Effective September 13, the Mid-Atlantic division of Albertsons officially began operations. All headquarters personnel are now fully in place in Malvern, PA, and multiple reports from company associates and vendors reveal that the complex realignment of combining Safeway’s Eastern division with Acme Markets is off to a fast start.
To recap, the combining of the two divisions, which was first announced on June 30, is led by former Acme president Jim Perkins, who becomes president of the new Mid-Atlantic division, and Tom Lofland, former Safeway-Eastern president, who will serve as senior VP-merchandising and marketing. Both of those positions were announced in July.
Other key members of the newly combined organization, which were announced earlier this month, include Bill Crosby, who becomes senior VP-operations and will oversee a network of 275 stores. Crosby, whose industry career spans more than 40 years, joined Acme in 2008. He was previously VP-operations.
Other operations executives who will serve as vice presidents and report to Crosby are Brad Spooner, Donovan Ford and Rena Shiles. Spooner, VP-operations, will continue his role of overseeing 78 stores in Acme’s Northern Region. He began his grocery career with Randall’s in Texas in 1982.
Ford returns to the East Coast and will also serve as a VP-operations, supervising the 112 Safeway stores in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC. Ford is relocating from Albertsons in Texas. He had previously served operational stints at both Acme and Safeway. Ford began his grocery industry career in 1993.
Shiles has been promoted to VP-operations, too. Rena began her career with Safeway’s Eastern Division in January of 2016 and moved up the ranks quickly from an assistant store director to a district manager in 2019. Most recently, Shiles was a DM for 20 Maryland stores in Baltimore, Carroll, Howard, and Montgomery Counties. Prior to joining Safeway, she served 26 years in the United States Army, retiring as a colonel in 2015. She will oversee 86 Acme stores in an area covering Philadelphia and adjacent suburbs, South Jersey, Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
On the merchandising team, key appointments and promotions include Jay Schneider who has been promoted director of merchandising, a new position. A 37-year veteran of Acme, Schneider was most recently produce sales manager. He will report to Lofland.
Anne Marie Mozzone now becomes “own brands” sales manager. For the past 14 years, she was assistant sales manager for meat and seafood. Mozzone has been with Acme for 33 years.
Robert George has been promoted to an assistant meat sales manager. He started his career in Las Vegas in 1999 at Lucky’s as a meat clerk. George transferred to Acme in March of this year.
Acme veteran Amanda Lawton is taking on a new role as an assistant Starbucks sales manager. She began her career with Acme in 2008 at the Browns Mills, NJ location. Most recently, Lawton was a Starbucks operations specialist.
Julie Kester has been promoted to an assistant bakery sales manager. She started her Acme career 16 years ago as a bagger in Wilmington, DE at Naamans Road. Most recently, Kester served as bakery operations specialist working in Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs.
On the operations team key appointments and promotions include Michael Styer who becomes director of retail support. During his 30-year Acme career, Styer has held a number of positions such as: store director, center store ops specialist, director of shrink and inventory control, assistant grocery sales manager and district manager in Northern Jersey, his current role. In his new position, Styer will work with functional leads in customer service, asset protection and construction to help drive service and synergies.
Joe Hultz will continue in his role as district manager with an emphasis on special projects. He will focus on new store openings, support the tech rollout of forecasting and replenishment, and lead change initiatives in perishable and center store departments. A third generation Acme associate, Hultz began his Acme career in 1971.
Johnathon Simmons has been promoted to district manager at Acme. He started his career 15 years ago in the Bala Cynwd, PA location. In 2010, Simmons served as a summer management intern for Acme. Upon graduating from Penn State, he became an assistant store director in Upper Darby, PA. He has managed multiple Acme stores and most recently he was center store operations specialist for Northeast Philadelphia.
Christopher Sanchez has been promoted to district manager at Acme. Sanchez began his industry career in 2003 with A&P before transitioning to Acme in 2015, when it acquired more than 70 Tea Company units in PA, NJ, NY and CT. Most recently he was center store operations specialist for Acme stores in Connecticut and New York.
On the merchandising and marketing store support team key appointments and promotions include James Walden III, who will be director of food safety/safety. Walden started his career with Safeway 31 years ago as a courtesy clerk while in high school. During his career, Walden held the positions of assistant store director, store director, director of retail support, director of risk management and food safety/safety manager.
Alyssa Geddes has been promoted to an AR/HR manager at Safeway. She has been with Safeway for two years as an HR assistant. Prior to this, Geddes held an HR representative role for Six Flags.
