Hello all and I hope the start of the autumn season has been good for everyone and a very Happy Holiday greeting to all of our Jewish friends. The number of trade dinners, shows, outings and affairs have been in high gear and will continue to be so for the next several weeks. I certainly hope to see you out at the various events and please come up and say hello if you see me.
There was a confluence of two events recently which impacted us all. Fortunately, the second of the two, (the Longshoreman’s strike) quickly was put on pause and really didn’t come to fruition but could raise its ugly head again in January if a settlement isn’t agreed upon before then. The primary disruption was Hurricane Helene, which took a horrific toll on a swath of coastal and inland communities stretching from Florida to Virginia and caused an unthought of number of deaths and destruction. Damage is expected to reach as much as $180 billion, making the storm one of the deadliest and costliest in U.S. history. While the tragedy of Helene remains front and center, many of us in the metro New York/New Jersey area know all too well about the impact of a major destructive storm due to Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 and what they can leave behind. And fresh on the heels of Helene we now have Hurricane Milton bearing down on Florida as a Category 5 as we were preparing to go to press with this issue. Unfortunately for me, I currently live on the west coast of Florida and I can tell you that it hasn’t been fun, and is only going to get worse. I’ll keep you all updated and for now I am keeping my fingers crossed.
In better news, Wakefern Food Corp. held its Wakefern Showcase on September 18 and 19 at the Raritan Expo Center in Edison, NJ. To say it was spectacular is an understatement!
The event featured nearly 300 vendors, along with seminars and guest speakers, as well as a recreated impressive 25,000-square-foot supermarket highlighting the latest trends in equipment, layout, décor, and planograms. It was the first time in five years that the showcase was held and every vendor, Wakefern associate and Wakefern member that I spoke with RAVED about the productivity the show delivered. New items in every category were displayed and marketed for store level personnel to see and order, which left plenty of big smiles on all of the vendors’ faces. And when it was all over after the two days, Wakefern once again demonstrated the fact that they always been equal parts heart and ambition. At the close of the 2024 Wakefern Showcase, Wakefern donated nearly FOUR TRUCKS of fresh foods and groceries from the showcase supermarket displays to the Community FoodBank of New Jersey. These donated items will help feed as many as 20,000 families in the Wakefern geographic footprint in the CFBNJ’s fight against hunger. Great job by everyone involved and can’t wait for the 2025 Showcase!!!!
Labor Day weekend in Brooklyn is synonymous with the Caribbean Day Parade and the West Indian American Carnival Association Parade. It was one of the more colorful events in the NYC parade calendar and it was nice to see one of our local food industry businesses prominently featured on the live telecast by local TV Fox 5. Tower Isle’s Frozen Foods had the privilege of being featured by Fox 5 for its Jamaican/ Caribbean heritage, and for being a landmark of success in Brooklyn. “A little taste of the Islands” is the company’s slogan and it was nice to see a walk through the history of the company as well as the manufacturing facility on Atlantic Avenue as well as hearing from the current management.
And while I knew it was coming one day, it caught me a little off guard when I heard that  C&S Wholesale Grocers executive vice president and chief procurement officer Michael Papaleo had retired. Mike and I used to joke often about when he was going to hang it up, and after nearly 30 years of working for the grocery distributor and supermarket operator he finally to decided to say “Sayonara.”
C&S will split up Mike’s duties between a pair of executives. Mark McGowan, executive vice president of retail and chief merchandising officer, will head merchandising operations for C&S going forward, while senior vice president of procurement Andrew Connell will be responsible for procurement, demand planning and inbound planning.
Mike joined C&S in 1997 and served as the company’s senior vice president of fresh procurement and merchandising until 2020, when he became chief procurement officer. His responsibilities have included providing quality service to C&S’s retail customers, inventory management, trade relations, margin performance, merchandising and marketing, and the ISQL operation.
He will remain with C&S through the coming year as a strategic advisor, the company said.
“Michael has helped lead C&S through many market changes and has been a very respected leader both within the Company, as well as in the overall grocery industry,” C&S CEO Eric Winn said in a statement. “We have been truly fortunate for his leadership and wish him the very best in his retirement.”
I remember first meeting Mike when he was working at Twin County Grocers in Edison, New Jersey and learning from one of the best in the business, Gary Hilliard. Gary was the senior vice president at Twin County and Mike soaked up everything during his years of working in merchandising and procurement.
None so importantly as how to treat others with respect while still working at levels of excellence. Â Mike spent 14 years at Twin and then left for C&S. I wish him, his lovely wife Yvonne and his family all the best in their retirement.
And as we went to press, congrats to Donna Banks-Ficcio as she has joined Crossmark as the director of customer development. Many of you know Donna from her years at Kings, A&P, Supervalu, Weis and UNFI. Donna has always been the consummate professional, and now that she is taking a turn on “the other side of the desk” I am sure she will bring her expertise and professional success to help Crossmark navigate these next several years. Good luck Donna!!
That will do it from me this month. There is a wealth of trade events coming up as we race toward Thanksgiving. I plan on being at many if not all of them and I would like to see you there too.
Please come up and say hello if you are there, or drop me a line as always at [email protected] or 201.250.2217.
