progressive grocer independent

8/8/2019 Progressive Grocer Independent

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Under Ring Bros.

Marketplace’s unique

model — the brainchild

of its eponymous co-owner

— each department

operates as an independent

business in itself.

The Unconventional

Independent


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I’d like to welcome you tothe first edition of Progressive Grocer Independent with aquote from a past issue of

our flagship brand, Progressive Grocer :

“He studied the chain store system —

all of its little efficiencies as well as the big

ones — and he began fighting it with his

own weapons, literally. He had something

in his store that the chain store might never

have — a personal interest in the customer.

That is the one place where the smart, inde-

pendent retailer has the chain store dragon

right on the hip.”

—Edward Hungarford, “What Does the

Future Hold for the Independent Grocer?”

What’s interesting about the above

statement is that it came from the first sto-ry in the first issue of The Progressive Gro-

cer, which published its inaugural issue wayback in January 1922. But what’s even moreinteresting is that what was written backthen still remains true today. Independentgrocers’ close relationship with the commu-nities they serve — and within which manyactually live — is still a key differentiatoragainst their large-chain competitors.

This closeness is why consumers still trusttheir local grocer while remaining wary ofBig Business. As National Grocers Associa-tion CEO Peter Larkin says in our Q&A on6, “We are closer to the customer, aswe’re not a big business; we are small busi-nesses. We have our finger on the pulse …”

Meanwhile, Mark Batenic, IGA’s CEO,also shares his seasoned observations onindependents’ community connection asthe critical reason for their everlasting rel-evance, which he says “is evident in thegrowing segment of shoppers who havedetermined that personalized customerservice from a member of the community

is more important than price — even in astruggling economy — which suggests that

independents are quickly becoming themost relevant retailers around.”

And though many aspects of inde-pendent grocers’ fundamental advan-tages are indelible, many of the toolsindependents now use to further en-hance this closeness to customers havechanged dramatically. When he wroteabout what the future held for indepen-dents, Hungarford clearly wasn’t think-ing of blogs, mobile marketing and socialmedia, or the many other innovationsindependent grocers have developed tostay close to the customer.

Our cover story, for example, featuresRing Bros. Marketplace, which featuresamong its innovations the company’s busi-ness model itself: six former standalone lo-cal businesses brought together by Ed Ring.While each business was in its own right astar among Cape Cod consumers, the new

offerings they bring to shoppers as a unifiedoperation has not only made their shoppershappier, but has also generated more sales.

Tying everything together at Ring Bros. ismy good friend Donald Fallon, who as thecompany’s general manager is an exampleof how innovation isn’t just about processes,but also about bringing innovative people intothe business. Equally at home behind a com-puter or a grill, he’s probably one of the onlyIT experts you’ll see holding cooking demon-strations and classes for shoppers. This past

year alone, he installed new front end fixturesand POS hardware and software, launchedthe company’s redesigned website, managedits Facebook page, and integrated Ring’s Four-square community into its loyalty program.

Indeed, it’s because there’s so much hap-pening among the independent grocer andwholesaler community that we launchedthis supplement, which will be published asa bimonthly standalone magazine next year.And every issue will be packed with casestudies of real independent grocers meetingreal independent grocer challenges.

Additionally, we’ve created a place onlinewhere you can connect with other inde-

pendent grocers andwholesalers directly:The Independent

Grocer Network(www.independent-

grocernetwork.com).It’s a 24/7/365 com-munity for our read-ers to share informa-

tion and pick each other’s brains about allthings related to independent grocers. Weinvite you to join the discussion!

I wonder whether, 80-some-odd yearsfrom now, a Progressive Grocer editor willstumble upon this column, and have agood laugh at how primitive things were“back in 2010.”

But one thing will certainly be the same,and that’s the closeness of independentgrocers to the people and communitiesthey serve.

Unless of course, food is digitized bythen.

Joseph Tarnowski Director of Integrated Media/Technology Editor

Back to the FutureThe more things change, it seems, the more they stay the same.