Debra Tunney has been named as the new executive admin for the Mid-Atlantic division’s regional office in Lanham, MD. She brings over 30 years of experience in the fields of financial administration, office management, and customer service. Tunney started her career with Safeway 11 years ago as the assistant to the director of construction. She was also named Safeway’s first employee of the month.
In the new lineup, there have also been some changes in the merchandising and marketing department’s sales managers. The new lineup features Pat Hildebrand, who is relocating from Safeway to serve as grocery sales manager.
Acme veteran Kamal Persad is sales manager for GM/HHB; Tim Ley will remain based in Lanham, MD and serve as liquor (beer and wine) sales manager. In the new division’s fresh departments Ricardo Dimarzio is relocating from Safeway to become sales manager for produce. Mike Salisbury will also move north to oversee meat operations. Acme veteran Charlie Bell now becomes sales manager for seafood. Christine Hixon and Angie Marshall will move from Safeway to become sales managers for bakery and deli, respectively. Katie Vasquez will become the division’s new floral sales manager and remain based in Lanham. Additionally, Jay Habben has been named sales manager for special projects in the new alignment.
Other key members of the new team include: Acme/Albertsons veteran Sherry Caldwell who remains director of marketing; Randy Wiest, who will serve as senior director of finance; Marie Esposito is the director of finance; Joe Conway, who will continue to oversee loss prevention; Shawn Dekker is the new director of construction; and longtime Acme executive Marianne Nice becomes director of customer service for the Mid-Atlantic division. Greg Herr has been named director of pharmacy for Safeway and Janis Levitt will hold the same position for Acme.
Other key roles include Sloan Nichols, who becomes director of HR, and Joan Williams, who remains director of labor relations. Until his promotion to a corporate senior VP in May, Dan Dosenbach had long served as VP of labor relations and human resources for Acme.
Three current Safeway executives – Ron Stone, Matt Boyd and Kelly Boyd – will remain part of the Albertsons corporate organization but will not join the new Mid-Atlantic division. Stone, who recently was director of inventory management for Safeway, will remain based in Lanham and serve in a corporate e-commerce role. Matt Boyd, most recently VP-merchandising and marketing for Safeway/Eastern, and his wife Kelly, most recently director of marketing for Safeway/Eastern, will be relocating to company headquarters in Boise, ID. Matt Boyd was recently named VP-grocery for Albertsons.
Additionally, there are several other key associates who will either be retiring or transitioning into different roles outside the company including Joe Perry, most recently VP-operations for Safeway (45 years with Albertsons/Safeway); Kim Gray, most recently VP-merchandising and marketing for Acme (38 years with Albertsons); Mary Washinko, most recently deli sales manager for Acme (45 years with Acme); Mike Porte, formerly with Acme’s corporate crisis response team (44 years with Acme); Doug Burton, former floral and produce specialist (44 years with Acme and A&P); Carol Coombs, who spent 46 years with Acme in areas such as inventory control and DSD receiving coordinator; and Dorothy Hamilton, who spent 35 years with Acme in public affairs, government relations and customer relations.
According to Perkins, the new Mid-Atlantic team will focus on five distinct strategies:
*Create a selling culture where associates are energized, excited, motivated and have fun delighting customers.
*Accelerating top line sales growth by building the basket, driving more customers in stores, selling more units, and growing e-commerce and Own Brands business.
*Improve gross margin, lowering shrink and leveraging the distribution center.
*Leverage and lower expenses by focusing on productivity, reducing accidents, leveraging new contracts.
*Enhancing overall culture where everyone is celebrated, has equal access to opportunities and resources, and can contribute to their own and the company’s success.
The Mid-Atlantic division will encompass 275 stores and over 30,000 associates in eight states stretching from Connecticut to Virginia. Annual sales will be approximately $6 billion. The Mid-Atlantic division will become the second largest operating unit of Albertsons. All told, approximately 285 associates will be part of the new headquarters team.
The former Safeway headquarters in Lanham, MD will continue to operate as a regional office. It will house the liquor and floral sales managers as well as store operations and administrative personnel connected to those jobs.
Now that all personnel have been seated, we asked Perkins what other areas he would look to further tweak.
“First of all, I’m very happy that we were able to execute this as smoothly as we did while also preserving almost all jobs,” the 38-year Albertsons veteran noted. “We’ve got a very strong team and we remain very sales focused. As we move forward, we will be looking at a few areas to increase efficiency including consideration of consolidating ad formats (currently Acme and Safeway use different formats) and reviewing plan-o-grams. Overall, we will continue to utilize best business practices as we take advantages of our scale and of the talented personnel we have assembled.”
