Independent Retailers: Community Wellness Champions Independent food retailers have the opportunity to become the “community wellness champions.” Health and wellness will be key concerns of baby boomers, concerned mothers, and the Gen X & Y fitness fanatics. Baby boomers, a cohort group that worships youth, will present food retailers with a tremendous opportunity, as they attempt to fight the deleterious effects of aging. Obesity is a national epidemic affecting one-third of American men, women, and children. Examples of activities that would foster the perception that their independent retailer is the “community wellness champion” include offering free screenings, health fairs, dietary advice, wellness programs, educational programs, community walks, recreation programs, foundation support, and merchandising programs. This session is designed to be interactive. The goal will be to identify easy to implement, cost-effective ways of addressing the consumer desire for wellness.
Moderator: TBD, Executive Advisor to the President/CEO, Unified Grocers Company
Speaker: Rich George, Professor of Food Marketing, St. Joseph’s University
2007 Independent Grocers Survey (Repeat Session) As an independent operator in today’s marketplace, you have a challenging job which requires an understanding of where your business is succeeding and where you need to improve. Benchmarking against other companies and your other stores can be a useful tool in evaluating your operation. This session will be a financial and operational review of the independent retail grocery industry. Leading retailers will showcase a number of different topics including labor costs, departmental distribution rates, department gross margins, key expenses, health care cost by employee, inventory turns and more.
Moderator: John Schock, President, Financial Management Solutions
Speaker: Robert Graybill, Vice President, Financial Management Solutions Darrell Wiley, President, J & J Food, Inc.
VRoom: ersailles 3 & 4 Surviving Consumer ID Theft – Retailer Compliance: A Discussion with the Experts Information and electronic data continue to play an important role in our economy, especially in the grocery industry. However, consumers are increasingly more concerned with identity theft. Supermarkets handle a large amount of customer payment card data which is vulnerable to data breaches. Every grocer who accepts electronic payments must comply with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI). Failure to comply will lead to loss of customer confidence, civil fines, criminal prosecution and loss of electronic payment acceptance. This session will focus on a detailed conversation with well-known experts in the field of electronic payments and will cover interchange, compliance, cost, security, and liability. Learn what you can do to protect yourself and your bottom-line. Be prepared to ask the hard questions that you need answered to protect your company.
Moderator: Paul Adams, President, Paul Adams & Associates
Speakers: Stu Zlotnikoff, Senior Vice President, National Grocers Association Ross Federgreen, Executive Vice President/Founder, CSRSI John Durkin, Vice President Operations, FoodTown, Inc.
Room: Burgundy Creating an Emotional Connection with Your Customers Competition is fierce, and only those who can repeatedly exceed their customers’ expectations will survive. World class customer service can come from any individual working in any occupation. It starts with a genuine desire to serve others. You need to attend this workshop, if you want to learn how to build a great relationship with your customers and live your life committed to world class customer service.
Moderator: Carli Case, Student, Alabama University
Speakers: Robert Kelley, President, Pure Culture Consulting
Room: Bordeaux Health and Wellness Trends... No Longer a Market “Niche” Health and wellness has moved from a “niche” market of a few years ago to a mainstream category pushed on by the demands of health conscience consumers. All areas of health and wellness sales reached a $91.1 billion record in 2006, which was up 15.2% from 2005. Surveys reveal that 75% of consumers are taking action to lower health risks and prevent disease. Conventional supermarkets must gain an understanding of their customers to take advantage of this trend. There are currently two main types of health and wellness consumers: those who choose a healthy lifestyle and those who are forced into it due to health issues and doctor’s orders. Industry experts will layout some interesting facts about today’s shopper and point out ways retailers can support their efforts and also increase their bottom-line profits.
Moderator: Kayla Hutt, Student, Portland State University
Speaker: Jeff Seacrist, Vice President Marketing, HealthNotes, Inc. Amy Simeri McClellan, Market Research Supervisor, Martin’s Super Markets
Room: Chablis Driving Sales Growth with the Center Store Price optimization should still include offering your customer a competitive price. This session will outline the basic steps retailers need to take to insure their center store is driving sales growth. By lowering prices on some products and managing the merchandising – product mix can be used to enhance both price image and gross margin. Learn how to use displays and the overall pricing strategy to build a stronger price image while achieving the gross margins needed to keep a healthy long term bottom line.