Contents27 The Unconventional

IndependentRing Bros. Marketplace’sunique operation

34 Retailing RelevanceIGA chief Mark Batenic shareshis thoughts

36 A Strong FoundationPG’s Q&A with N.G.A.’s new

CEO, Peter Larkin

From the very firstissue of The Progressive Grocer , way back in1922, independentretailers have been afocus of the publication.


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The Unconventional

IndependentUnder Ring Bros. Marketplace’s unique model, each departmentoperates as an independent business in itself.

Although the unique setup might sound complex, it’s actually aseamless mechanism that makes it difficult to distinguish whereone ends and another begins. Indeed, elements of each function asa well-oiled machine and permeate every corner of the store, in theform of sampling stations, cross-departmental meal solution pro-motions, cooking demonstrations and seven large flat-screen TVs.

These businesses comprise Ring Bros. Markets, which is not only

the flagship store’s namesake, but also an organizational structurein which each department “specializes” in its respective domain:

fresh produce, dairy and grocery items; Har-ney’s Liquors, which offers wines, craft brewsand top-shelf liquors; Dark Horse Beef andDeli, which features a selection of all-naturalbeef, chicken, cheese and deli products; Na-ta’s Noodles and Montilio’s Express offeringdesserts, freshly made pasta and prepared

gourmet foods; Spinner’s Pizza & Burrito, where gourmet pizzas,burritos, take-home meals and homemade desserts are available;and Chatham Fish & Lobster, which sells fresh-caught fish (manyright from the Cape), shellfish and lobster.

With industry roots that date back to 1925 in Salem, Mass.,the third generation of Ring brothers, led by Ed Ring, moved the

business to Cape Cod in the early 1970s, finally settling into itscurrent location in 2002. Ed Ring expanded the business in the

Ed Ring, owner, Ring Bros. Markets

By Joseph Tarnowski

Ring Bros. Marketplace, based in South Dennis, Mass., isas independent as an independent grocer can get. Not

only is the store privately owned and operated, butit’s also made up of six individually owned businesses,

which function as separate business units that individuallymanage the company’s various store departments.


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1990s, creating a specialty store, Broadway Marketplace, nearHarvard Yard in Cambridge.

A new concept

“I guess you can call me the innovator of the concept,” declaresEd Ring, who recalls arriving at the idea for his grocery compa-ny’s unique model about 15 yearsago in Paris, where there were allof these individual markets. Herewas a bakery, across the streetwas a meat market, next door wasa cheese market. It was commonto find them as separate boutiquestores located near each other,each with their own look and feel.

Some traditional supermarkets tryto do this with store-within-storeconcepts, but unfortunately don’tquite pull it off — at least not au-thentically.

“Not long after my Paris trip,an opportunity opened up in theCambridge area,” Ed Ring contin-ues. “I signed a lease in the store,and then handpicked the best lo-cal businesses to come into thestore with us.”

Based on the model’s success,

he replicated it when an oppor-tunity arose in Cape Cod. “I’m themanager of Dennis ManagementCo., which actually controls thestore and is the vehicle to pay therent, distribute the money and soforth,” explains Ed Ring. “I’m theowner of the market part of thestore, and there are six owners to-tal — all handpicked.” [Since theinterview, Marc Reingold, owner of Harney’s, has been made manager of Dennis Management Co.-Ed.]

While the operation has enjoyed success since early on in thelife of the business, it’s no easy task. Keeping the momentum go-ing means that the business must recreate itself every day, accord-ing to Ed Ring.

“We’ve made many improvements over the last couple of years,” he explains. “We just restructured our entire front end. Wehad four registers, now we have six; we spent $150,000 on a newfront end system, which has dramatically improved our efficien-cies. We just put in several flat-screen TVs throughout the store.”Heeding the timeless retailing adage that if you’re standing still,

you’re going backwards, Ed Ring says it’s paramount to keep pacewith evolving consumer expectations: “I don’t want to look dated.I need to be 2010 — I can’t be 2003. We have a full-time main-

tenance associate — not many single-store independents havethat. He keeps the store shining, pressure washing, painting,” and

generally maintains the store’s many moving parts in pristine con-dition. “Your store can never look tired.”

