Divert’s rapidly-growing U.S. infrastructure footprint, expertise and actionable data, Giant is poised to be able to sell more as well as to donate more food to feed people in need. Way to go!
Let me know if you hear anything interesting that I can pass along to our readers by emailing me at [email protected]. Thanks!