Moderator: Kathleen Ciccoli, Student, St. Joseph’s University
Speaker: Doug Sumpter, President, DPS, Inc.
Leo Braido, Sales & Marketing Director, Riesbeck Food Market, Inc.
Room: Loire Successful Supermarket Economics In today’s supermarkets our problem is not having enough data; it’s that we are drowning in data. With front end scanning, auto-replenishment, pick orders generated, schematics and schedules, the flow of data often times gives our people the feeling that they are trying to drink from a fire hydrant. Economic success in this business is driven by the numbers. A common problem is that scorekeeping just isn’t handled correctly. Even when some kind of score is kept, it’s often the wrong score or it’s done with an outdated system. This session will present solutions that are a reflection of 30 plus years of straight forward, simple, dynamic and effective scorekeeping to drive employee engagement, energy and enthusiasm using the right numbers and scorecards. Find out what changes you can make to take that fire hydrant flow of data down to something manageable and motivational.
Moderator: Chris Brown, President, Wray’s Food and Drug
Speaker: Chuck Coonradt, President, The Game of Work, LLC
Room: Versailles 1 & 2 Food Security Benchmarking Tool: Products, People, Partners and Practices Food security is a high priority issue to today’s consumer. Based on the primary research conducted by the Food Industry Center at the University of Minnesota, this workshop quantifies practices of retailers, restaurants, wholesalers and manufacturers to identify critical steps and points of differentiation in supply chain practices to assure food safety. By grouping approximately twenty metrics into four thematic areas, (products, people, partners and practices), you develop a tool that is both readily understandable and operational that can be widely used to guard against contamination and other threats to the food supply. From this session, retailers will be able to measure their own readiness, compare their business to others and work with their trading partners to help better facilitate total supply chain security. Moderator: Miranda Kay Owen, Student, University of Western Michigan Speakers: Jean Kinsey, Professor, University of Minnesota Jon Seltzer, Consultant, Corporate Resources, Inc. Joe Rajkovacz, Regulatory Affairs Specialist, OOIDA (Owner/Operator Independent Drivers)
Room: Versailles 3 & 4 Employee Wellness Incentives Help Control Insurance Costs Premiums for insurance have skyrocketed to the point that some employers have been forced to discontinue employee coverage or require employees to contribute considerably more for their policy. Employers are looking for ways to be able to continue employee insurance as a benefit, but with manageable payments. This session will be based on a 2007 Employer Opinion Survey. The results are from the responses of 1,746 employers comprising of a representative cross-section of companies across all industry groups, various employee size categories and regions of the country. This is a comprehensive look at how employers are helping to manage health care costs by using incentives to encourage employees to assume more responsibility and control over their health issues. It was found that 54.4% of employers believe that employees should be offered health care cost incentives such as; lower deductibles or co-insurance, if they make a reasonable effort to manage their chronic conditions. Find out at this workshop actions that other employers are taking to lower insurance costs and ways you can apply these methods in your company.
Moderator: Kelley Corbert, Student, University of Minnesota
Speaker: Ron Kennedy, Principal, Western Benefits Solutions, LLC Mike Hodge, Director Employee Benefits, SUPERVALU/Albertsons
Room: Burgundy
You Must Comply with PCI All of us — retailers, wholesalers, banks, credit card companies and our customers — want to eliminate credit card fraud. Which is why PCI DSS Compliance was instituted. Although complying may sound expensive and hard to obtain, there is a necessity. Companies that are not compliant risk financial penalties, in the event of a security breach, or even worse, suspension and revocation of the right to process credit card transactions. Other costs can be caused by lack of trust in the company after a security breach, resulting financial losses, lost market share, loss of potential customers and liability lawsuits from injured parties. Gaining trust of customers is a fundamental goal of businesses, for all kind of transactions. If confidence in an organization is at a low level, that certain company will experience decreasing revenues. Not only customers, but also partners and stakeholders are demanding an increasingly higher degree of security awareness and responsibility. Complying with the PCI-standard requirements implicates that companies meet their obligations to the six major credit card companies, and can help meet other standards requirements, such as Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) or the California Information Practices Act or Identity Theft Protection Act (future). Complying with the PCI-standard requirements is all about providing trust to customers. In this session, you will learn what you need to know, what you need to do and how to get the proper assistance to become compliant. This session will cover a self assessment questionnaire, policies and procedures, penetration scans, physical security, employee training and validated applications.