While Ed Ring’s “personal” portion of the business accounts for

approximately 40 percent of the store’s sales, it’s by no means atraditional grocery department. To the contrary, its grocery offer-ings consist of about 20 percent mainstream products, with the

remaining 80 percent comprisingunique and specialty items thatthe store receives via UPS deliv-eries several times a day. Ed Ringprefers to do business with suppli-ers that support the nontraditionalbusiness model with regular prod-uct demos and participation in thestore’s many themed events.

Perfecting the Core

The store was profitable almostfrom year one, and the driver ofthis success, according to Ed Ring,is how the business model allowsthe various sub-businesses to fo-cus strongly on their core compe-tencies. “When the fish guy opensin the morning, all of his energy isinto making the fish look good,”he says. “Same with the meat guy— everyone is totally responsiblefor their own product and depart-ment. It’s a little different froma traditional supermarket, where

you have a manager rather thanan owner doing it. When youhave an owner doing it, they havemore vested in the department’ssuccess.”

Tying the departments togetherare Pat Ring, son of Ed Ring, whoserves as the store’s buyer and

operations manager, and Donald Fallon, the store’s general man-

ager, who, in addition to managing the front end, handles thestore’s marketing and promotions, including cooking demos (Fal-lon attended the Culinary Institute of America). Together, the pairhandles everything connected with running the business, so theindividual owners can do what they do best: sell their products.

“We’ve gotten to the point now where it’s really automatic,”says Fallon. “Pat Ring will send me a list of things that he wants tohave sampled out, and a schedule of promotions and events, andI’ll work with the various owners to assemble everything that’sneeded, and do it. Generally, when it comes to the demos, I try touse ingredients that I know are going to be in the store seasonally,that we’re always going to have on hand. For example, I probablywouldn’t do something with rabbit, because we’re very rarely go-

ing to have rabbit in the store. But if there’s something specialthat we want to do, such an Oktoberfest, Pat Ring is steadfast in

Ring Bros. prides itself on offering products shoppers will not find attraditional supermarkets — particularly the chain supermarket that

has a store right across the street.



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making sure we have enough sausages.”

Fallon and Pat Ring, meanwhile, keep up a constant

dialogue with the various department owners, deter-

mining what ingredients they’d like to promote eachmonth, and then working these items into the various

events. Fallon also taps the insights of “resident ex-

perts” such Laurie Carullo, owner of Nada’s Noodles,

and her partner, Frans Weterrings, who’s also a chef,

to bounce ideas off to refine the process. “This month,

we did coq au vin, and we had a long conversation

about the nuances of preparation, such as comparing

traditional vs. contemporary, views of what consti-

tutes the ‘classic garnish’ and so forth. This helps us

better educate our customers. The people who shop

here appreciate the finer details of food art. They like

to know that little trivia, the small pearl onion in thebacon, how you sauté them, how you use them to

garnish a meal. That’s something you don’t see at a

lot of grocery stores.”

Quenching the Thirst

Moving from a stand-

alone store to a depart-

ment less than half the

size actually helped grow

sales for Harney’s Liquors,

the business that serves as

the store’s adult-beverage

haven. “We moved froma 9,000-square-foot loca-

tion to a 4,000-square-

foot department,” notes

owner Marc Reingold, “yet

my sales have doubled, and

we’re more profitable as part of Ring Bros.”

Helping to drive these sales is Harney’s tie-in to the

food businesses surrounding it, as well as Reingold’s

adjustment of his assortment to leverage the food

connection. “Previously, we sold beer and liquor with a

small selection of wine,” he says. “Now wine is a major

focus, since wine naturally goes with food.”This food-wine relationship has become an inte-

gral part of regular Ring Bros. events coordinated and

hosted by Fallon. “The folks from Harney’s will get to-

gether with me before the cooking demos to discuss

which wines we want to pair with the meal,” says Fallon. “When

the dish is done, I’ll bring someone from Harney’s over and he’ll

open the bottle of wine, everybody will get a sample, and then

he’ll talk about the wine for a bit — and hopefully they’ll buy that,

too,” he quips. “Then we serve the food, and the guests see how

well it pairs with the wine.”