The announcement of the Mid-Atlantic division’s leadership team follows a related move earlier this year when the two Albertsons division combined its warehousing and logistics responsibilities from Safeway’s distribution center in Upper Marlboro, MD to Acme’s larger mechanized depot in Denver, PA, near Lancaster. That transition was completed about eight weeks ago.
‘Round The Trade
Walmart said it will restructure management at its U.S. SuperCenters where physical growth is virtually inert but financial contributions remain massive. According to a blog post from Dacona Smith, COO of Walmart’s U.S. stores, co-managers will now be called “store leads” and assistant managers will now become “coaches.” Department managers will now be called “team leads.” The new titles are designed to give associates greater responsibilities in decision making while prioritizing a team-focused approach. In addition, the new alignment is better suited to the company’s current omnichannel strategy. “We’re investing in new roles and skills training to give us the flexibility to serve customers anytime and anywhere. In turn, associates will have more room for career and pay growth. Across the store, we’re creating small teams of associates who will be cross-trained and given ownership of the work and their area from everything from in-stock to visual standards,” Smith said. “This means they’ll gain more skills and be able to support associates who want to take time off or just need extra help during a busy shift. For example, associates who prepare fresh food will be trained to maintain pricing and standards in their area, giving them broader skill sets that allow them to help customers and grow their own careers.” One tangible boost by Walmart will be pay increases coming to 165,000 associates next month. According to the planet’s largest retailer, wages for hourly “team lead” roles will increase to $18-$21 per hour with compensation rising to as much as $30 an hour at SuperCenters; hourly associates in the deli and bakery area will be paid $11-15 an hour. The hourly increases will replace Walmart’s policy of offering regular quarterly bonuses. According to the aforementioned Dacona Smith, “When we’ve asked associates, the overwhelming majority say their hourly wages are the most important part of their pay, well ahead of quarterly bonuses.”
And of course, there’s always Amazon news to report, too. The company’s long-awaited debut of its first Amazon Fresh store in Woodland Hills, CA occurred on August 27 (that unit had opened as a “dark” store in March). An industry friend who visited the store in early September said it resembled a scaled-down (35,000 square feet) Whole Foods unit with emphasis on perishables and, of course, non-organic/natural offerings such as Coke, Chips Ahoy cookies and even local favorite Duke’s mayonnaise. At sister firm Whole Foods (no Coke, no Chips Ahoy), the natural/organics retailer opened its own “dark store” earlier this month in the City of Industry/Sunset Park section of Brooklyn. The newest WFM is the company’s 15th store in the Big Apple and fourth in Brooklyn. The new unit will fulfill delivery orders initiated online, a piece of Whole Foods’ business that has exploded over the past six months. Parent firm Amazon held its first virtual career day on September 16 and said its hoped to hire 33,000 new associates, corporate and technology workers. “Godzilla” said the average compensation per job would be approximately $150,000. And several sources have reported that the e-commerce juggernaut will hold its annual online “Prime Day(s)” sales extravaganza on October 13 and 14. Last year, the event was extended from 36 to 48 hours and more than 175 million products were purchased, adding a reported $7 billion to its kitty for that two-day event.
At Costco, fourth quarter sales and earnings were both higher than previously expected. At its 552 U.S. club units, comparable store sales (ex-fuel) increased 13.5 percent during the 16-week period ended August 30. Much of the volume gain was the result of increased fresh food sales. Digital business was also robust with Q4 sales growing by 90.6 percent and by 120 percent when including food sales routed through delivery service Instacart. Earnings also improved with profits of $1.4 billion on $532.3 billion in overall quarterly sales. In the follow-up analysts conference call, CEO Richard Galanti said he expects Costco to add about 20 net-new stores, including three relocations.
Local Notes
It’s not often that I get to wear my “I’m Very Proud” badge. But in this case, I am truly proud to recognize two of Best-Met Publishing’s finest: Maria Maggio and Kevin Gallagher, who are this year’s recipients of the New Jersey Food Council’s (NJFC) Max Stone Award. The award, named for the late trade relations leader for Best Foods CPC (now Unilever), honors the accomplishments of non-retailer industry leaders for their work in the Garden State. Maria Maggio, who’s been with us for 12 years, currently serves as VP and general manager of Food Trade News, and Kevin Gallagher, who joined the company in 2012, oversees our New York and New England operations. Both have been in the business for more than 35 years. While their personalities are distinctly different, their priorities and focus are similar: strong family loyalties, tireless work ethics, passion and an intensely dedicated approach to serving their customers. Congratulations to both – you are admired, respected and deserving.
