October 7, 2022

Quick Looks

• Expo Speakers Announced!

• Milestone Reached

• Grocers Giving



• Prices Continue to Rise

Cybersecurity

Speaker: Matt Specht, Federated Insurance

1:00 p.m.

Smart phones, laptops, websites are extremely vulnerable to cyberattacks and ransomware demands. Small businesses are more likely to be targeted by cyber criminals. For smaller companies, the problem stems from a lack of assets and expertise. Small and medium-sized businesses usually don't have dedicated cybersecurity experts to keep their systems secure. Matt Specht of Federated Insurance will walk you through some of the measure’s grocers can take if you don’t have a big IT department.

Workforce

Speaker: Jim Cinelli, Manpower Group

2:00 p.m.

Workforce is one of the hottest topics and biggest challenge sin the industry. Jim Cinelli, of the internally recognized Manpower Group will share knowledge, expertise and resources to help grocers understands what is important and what is happening next in the world of work. Challenges to the grocery industry’s workforce have never been greater. Grocers know the problem and are working to rebuild their employee base during a time when people are moving out of Wisconsin and deciding not to work anymore.  

Consumer Trends

Speaker: Jerry O’Brien, UW Kohl’s Center for Retailing

3:00 p.m.

Change is one of the most popular words in the grocery biz and Jerry O’Brien, the Executive Director of Kohl's Center for Retailing brings his decades of retail experience to outline the trends and changing expectations of your customers and workforce and examines the intersections of these two groups. Always a popular speaker at the Expo, Jerry O’Brien brings his best insight to the Tuesday afternoon educational seminars.

Band Is Back Together  Trig’s/T.A. Solberg Company came together to celebrate TAS Awards, their annual leadership conference and awards banquet, for the first time in two years! The day was kicked off with a “The Band is Back Together” ice breaker exercise, followed by a Keynote, company update, and culminated in an awards banquet celebrating the many successes of the team. Associates from all T.A. Solberg Company entities were celebrated for Excellence in Operations, Guest Service, Servant Leadership, Outstanding Department Leader, Outstanding Business Leader, Spark Award, and tenure with the company. This was also an opportunity to celebrate the state and national awards the team has won throughout the year.  The “Solberg Award,” is the final award given for the evening and is the highest honor one can receive for their service to the company. This year’s “Solberg Award” was presented to Steve Heise. The award is presented to one individual who is a true ambassador of the company, a prime example of what Servant Leadership looks like, has impacted our guests, the community, and peers in a positive way, and is a true team player.  Lee’s Painting was awarded the Business Partner of the Year!

Special 50^th  This year was very special for the Trig’s group as they completed their 50th year in business. Trig and Tula Solberg have been serving the Northwoods since 1971 and have built a legacy that will be carried on well into the future through their team and their charitable giving in the community. They have built something truly special. The WGA thanks and salutes Trig and Tula for their decades of support for the WGA!  Thank you, Trig and Tula!   Watch the video HERE. 

Charity of the Month  The Fox Bros. Charity of the Month for July was a single charity that has some very far-reaching programming! Memorial Go-Kart, located in Slinger, sponsors trade school scholarships for students in Washington, Ozaukee and Waukesha counties; gives kids the chance at hands-on experience of working on go-karts in a team setting and then racing them; and also helping local families who have suffered the loss of a child by providing care packages, grief support groups, and even assistance with funeral expenses. A grand total of $28,828.13 was raised for Memorial Go-Kart, who received the donation during their 15th Annual Tribute Night at Slinger Super Speedway on August 15. The evening's events were sponsored by Fox Bros. Piggly Wiggly and included a silent auction to benefit Bo's Heavenly Clubhouse, a "Balloons to Heaven" ceremony, a season finale of MGK racers in their go-karts, and, of course, featured stock car races.

Congrats!  The NRFA has awarded 22 gold awards and 16 silver awards for June Dairy Month and 30 gold awards and 31 silver awards for Summer Favorites Ice Cream & Novelties promotions. Congrats to Kemps, Festival and Woodman’s. Read the announcement here.

Employee of the Month  Charlie's County Market located in Shawano recently implemented an Employee Excellence Award that will be awarded monthly. The inaugural winner was Kathy White, the store’s Deli Cook. Kathy consistently goes above & beyond in the Deli by taking it as her own and she makes it thrive. This is something that makes Charlie's County Market stand out and Kathy has a lot to do with that! Charlie’s County Market, as a small-town grocer, says there are a few things they can do to stand out: provide outstanding customer service & supply a superior product. “We believe our Deli Department does that every day and sets us apart from the large box retailers.”

Round Up for the Pups  Watertown Piggly Wiggly recently held a one week round up and $2500 was raised and donated to the Watertown Police Department’s K-9 unit. Pictured (L-R): Officer Hensley, Chance, Chief Kaminski, Brian and Rachel Wohlfeil, owners of Watertown Piggly Wiggly.

Cooler Weather Means...  As the weather starts to get cooler, so does our RDW’s Crazy Fresh salsa line! They are re-introducing their seasonal Cranberry Salsa again! It’s the ultimate festive Thanksgiving addition, so make sure you’re adding this to your departments asap! Check out check out www.eatcrazyfresh.com for more!