“That happens with a lot of our demos,” Ed Ring reflects. “They’ll

come in and see them, but they’ve already got their dinners

planned for that night. They’ll take the recipe home, and then thenext day or a few days later, they’ll come in and get all the ingre-

dients and make them for their families. In many cases, they make

it more than once,” based on verbatim feedback he picks up from

multiple demo attendees.

Other events that tie in wine are the store’s Spring and Fall

Food & Wine Festivals, during which shoppers can sample new

products while tasting some of Harney’s latest offerings. The free

event includes cooking demonstrations throughout the day, and

gourmet food purveyors from around the country are on hand to

give out samples of new products. During these festivals, Harney’s

holds its popular Grand Wine Tasting, which features a selection ofmore than 50 fine wines from around the world.

Marc Reingold, owner,Harney’s Liquors

Ring Bros. general manager Don Fallon is truly a renais-

sance man. He’s the store’s retail technology guru, its resi-

dent chef, marketing maven, sustainability soldier — and a

part-time magician.

And while his sleight of hand is reserved for children’s

parties, Fallon still performs magic inside the store. Perhaps his

greatest trick is helping the various businesses that make up the

store — and their owners — work together seamlessly. “Don is

really the center of the operation,” says Ed Ring, owner of Ring

Bros., which, in addition to being the name of the store is in operational terms the

business consisting of its grocery and dairy departments. “Don’s job basically is to keep

it all even, whether it’s putting

together a promotional strat-

egy or selecting ingredients for

a cooking demo.”

Fallon’s latest IT adventure

has been redesigning the

store’s website, a task which is

still in progress. “When I first

started, the site was small andsimple, and over time we ex-

panded it by adding things like

all the events and recipe pag-

es, and eventually there were

way too many,” he says. “And

the blog is now gone, since we

use Facebook to communicate

regularly with our shoppers. We try to put something up on Facebook every

day to keep people interested in what we are doing rather than just promoting

products. We’ve also gotten good responses from our Tuesday Trivia posts. And

updates on Facebook are automatically fed to our Twitter account. I also handle

the Foursquare integration to our loyalty program.”

Last fall, Fallon installed new point-of-sale software and hardware while

adding two lanes to the front end to handle the store’s growth. Not only washe able to handle the installation in just one day, but his customers are also

amazed by how fast the lines move since the deployment. Operation of the new

system is smooth, even on the store’s busiest days.

Ever the showman, Fallon says the best part of his job is when he gets to exhibit

his cooking prowess during weekend cooking demonstrations and weekly classes,

during which he teaches both adults and kids how to prepare a variety of dishes.

To highlight these demos, Ring Bros. installed a 50-inch flat-screen TV over

the cooking demo area, and six 42-inch flat-screens throughout the store. Dur-

ing one of Fallon’s cooking demos, one camera points down at the stove, as on

TV cooking shows, and the image is displayed on the screen behind him. Another

camera shoots him from a side angle, and this video is broadcast to the six other

TVs installed throughout the store.

“Shoppers may be over on the opposite end of the store, where you previously

couldn’t really see or hear anything that’s going on at the demo center,” says Fal-

lon. “Now, with the TVs, they’ll look up and see and hear what’s happening, and it

draws them over.”

Ring’s Renaissance Man

Ring Bros. general manager Donald Fallon showsshoppers how to cook at the store’s demo station.



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Here’s the Beef

Richard Pimental, owner of

Ring’s Dark Horse Beef & Deli —which features the store’s meat,deli and gourmet cheese depart-ments — left his job as generalmanager at an A&P to help Ed Ringdevelop his Broadway Marketplacestore in Cambridge, Mass. He alsohas a store of his own, Cotuit FreshMarket, which is run by his wife,Lori, and son, John.

Dark Horse’s butcher shop fea-tures 100 percent USDA Choice all-natural meats cut fresh daily, in-cluding premium Black Angus beef, a full line of all-natural chicken

and a wide variety of sausages, as well as popular cuts of lamb, porkand veal. Its deli offers hundreds of gourmet cheeses sourced fromaround the world, and now carries a full line of Boar’s Head products.

