In the end, I think our members acknowledged some of the harsh realities of the situation and made the adjustments necessary to keep their businesses productive. When you have your weekly sales volume increasing at least 50 percent seemingly overnight, there’s no way that a supply chain meltdown won’t occur. For the past 30 years, manufacturers shifted to a “just in time” distribution model. They utilized every resource and contact they knew to get product when bigger chain retailers could not. However, no one should underestimate the resourcefulness of the independent retailer. We also helped provide things such as masks and hand sanitizers for them to ease some of their day-to-day worries. We had weekly video calls with our members to update them on supply issues and changing mandates that, depending on where your stores were located, were not uniform. Assurance that during these difficult times we would continue to support them.Ĭommunications were also virtual with the type of unique structure that we operate under. In the end, we felt that we needed to run an ad to provide confidence and assurance to Key Foods’ consumers. Because of our diversified membership we had some differences of opinion on issues such as continuing to run a weekly ad because of product availability challenges. Once we settled in, our ability to continue to support our members and consumers became a major concern – due to the rapid inventory depletion and the withdrawal of trade support. Operating from a virtual environment was totally new to us – we had to adapt quickly. Our team generally chose to work remotely as we were literally moving. In March 2020, when the impact of COVID was causing businesses and school shutdowns, we moved our offices from Staten Island to our current headquarters in Matawan, NJ. Q: What were the greatest challenges facing Key Food during COVID? Were there any unique issues that you had to deal with in dealing with a co-op structure with a diverse membership and sometimes different priorities?Ī: We had several challenges that others in the industry faced and some which were unique to Key Food. George shares his views about navigating through COVID with a diverse and independent customer base, the challenges created by supply chain dysfunction and the evolving landscape in the markets where Key Food’s members operate. City & State licenses & fees, Security, Entertainment, Insurance, Advertising & Promotion, Portable Restroom Facilities, etc… hover at an average of $80,000 each year.Welcome to Leading Edge, a semi-monthly Q&A forum where some of the grocery industry’s top executives share their views on several current and important topics. This week’s interviewee is George Knobloch, chief operating officer of Key Food Stores, the Matawan, NJ-based grocery co-op whose 160 members operate 357 stores, primarily in the competitive and unique New York metro marketing area. We need your financial support to underwrite the escalating expenses to produce La Festa. Our 5 day "old world street festival" has grown in the past decade from a simple church festival to a desirable, greatly anticipated destination event attracting thousands of attendees & vendors from across the tristate, along with print, online & broadcast media. Proceeds benefit Holy Rosary Church, the First Italian Roman Catholic Church established in the State of New Jersey in 1885. The 501(c) was formed with the vision of supporting Italian American culture and enriching the lives of the residents of Jersey City, noted as one of the most diverse cities in the nation. We are pleased to announce that La Festa Italiana Jersey City is now a 501(c)3 entity. This year La Festa runs from Wednesday, August 11th through Sunday, August 15th. LA FESTA ITALIANA!!! The highlight of a summer of busy festivals honoring Jersey City’s rich cultural diversity, the 118th Annual La Festa Italiana, celebrates Italian-American culture in Historic Downtown Jersey City attracting thousands of attendees nightly from the tri-state and beyond. As summer in Jersey City approaches that means one thing. We are all excited to get back to normal after a tumultuous year fighting through the Covid 19 Pandemic.
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