Prices  Grocery prices rose 13.5% in August compared with the year before and are expected to moderate in 2023 but not come back down for a while due to uncertainty surrounding weather conditions, the war in Ukraine and the fact that adjusting prices again is a time burden for retailers. This means that "when you do see increases happen, they tend to stay in place," said Andy Harig, vice president of tax, trade, sustainability and policy development at FMI -- The Food Industry Association. Read the story from CCN here.

Getting Ready For The Show! No rest for the weary (and the new folks) as the WGA’s Events VP Kris Neilson and Marketing & Events Coordinator Ellen Breunig put the finishing touches on the 2023 Innovation Expo! Make sure you register and introduce yourself to the new WGA Team Members!

Getting Ready to Compete! The team at Metcalfe’s West Town Store held their in-store bag-off competition to select their representative for the WGA State Bag-off Championship at the Expo.

20 Ideas to Drive Sales

Speaker: Nick Lenzi, Lipari Foods

8:30 a.m.

Paraphrasing late night TV selling shows…. but wait, there’s more! If you attend Tuesday’s educational seminars, you won’t want to miss out on the Wednesday morning lineup! Who doesn’t need 20 Ideas to Drive Sales? Everybody needs 20 Ideas to Drive Sales! Nick Lenzi with Lapari Foods brings his decades of experience to the WGA’s Wednesday morning Innovation Summit and will share these golden nuggets to help kick off the Summit. In this fast-paced session, Nick Lenzi will share 20 proven sales ideas which taken as part of a portfolio, will help to separate grocers from their competition, grow sales and deliver a unique value to their guests. Hear how one retailer created a plan to continuously roll out new events and promotions to grow traffic and sales in their stores.

The Grocery Industry Today

Speaker: John Ross, IGA

9:30 a.m.

One of the country’s leading experts on independent grocers will bring it all home and talk about the challenges facing the industry. The champion of data-driven decision-making, shopper-focused marketing and active listening is back by popular demand!  John Ross, IGA’s President & CEO will discuss how grocers look to pricing with the knowledge that amounts have increased as higher costs have been embedded in the supply chain. The question remains, will costs and prices ever come down? He will address how grocers can align with customers who might see inflation come down in a year or so but don’t receive a corresponding decrease in retail prices. His vast experience, unique understanding and insight of the grocery biz makes John Ross the perfect speaker to pull all of the contemporary issues together to better understand your customers, associates and business partners. 

ATTENTION RETAILERS!

Are you ready to discover new trends, connect with your grocery friends, make new connections in the grocery industry, yell and cheer at the Great Wisconsin Bag-Off Championship, recognize WGA Award Winners and MORE?!? Then you can’t miss the 2022 Innovation Expo! The WGA's one of a kind event takes place October 18 & 19th, 2022 at Hilton Appleton Paper Valley & Fox Cities Convention Center in Appleton. Click on the image on the left for more info. Online registration can be found HERE!

Come cheer on the Great Wisconsin Bag-Off Championship on Wednesday, October 19th at the WGA Trade Show!! WGA members can still sign up a bagger to compete! All contestants must bag groceries at least 40% of the time. First place at the WGA’s event receives $500 and a trip for two to Las Vegas in February, 2023 to compete in the NGA’s Best Bagger Contest with a $10,000 grand prize. Click here to register!

Taylor Schaefer, the 75th Alice in Dairyland, will be the Master of Ceremonies for the WGA’s State Bag Off Championship at the 2022 WGA Innovation Expo at the Fox Cities Exhibition Center in Appleton on October,19^th. 

Inflation Impact  Americans perceive food-at-home inflation to be nearly 10 points higher than reality, according to new dunnhumby research. The report also showed that 59% of consumers are shopping at stores with low base prices and 31% are skipping meals or trimming back on meal size, reported Supermarket News. Full Story

Employment  Job openings unexpectedly plunge in August to lowest level since June 2021  U.S. job openings unexpectedly dropped in August to the lowest level in over a year, as the Federal Reserve tries to bring down near-record high inflation and cool the labor market. The Labor Department said Tuesday that there were 10.1 million job openings in August – a major decline from the previous month's revised reading of 11.17 million. Still, the number of available jobs has topped 10 million for 15 consecutive months; before the pandemic began in February 2020, the highest on record was 7.7 million. Read the story here.

Matt Bennett, Operations Manager for BPI "Congratulations on achieving 18 years of exemplary work service. We truly appreciate your dedication to the organization and are looking forward to many years to come!"

Brian Schuett, Information Technology Manager at BPI "Thank you for dedicating 18 amazing years of work to our organization. Congratulations!"

Double Retirements at Metcalfe’s Market Hilldale!

Karchung leaves Metcalfe’s after almost 23 years working in their deli. She's excited to spend more time with her grandchildren now. 

Mary has been at Metcalfe's for 41 years. We know she'll enjoy having more time to spend up North! Metcalfe’s celebrated the best way they know - with food, cake and a few hugs., saying, “We hope they will still stop by to visit us every so often and cannot thank them enough for their combined 60+ years of service.”