Despite the varied selection available at Dark Horse, if you askPimental, it’s service that sets the shop apart. “You have to re-ally spend the time and thoroughly educate employees on how tohelp shoppers,” he says. “They should be able to help the consum-er decide which product is right for them, explain how it should beprepared, and suggest food and beverages that will complement acustomer’s selection.”

Oodles of Noodles

Nata’s Noodles wasa local producer, whole-saler and retailer of freshpasta that serviced manyBoston-area restaurants.Carullo, Nata’s owner, wasinvited to join Ring Bros.because she was the bestlocal producer of the spe-cialty item. “It’s the onlyfresh pasta on the Cape,”she says. “When we werea standalone store, we were predominantly a wholesale business.

When we joined Ring Bros., though, we had extra space and ex-panded the business to include prepared foods, homemade soupsand salads.”

Nata’s is also where you’ll find another Ring Bros.’ chef: We-terrings, who prepares the fresh offerings available at Nata’s andassists with its catering business. While the retail business hasgrown, Carullo still sells fresh pasta wholesale to local restaurants.

She also runs the store’s Montilio’s Bakery Express, a satellitestore of Montillo’s Baking Co., a well-known Boston bakery thatopened in 1947.

Spinners Pizza & Burrito

Like Nata’s, Spinners Pizza & Burrito is also a woman-ownedbusiness that began as a standalone operation before Ed Ring

came calling. Owner Rita MacLellan immediatelyloved the idea of joining the marketplace.

“The great thing about Ring Bros. is that you havesupport all around you,” MacLellan beams. “Don [Fal-lon] does a great job of putting together promotionsand including our various businesses in his cookingdemonstrations. Our customers love when he runshis class on making pizza from scratch. Some of theother owners we’ve known for years, so it was com-fortable to enter thissetting where there isa high level of mutualrespect.”

Spinners sells everything pizza,and it’s all good: pizza by the slice,

whole pizzas, homemade pizzadough, pizza toppings and gourmetpizzas are among its many offer-ings. It complements its prized pizzabusiness with a host of Mexicanfoods, including burritos in a vari-ety of flavors, quesadillas and othersouth-of-the-border favorites.

Chatham Fish & Lobster

Owned by David Carnes, Chatham Fish & Lobster has been aCape Cod favorite for years in its original South Chatham loca-

tion — which is still in operation — and continues the traditionat Ring Bros. with seafood that’s caught fresh daily. Its offeringsinclude fresh fish such as flounder, sole, haddock, swordfish andbluefish, as well as shellfish including clams, mussels, oysters, freshcrab meat, fresh lobster meat and crab cakes. It also sells live lob-sters ranging from 1 pound to more than 6 pounds, and specialtyitems such as seafood paté, marinades, homemade chowders andcocktail sauces.

All for One

Having six business owners working this closely together isn’twithout its challenges, however, and the folks at Ring Bros. wouldbe the first to admit this. “They are all business owners, and busi-ness owners almost by definition, have strong ideas — that’swhy they’re business owners,” notes Fallon. “There’s always go-ing to be situations where all parties are not in agreement aboutsomething.”

To minimize this, the owners have quarterly meetings to discussoperations and address any differences before they become anissue. This continual dialogue also fosters a spirit of innovationamong the owners, and when a good idea comes along, they typi-cally all get behind it, explains Fallon, noting the group’s penchantfor being “very supportive to trying new things. This is very impor-tant, because a lot of businesses out there get to where they wantto be, and then it’s just cruise control. They don’t change a thing.

But if you don’t innovate every day, you get stale, and we try toinnovate all the time.” ■

Rita MacLellan, owner ofSpinners Pizza & Burrito.

Rich and John Pimental, owners of Dark HorseBeef & Deli.

Laurie Carullo, owner of Nata’s Noodlesand Montilio’s Bakery Express.



