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2014 Lenna Francis Cooper Memorial Lecture: Inside Out: How Retail RDNs Transform Food Culture
FROM THE ACADEMY
2014 Lenna Francis Cooper Memorial Lecture: Inside Out: How Retail RDNs Transform Food Culture Jane Welsh Andrews, MS, RDN Editor’s Note: This lecture was first presented on Sunday, October 19, 2014, at the Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo in Atlanta, GA. This lecture has been edited from its original version for Journal style and to fit within a print format.
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HUNDRED YEARS AGO, women didn’t have the right to vote and few worked outside the home. Lenna Francis Cooper, a woman who defied expectations, changed the culture of health care. It was in 1914 that her book, “The New Cookery,” was first published. She appreciated the fast pace of change in nutrition science and called for a new profession able to translate the science and inspire change in individuals as well as food systems. Registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) working in supermarkets follow in her footsteps.
BRINGING FOOD TO PEOPLE, A HIGH CALLING I grew up on a family farm just north of Terre Haute, IN, several hours south of Cooper’s home in Michigan. The Welsh family has been farming on either side of the IndianaeIllinois state line for generations. As a youngster I learned to serve customers as they came to the farm to buy eggs. One of my fondest memories is tagging along as my father delivered eggs to area businesses. In an article entitled “Sells ‘em Across the River” from the Terre Haute Tribune Star, circa 1935, my grandfather, Frank Welsh, described his ability to anticipate customers’ needs for eggs and dressed chickens. The article mentions the same diners and pool 2212-2672/Copyright ª 2015 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2015.03.001
ª 2015 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Jane Welsh Andrews, MS, RDN halls that I delivered eggs to 30 years later. Success in the food business depends on building lasting relationships based on customer needs. As a youth I was intrigued by everything about food. My mother, a registered nurse working in public health, was almost as passionate about nutrition as she was about serving others. She also grew up in the food business, working in her father’s grocery store in the village of St Mary’s of the Woods, IN. She often said that if you knew John Foradori you’d never go hungry. During the Great Depression, my grandfather allowed customers to keep a tab as long as needed. Fifty years later, people were still trying to settle their parents’ debts. I learned that bringing food to people was an important way to serve others.
MY BEGINNINGS AT WEGMANS John and Walter Wegman also grew up working in their parents’ grocery store
Lenna Francis Cooper—“The science of nutrition travels so rapidly that it is almost impossible to keep up with it.” in Rochester, NY. John started peddling produce around town from a pushcart. By 1916 he and his brother formed the Rochester Fruit and Vegetable Company that later became Wegmans Food Markets. As a dietitian in preventive cardiology at the University of Rochester and the mother of three young sons, my life was full. And as a shopper I couldn’t wait to see what product or service Wegmans would come up with next. One particular summer a recruitment T-shirt caught my eye. Every time I shopped, often with the boys, I saw people wearing the message: “If you love shopping here, you’ll love working here.” My silent response: “Yes!” My mother, Mary Foradori Welsh, knew what it was like to work in a food store and did not send her only daughter to college to bag groceries! But Wegmans was doing more work in
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FROM THE ACADEMY
Welsh Farms, 1958: Jane, David, and Don Welsh (L to R).