Moderator: Joan Kaufenberg, Student, Arizona State University
Speaker: Ross Federgreen, Executive Vice President/Founder, CSRSI
Room: Bordeaux Today’s Organic Merchandising – Being the Complete Package The organic food industry is projected to grow approximately 20% annually for the next several years. Just adding some organic products to your store variety will not achieve the desired results possible from attracting the growing health conscience consumer to your stores. Consistent and broader supply sources are now working in both the perishable and non-perishable channels making pricing more competitive with broader selections available. Learn how Organic products can fit into the mix of your stores overall strategy for projecting health, wellness and trust. The goal of this workshop is to leave you with enough ideas and answers to get you started to take advantage of this growing opportunity in this “changing world.”
Moderator/Speaker Doug Sumpter, President, DPS, Inc.
Speaker: Steve Dillard, Vice President Corporate Sales and Business Development, Associated Wholesale Grocers Durant Taylor, Natural Foods Merchandiser, PC Market of Choice
Room: Chablis Demand Ordering - How to Implement a Computer Generated Ordering Solution The key to satisfying customers and establishing loyalty is having the right products on hand when your customers want them. Getting the right product in the right place at the right time is the key to success for supply chain management. Without the correct inventory levels on the shelf, even the best promotion effort will fail to deliver the profitability and customer satisfaction you need. All too often, traditional forecasting methods fall short in putting the right amount of products in the store when your customers want them.
This session focuses on some of the latest technology for effective demand planning and Computer Generated Ordering applications and how when implemented right they demonstrate gigantic savings, revenue lifts, and happier customers (and managers too!).
Join retailers like Market Basket, who have reduced their working inventory by 15%, reduced out of stock by over 50%, improved cash flow, increased sales, and reduced spoilage by 45%. This will be a fast pace session which will cover a multitude of issues such as: shifting to a Demand Driven Supply Chain, forecasting end consumer demand, store inventory position, delivery scheduling, how to identify your best performing stores by more than just sales, aligning incentive plans with business targets, and more.
Moderator Vimala Gutti, Student, University of Alabama
Speaker Gil Roth, Ph.D., Vice President, Analytics and Optimatization Solutions, Retalix, USA Dan Donovan, Senior Sales Executive, Retalix, USA Skylar Thompson, President/COO, Market Basket
Room: Loire Branded Beef - “How Can the Independent Retailer Create a Point of Differentiation in the Meat Case?” The retail meat case has seen a dramatic growth in branded products and programs in recent years, this presentation will outline opportunities and potential pitfalls that a retailer would need to be aware of in developing a branded presence in the beef category. The presentation will be initially framed by recent research from Kansas State University around the consumer drivers at the meat case and what are the most important factors in a meat purchase. This will be followed by a review of different paths (i.e. Packer brand, Private Label, Case Ready) a retailer could take in development of a meat case program that would be designed to meet the purchase drivers, build on a consistent eating experience and create potential for higher sales and profitability. Experts will demonstrate the steps involved in development of a successful brand and provide industry examples of “Success Stories from the Meat Case”.
Moderator: Michelle Thonesen, Student, Cornell University
Speaker: Marty Carpenter, U.S. Market Development Manager, Beef Information Centre, Canada Alan Buxkemper, Vice President, Super S Foods
Continuing Professional Education (CPE)
The National Grocers Association (N.G.A.) is pleased to offer 16 educational workshops available for Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits for CPA’s.
CPE is the term used to describe the educational activities that assist CPAs in achieving and maintaining quality in professional services. CPA’s have an opportunity to earn CPE credits at an event that has been renowned for its solution-oriented focus for today’s marketplace challenges.
To receive credit for the program, please see a N.G.A. Staff person at the door. You must sign in and out in order to receive credit.
Look on the workshop description page for this symbol.