By Mark Batenic

Even in a marketplace dominated by chains and big boxes,there will always be a place for independent grocery retail-ers. No doubt, there are some who will say I’m biased inthis opinion, but I prefer another description — informed.

My everyday dealings with independents give me the evidence I

need to speak confidently about the future ofthese great retailers, and the reason I believethis can be summed up in one word: relevance.

Retailing RelevanceIndependent grocers excel at creating relevance.

This relevance is evident in the grow-

ing segment of shoppers who have deter-

mined that personalized customer service

from a member of the community is more

important than price — even in a strug-

gling economy — which suggests that in-

dependents are quickly becoming the most

relevant retailers around.

I had my first glimpse of the enduring en-trepreneurial spirit of independent grocery

retailers when I was a 19-year-old college

student working at Rusty’s IGA in Lawrence,

Kan. Even then I was impressed with the

way things worked at that store; I remem-

ber thinking it was entrepreneurialism at

its best. The management at Rusty’s IGA

identified its customer base, and then made

every investment dollar count by putting it

toward programs and initiatives that would

make theirs the best shopping experience

around. And it was — because it was alwayslistening to what customers wanted, and re-

acted quickly to meet their needs.

Today, the considerably more than 8,000

independent grocery retailers in this country

have held true to their entrepreneurial roots,

making them some of the savviest marketers

in the industry. I’ve found an endless variety

of examples among our members of the IGA

Alliance, as well as among those indepen-

dents outside of our group. They’re hard-

working and compassionate retailers who

never hesitate to give back to the commu-

nities they serve. In addition to that, they’reobservant, nimble in their ability to evolve

and adapt with con-

sumer needs, and,

most importantly,

innovative.

Take IGA retailer

Tyler Myers, for

example. Tyler was

already running

two successful IGAstores in western

Washington state

when he decided it was time to address

the fact that there were no supermarkets

in downtown Seattle itself. In 2008, he

converted the basement level of a historic

department store to a full-service IGA and

began catering to downtown Seattle’s con-

do-dwelling residents, workers and pedes-

trians. Now he’s connecting with his urban

customer base by marketing to them in a

way they understand: using lots of digitalinteraction, including Facebook specials

and online ordering opportunities.

Then there’s Mohamet IGA’s Brooks Marsh.

When Brooks wanted to remodel, he con-

ducted a customer needs survey to find out

what residents in the small town of Mahom-

et, Ill., really wanted from his store. He was

shocked to learn that “going green” ranked at

the top of the list. He had already planned

to update with green in mind, but his shop-

pers’ opinions made him realize he needed to

think deeper than energy-saving light bulbs

and deli cases. One year later, Brooks wasone of the first grocers in the country using

open-loop geothermal technology for all of

his store’s heating and cooling requirements.

These are just two examples, but I hear

success stories literally every day about how

independents are listening and reacting to

customer needs, making them the most

relevant retailers in their marketplaces. And

it’s not just IGA independents — it’s inde-pendents across

the board. All across

America, we’re see-

ing independents ex-

ercising their longev-

ity, from D’Agostino

Supermarkets in

New York to Mc-

Caffrey’s Markets

in Pennsylvania and

New Jersey, from

Coborn’s in Minne-

sota and South Da-kota to Russ’s Mar-

kets in Nebraska to

Quinn’s Food 4 Less in California.

Here’s another great example of this:

This spring, the Cherry family of Cherry’s

IGA celebrated 100 years serving their

Girard, Ill., community. How did they cel-

ebrate? By completely remodeling and

expanding their store. If that’s not a tes-

tament to the staying power of indepen-

dents, then I don’t know what is.

Yes, there will always be a place for indepen-dents in this marketplace. I’m certain of it be-

cause I see the innovative ways independents

are connecting with, and staying relevant to,

their customers and I know that it will serve

as inspiration for a whole new generation of

independent retailers and a whole new gen-

eration of devoted and loyal shoppers. ■

Mark Batenic is president and CEO of the

Chicago-based IGA, the world’s largest al-

liance of independent grocery retailers. For

more information about IGA, or to sign up

for its daily e-newsletter, The IndependentView, visit www.iga.com.

