by Peter Larkin/ president and CEO, National Grocers Association Special to The Shelby Report Last year was an exciting one for the supermarket industry, which is perhaps undergoing more rapid change than at any other time. As usual, though, independent grocers proved—once again—that they’re the best equipped to evolve with changing times and serve their communities. […]
Category: Shelby Signature Content
Independent Grocer Manning Rethinks How Things Are Done
Danny Manning has come a long way since he started as a bagger at 15 years old at a Food Town store in Eight Mile, Alabama. He moved to stocking, found favor with the company and got a produce rack about a year later. Once he graduated from high school, Manning went on to study […]
Nevada Market Profile: State Drawing New Residents, New Business
by Lorrie Griffith/editor–West “Go west, young man” is how the saying goes. But today, some young men (and women) and older people, too, are doing the opposite and going east, according to a Dec. 3 article in the Los Angeles Times. They are leaving Southern California to head to Las Vegas to “find the middle-class […]
Remodel Yields Amazing Returns For Southeast Georgia Independent
In 2016, Reynolds Foodliner converted its store in the southeast Georgia town of Hazlehurst to the Piggly Wiggly Country Fresh banner. As part of the Country Fresh part of the name, the store features expanded fresh departments like meat, produce and deli/bakery. “We have had a tremendous amount of success in that store,” notes Tom […]
Born On One Coast & Based On The Other, Cohn Wholesale Serves Small Towns In Between
Editor’s note: This story is part of the Dakotas Market Profile, which can be found in the February 2018 print edition of The Shelby Report of the Midwest. by Terrie Ellerbee/editor—Midwest and Southwest The Cohn name likely is familiar to some in the Midwest, where Cohn Wholesale once operated 20 stores. The family business, however, began in […]
URM Stores Continues To Strengthen Its Value Proposition For Retailers
Ray Sprinkle has been at the helm of URM Stores Inc. in Spokane, Washington, for four years now. During that time, the retailer-owned co-op has enjoyed some bright spots, like sales growth and a frozen and refrigerated warehouse expansion, while also weathering some storms, including a data breach. The future looks to be mostly sunny, […]
Georgia Independent’s Own-Recipe Fried Peanut Clusters Spawn A Thriving Second Business
by Lorrie Griffith/editor–Southeast West Foods, an independent grocery store in the rural southwest Georgia town of Edison, has been making and selling fried peanuts to its customers for many years. The store’s owner, John West, who bought the store from his dad, Richard, back earlier in this decade, said the peanuts have always been a […]
Year In Review 2017: Top Stories In The Southeast
New competition—namely Lidl—garnered the most press in the Southeast edition this year. The merger of Amazon and Whole Foods Market also generated a good bit of speculation about what that might mean for the grocery industry. A number of top-level executive changes took place among the region’s grocers this year. Many also fine-tuned formats, undertook […]
