Company credits cooperative ‘for remarkable team effort’ Wakefern supports communities its stores serve Wakefern Food Corp., the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States, is The Griffin Report of the Northeast’s 2020 Wholesaler of the Year. In a recent questionand-answer session with The Shelby Report, Wakefern shared highlights of the past year. The company detailed its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the path forward, and praised its associates for their tireless efforts during these trying times.
2020
NORTHEAST WHOLESALER OF THE YEAR
How has Wakefern handled the COVID-19 pandemic? Discuss some of the challenges the company has faced and lessons learned. The New York City metro area was one of the initial epicenters of the virus. How have your retail members played a role in the response? Our family-owned supermarkets are part of the communities where they operate – they understand and know what their customers need, and they’ve been there for their neighbors during this national emergency. When the pandemic began earlier this year, we worked quickly to adapt and make changes during an unprecedented moment for retail. We hired more staff, expanded our warehouse capabilities, implemented safety measures across all our stores and worked closely with suppliers to keep our stores stocked. Our members and associates rose to every challenge and supported their communities during the unprecedented COVID-19 public health emergency. We are grateful for the entire Wakefern family for this remarkable team effort. Along those same lines, small and independent businesses have been among the most vulnerable to the shutdown and pandemic-related measures. How have Wakefern’s independent grocers managed? How have they addressed social distancing and the safety of their employees? The collective strength of our cooperative helped our family-owned, independent grocer members during this time. Wakefern immediately put together a cooperative-wide task force to work on COVID-19 matters and communicate key information to members to help them operate successfully and safely. Our members, meanwhile, implemented all the latest safety protocols in their stores, including temperature monitoring for associates, social distancing markers and Plexiglass dividers at checkout. There have been a lot of changes to how we operate and how people shop over the last seven months, but our goal is always to provide the best and safest possible shopping experience for our customers. Are there any issues that Wakefern anticipates emerging in the remaining months of 2020 or early 2021? We expect 2021 will be another challenging and transformative year – and we believe we are prepared for that challenge. Please see page 34