Founded in 1926, the Independent Grocer Alliance

counts as its members more than 4,000 stores inmore than 40 countries.



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Before starting his own government relations consulting firm in2008, Larkin was president and CEO of the Sacramento-based CGA,where he worked as the trade group’s chief legislative advocate, chiefliaison with fellow regionaland national associations, andchief media spokesman. Hisother responsibilities includedoverseeing the association’sannual convention, educa-

tional programs, publications,member services and humanresources. Larkin was also thepresident of the CGA Educa-tional Foundation and an offi-cer of the California ShoppingCart Retrieval Corp. (a for-prof-it subsidiary of CGA).

Prior to joining the CGA,Larkin was VP of state govern-ment relations and environ-mental affairs for Food Mar-keting Institute (FMI) in Wash-ington. His retail experience also includes managing government andmedia relations programs for the Cincinnati-based Kroger Co.

While his career history certainly has prepared him well for his roleas N.G.A.’s new chief, he’ll be the first to admit that he arrives duringa challenging time for the independent grocer, but feels the strongfoundation built by his predecessor is the perfect launching pad totake the association to the next level, as Progressive Grocer Indepen-dent learned during a one-on-one interview with Larkin.

PG : Tell us the state of the industry and how it relatesto the independent grocer.

Peter Larkin: We live in interesting times. We’re close to whatcould be very important election at the national level [The inter-

view took place before the recent midtermelections-ed.], and even though we’re notelecting a president, we have some veryimportant congressional elections thatcould be a report card on the Obama ad-ministration to date. There’s a very goodchance that the house may switch fromDemocratic control to Republican control,and less of a chance, but still a possibility,that the Senate could shift, so everyone

will be watching very carefully, because what happens in Novem-ber could have a major impact not only on N.G.A.’s legislativeagenda, but on the business community in general.

There are a lot of uncer-tainties about some of thepolicies coming out of Wash-ington. I can tell you from myexperience here at the N.G.A.for the last couple of months,

there is deep concern over thehealth care reform legisla-tion. Health care reform ranksas the top concern amongour membership, and I thinkrightly so, because there areso many questions yet to beanswered about how the lawwill be implemented.

We have a relationshipwith a law firm that has ex-perts on health care issues,and they are in high demand

among our members to help sort out how health care legislationcan impact their companies, their employees and decisions theyhave to make. Unfortunately, there are more unanswered ques-tions than there are answers at this point — anywhere from 70percent to 80 percent of their questions have gone unanswered.

And that uncertainty — not only with health care reform, butwith the other initiatives coming out of Congress — makes it dif-ficult to know what the future will mean to the bottom line oftheir businesses.

After Congress [returned from] its August recess, all of its atten-tion turned to the Bush tax cuts and whether or not these cuts willbe extended, to whom they’ll be extended and for what period of

time. It’s difficult to run a business when you don’t understandwhat the tax implications are going to be going forward, what

A Strong FoundationThe National Grocers Association’s new CEO, Peter Larkin,plans to build on the accomplishments of his predecessor.

By Joseph Tarnowski

T

his past July, Peter Larkin, former president and CEO ofthe California Grocers Association (CGA), took the helmof the National Grocers Association (N.G.A.) as its pres-

ident and CEO following the retirement of Tom Zaucha,who had led the Arlington, Va.-based trade group for 28 years.

Peter Larkin, CEO of the National Grocers Association (left), was interviewedby N.G.A. executive director Frank DiPasquale for NGA TV.



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http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/progressive-grocer-independent 16/1738 • Progressive Grocer • November 2010 AH E A D O F W HA T ’ S N E X T www.progressivegrocer.com

your responsibilities under health care reform will be, whether or

not the economy is going to turn around, and they are looking to

Washington to give them a clear and concise message about how

they’re going to address this situation.Health care is the best example of that, but there are a lot of

other issues. What’s going to happen with immigration reform?

Many people think that immigration issues only impact the bor-

der states, but I think every one of our members ought to be

concerned with them. What’s going to happen to the death tax?

The list goes on.