Although retail food sales remain strong (comps still up about 12-15 percent on average year-over-year) during the continuation of the COVID pandemic where more than 205,000 U.S. residents have died), one area that’s remained fairly dormant is new store openings or even major remodelings. The one exception seems to be Sprouts, which when it opens its Upper Dublin/Dresher, PA store on September 30, will have cut the ribbon on four new Mid-Atlantic units over the past five months (Wilmington, DE; Pasadena, MD; Baltimore City, MD; and Upper Dublin/Dresher). The new 30,000 square foot perishables-driven store will be the Phoenix-based chain’s second Pennsylvania unit.
To put more color on the slowing down of retail food sales, Nielsen reports that retail food and beverage sales increased 1.5 percent in August compared to a 31.2 percent gain in March. Moreover, research firm Brick Meets Click noted that delivery and curbside sales totaled $5.7 billion in August, down from $7.2 billion in June. With supply chains now fairly normalized and food hoarding behind us (for now), other key factors that are flattening food sales are the termination of the Federal government’s $600 a week stimulus check program and the current high level of unemployment, which was 8.4 percent last month. However, I would expect food retailers to experience continued solid comps (above 10 percent) until schools and restaurants fully re-open.
Ian Prisuta, most recently senior VP-chief merchandising officer for Giant Eagle, has exited the regional chain. Prisuta, who had been with the Pittsburgh-based retailer since 2001, held a variety of senior level jobs, including overseeing business development, strategy and innovation. Ian’s a real talent – he’s young, smart, passionate and a very good team player. I’m guessing his ‘free agent’ status won’t last took long.
Weis Markets has expanded its “Low, Low Price” program to now include produce. The Sunbury, PA-based regional chain with 195 Mid-Atlantic stores has reduced prices on 60 of its best-selling produce items including bananas, potatoes, apples and bagged salads. “Our Low, Low Price program for grocery items has helped customers save millions of dollars since it launched,” said Ron Bonacci, VP-advertising and marketing. “The logical next step is extending it to produce to help customers save even more. It’s a winning combination: lowest everyday produce prices in the market on great, high quality produce.” Item reduction can be found on the following items: a 20 percent price reduction on 12 varieties of apples, including Fuji and Gala; a 33 percent price reduction on yellow #5 potatoes and red #5 potatoes; an 8 percent price reduction on Fresh Express regular salads and Organic Girl salads; and a 25 percent price reduction on tomatoes on the vine. The “Low, Low Price” program was originally launched in January 2019 when prices were reduced on 7,000 items throughout the store.
Burris Logistics will be exiting the refrigerated specialty business effective November 30. The Milford, DE-based wholesaler, logistics and warehousing provider grew that end of the business substantially since 2005 when it gained new business following the shuttering of specialty distributor DL Matthews & Co. However, over the past year, with many retailers seeking more self-distribution opportunities along with the adverse effects on many specialty refrigerated areas (salad bars, soup stations, customized deli, etc.) due to COVID-19, that segment of the business nationally has softened. Burris will focus on the other segments of its business – frozen distribution (it just picked up Safeway’s 110 stores as part of the Mid-Atlantic division consolidation by parent firm Albertsons), cold storage, consolidation and redistribution, freight management and direct-to-consumer fulfillment. The Federalsburg, MD distribution center which served as the base for Burris’ specialty refrigerated business, will remain open and be repurposed for other company needs.
And things are heating up at the UFCW International in its quest to have its 1.3 million unionized members – including clerks and meatcutters employed by Kroger, Albertsons, Whole Foods, Stop & Shop, Giant Food and ShopRite – get their hazard pay restored. The large Washington, DC-based labor organization said that as part of the first phase of the UFCW’s national hazard pay campaign, at least 26 worker actions were held the week of September 1 at grocery stores and other essential businesses across the country in nine states hit hard by the effects of COVID-19 including Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. The new campaign will include grassroots actions as well as targeted paid and digital media to highlight the serious health threats these workers continue to face. UFCW will connect customers and communities with essential workers to call on these businesses to guarantee hazard pay as long as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Most retailers, both organized and non-union, discontinued hazard pay in May or June. UFCW International president Marc Perrone said, “America’s grocery workers are putting their lives on the line every day that they walk into the store, because this pandemic is far from over and the health threats are just as real now as they were when this crisis began. It is outrageous that the CEOs of these companies refuse to restore hazard pay even as more of these workers are getting sick and dying every week. Hazard pay for grocery workers must be reinstated now.” In early September, the UFCW said that there have been at least 103 grocery worker deaths and more than 14,300 grocery workers infected or exposed to COVID-19. “While top grocery chains rake in billions in profits during this pandemic, these frontline grocery workers continue to put themselves at risk to ensure our families have the food we need. As long as the hazard of COVID-19 continues, these companies must do what is right and provide the hazard pay these grocery workers have earned and deserve,” Perrone added. guess somebody was listening, because just before presstime, Stop & Shop said it will issue retroactive compensation to 56,000 clerks and meatcutters represented by several UFCW locals in Metro New York and New England. For the period between July 5 and August 22, UFCW members will receive lump sum payments equal to 10 percent of all hours worked during that period. A joint statement from Perrone and the unsung Gordon Reid, president of Stoppie, said: “Working in partnership when the pandemic began to take hold, UFCW International and UFCW local unions, together with Stop & Shop, offered union members a temporary premium. When that pay raise expired in July, the UFCW local unions and members asked Stop & Shop to do what is right. Today, UFCW and Stop & Shop are proud to announce a tentative agreement has been reached on a new premium that recognizes Stop & Shop workers for their incredible efforts. The UFCW wants to acknowledge Stop & Shop for not only recognizing its workers, but for remaining committed to work with UFCW, America’s largest food and retail union, to better the lives of these dedicated workers and their families.” The retroactive compensation will not apply to associates represented by UFCW locals who are currently involved in contract negotiations with the Quincy, MA-based Ahold Delhaize USA brand.
And yes we have some obituaries to report this month. I was very sorry to hear of the passing of Mike Taverna, former executive with Giant/Carlisle (Ahold Delhaize USA). Mike, 66, died unexpectedly on September 21 at his home in Central PA. After graduating from Fairleigh Dickenson University, he embarked on a food industry career that lasted more than 40 years, beginning with A&P, then moving on to ShopRite and Finast/Edwards, which started his relationship with Ahold. Mike was generally regarded as a general merchandise guru and for many years was Giant’s category manager in that department. He retired from ADUSA in 2017 and later joined food broker The Preferred Sales Group. I am going to miss Mike’s infectious personality and his knowledge and passion about sports, particularly New York teams and Notre Dame football.
One of the greatest running backs in NFL history and a man who revolutionized the game in his era – Gale Sayers – has also left us at the age of 77. The “Kansas Comet” was the fourth overall pick in the 1965 draft (the legendary Dick Butkus was chosen at number three overall) and proceeded to have the most prolific rookie season in the history of the league. In that freshman season, Sayers, blessed with breakaway speed and an uncanny jump cut, scored 22 touchdowns – 14 rushing, six receiving, one on a punt return and one on a kickoff return. During that memorable season, playing on a muddy Wrigley Field in December, Sayers scored six touchdowns against the San Francisco 49ers, a game in which he accumulated 336 all-purpose yards. Sayers retired at the age of 29 after a seven-year career cut short by a devastating knee injury in 1968. Off the field, Sayers who was active in charitable and philanthropic endeavors, was probably best known for his brotherly relationship with fellow Bears running back Brian Piccolo, who was diagnosed with and later died (in 1970) of cancer. That bond was highlighted in one of the best TV movies of all-time, “Brian’s Song” (1971) in which Billy Dee Williams and James Caan captured the essence of their friendship. At his NFL Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 1977, legendary (and curmudgeonly) Bears owner and Sayers’ former coach George Halas commemorated his former star by noting, “If you wish to see perfection as a running back, you had best get hold of a film of Gale Sayers. He was poetry in motion. His like will never be seen again.”
One of the smartest and most inspirational public figures of the last 50 years, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has left us at the age 87. Barely five feet tall and weighing about 100 pounds, the Brooklyn native’s intellectual brilliance, perseverance and deep knowledge of the law saw her rise to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice in 1993. A fierce defender of liberal causes, Ginsburg impressed her peers on the bench with her brilliantly written and powerful judicial opinions, many of which were dissents. She also had the uncanny ability to get along with her more conservative peers, including the late justice Antonin Scalia, whose conservative views were often antithetical to Ginsburg’s. The two native New Yorkers shared a love of opera and travel and proved that you can indeed separate friendship from business. For the last 20 years of her life, she battled both colon and pancreatic cancer, but rarely missed a day at the country’s highest court. Ginsburg’s larger than life persona, in which she unexpectedly became a cultural icon, can be best illustrated in the documentary movie about her life – “RBG” (2018). In addition to her incredible intellect, Ginsburg was passionate, street smart, tenacious and tireless. She would have made a great retailer.