PG: What kind of consumer and industry trends areimpacting the industry, and what’s N.G.A.’s role inhelping its members address these trends?

Larkin: I think the top con-sumer trend impacting our in-

dustry isn’t going to come as a

big surprise, but given the state

of our economy, value shop-

ping is an important trend.

Have we experienced a sea

change in the way people shop

grocery stores? If the economy turns around, will this trend re-

verse to what we considered usual, or is this a permanent shift?

How dowe help? Our emphasis is on education, and, to the extent

that we can be the eyes and ears of the industry, gather data, seek

industry experts to help our members sort through that informa-

tion, and provide some clarity as to where the consumer is goingwhen it comes to the whole value shopping issue. That’s one of

the most important things we can do right now.

Another issue is trust, consumers’ lack of trust in the business

community in general, especially after what happened to this

country’s financial system. The question is, do they trust the inde-

pendent grocer? We think they do. We are closer to the customer,

as we’re not a big business; we are small businesses, we have our

finger on the pulse, and I think that we can maintain the con-

sumer’s trust.

Health and wellness is another key consumer trend. Again, our

goal would be to provide educational resources and guidance for

our members. Certainly, at our Executive Management Conferenceand convention workshops, we’ll focus and try and provide some

guidance on health and wellness.

I think that our members are uniquely positioned to provide

some solutions in the healthy food arena by working with public

policy makers to address the food desert issue, as well as by open-

ing stores in some of the urban and rural food deserts in the U.S.

Then there is mobile and social marketing, and new ways to

connect to consumers using emerging technology. Our members

are certainly cognizant that they need to do it; the question is,

what is the best way to leverage these new platforms? That’s

where N.G.A. can help, because we have among our membership

people who are out front leading the way, experimenting with new

technology, being the pioneers, and we have the ability throughshare groups and convention workshops, through our website and

all of the various electronic publications we have, where we can

share some of these successes and failures, and find solutions for

some of the roadblocks people have run into.

PG: What about sustainability?

Larkin: Energy costs were second on the list of concerns among

independent grocers, according to research from our just-released

2010 Independent Grocers Survey. We work closely with EPA to

provide members with information and guidance about programs

like Energy Star, GreenChill and LEED certification. Again, we also

do this through our convention workshops, N.G.A. TV, articles that

we publish online and so on.

We make sure that the independent understands that many

of these programs, while making retailers more environmentally

friendly, also help reducecosts in the process. We

also guide them on what

they can do in their stores,

such as recycling plastic

bags, earth-friendly card-

board and innovative pack-

aging materials. With our

wholesalers, and to a lesser extent but not excluding our retailers,

the whole transportation area is a key area for sustainability ef-

forts such as using efficient fuel and consolidating deliveries.

PG: What does N.G.A. offer from a market leadership

standpoint upon which you can build?

Larkin: I like the way you phrased the question “upon which

you can build,” because I am very fortunate to now be leading an

organization that I think has one of the strongest foundations of

any trade association I’ve had the opportunity to work for, and

I credit Tom Zaucha and the staff and board leadership for 28

years of understanding what the focus and mission of this orga-

nization is, and that is to be the voice, to speak for and provide

resources for the independent grocer and the wholesalers that

serve them.

So, there is a strong foundation, but, yes, of course we can build

on that. A lot of what will come out in our strategic planningand in our needs assessment will address that topic specifically. I

think it will always be important to address education. Our inde-

pendents and wholesalers have different educational needs than

chain grocers or retailers in other segments of the food industry.

We also have a very strong offering in terms of front end

checkout solutions for our members, through our partnerships

with Pan-Oston and FirstData. Our members can really look to

us for expertise in what is the latest and greatest for the front

end of the store, where all of the transactions take place, and

arguably one of the most important parts of the whole food

distribution system. We are also strongly positioned to help our

members in terms of financial management, family business is-

sues, and I can’t emphasize enough our voice in the governmentrelations arena.■

“Our emphasis is on education, and to gatherdata and seek industry experts to help our

mem bers sort through that information, andprovide some clarity.”

—Peter Larkin, N.G.A.



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