John Foradori and family, 1918. 830
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nutrition education than anyone else in the community. Having toyed with having my own business, I instead wanted to work with and through others. When in 1988 Mary Ellen Burris asked me to do some contract work, which lead to a half-time position, I said “yes!” Mary Ellen Burris, MS, senior vice president for consumer affairs, is an industry legend who has helped bring consumers to the table since 1971. Mary Ellen changed the workplace as she climbed up the executive ladder. She was among the first in the nation to hire a registered dietitian nutritionist in the supermarket setting. It takes a key leader in the organization, like Mary Ellen, to see the possibilities. Every retailer is organized differently. Nutrition might report up through store operations, marketing, pharmacy, human resources, merchandising, or quality assurance. At Wegmans, Nutrition & Product Labeling is part of the Consumer Affairs Department with over 100 staff including Consumer Services, Media Relations, Community Relations, Quality Assurance, Food Safety, and Sustainability. We provide value by maintaining consumer trust and building loyalty. According to Mary Ellen Burris, “About 15 years after I joined Wegmans I met Jane. Wegmans was collaborating with a researcher at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He had a grant from the National Institutes of Health to bring buses to our parking lots to screen people for cholesterol. The objective was to see what happens once people get screened and what information they needed. Jane had prepared that information and I was very impressed. She knew how to do ‘consumer speak,’ she knew how to listen, and she was entrepreneurial. It was that entrepreneurial drive that I so admired. “I hired Jane in 1988. Our customers were beginning to ask a lot more questions about health back then, questions that I, with my generalist knowledge, was not able to answer. So I definitely needed help. And Jane came in and ultimately hired other likeminded nutritionists. They have these qualities of really listening and of focusing on what makes the difference to help people change behavior. I learned from my days in cooperative extension that telling people to ‘eat May 2015 Volume 115 Number 5
FROM THE ACADEMY your vegetables’ just does not make anybody eat their vegetables. You need a way to try, and try again, and figure out what works and what doesn’t work and find ways to make things easy for customers. Jane and her team have a great talent at figuring out what is really going to make a difference and help people to live healthier better lives. That’s what we want. We’re not just simply giving a prescription. We are figuring out what really works to change behavior. “In a fast-paced world like today, more than ever, we need nutritionists who are not confined within a box but who can see what’s going on around them, can see the trends even before they happen, and can develop programs and projects that are going to meet those needs.”
FOOD RETAIL FACTS & FIGURES Wegmans Produce Department in 1930—John and Walter Wegman made national headlines when they opened a 20,000-square-foot store, gigantic by standards of the day.
Retailers may be privately owned, publicly traded, employee owned, or part of a cooperative buying arrangement. Ownership status can be an important factor in how quickly go-to-market strategies change. Consolidation is ongoing. Much like mergers in health care, RDN jobs can be here today and gone tomorrow! Retailers must readily pivot to respond to forces in the overall culture. Economic realities, such as a recession, will dramatically change consumer buying habits. As cooking skills are lost, retailers step in to provide more value-added products. Advances in technology can change marketing and distribution systems. Changing immigration patterns result in specific stores taking on a different mix of ethnic products. Long commutes to work (averaging 1 hour for one way in some communities) can have a profound effect on buying habits as does the current trend of smaller families. Perhaps the most abrupt changes are due to competitive forces such as a discount supercenter moving into the region. Retailers consider these and other trends as they decide where to build and what foods to place in stores.
Where People Shop
Mary Ellen Burris, Wegmans voice of the consumer. May 2015 Volume 115 Number 5
The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) routinely surveys the shopping habits of Americans. FMI Trends 2014 noted that, “Loyalty to a single primary store is giving way to a diversity of stores.” JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF NUTRITION AND DIETETICS
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FROM THE ACADEMY Compared to the prior year, 9% fewer shoppers could name a store as their “primary” place to shop. Of those who did mention a primary store, it was a supermarket—54%, supercenter— 22%, warehouse—5%, discount—3%, limited assortment—4%, or organic/ specialty—2%. Shoppers report visiting two to three different food shopping channels regularly, including: supermarkets—85%, supercenters—46%, discount stores— 29%, warehouse club—26%; low-price, no-frills grocery store—16%, drug store—15%, dollar store—15%, natural or organic food store—11%, convenience store—5%, ethnic grocery—5%, online—3%.1 An emerging trend is the growth of smaller-format discount stores in urban and rural neighborhoods. These include dollar stores that provide packaged shelf-stable foods as well as a growing selection of refrigerated and frozen items.
The Center Store Is Shrinking Consumers’ attraction to all things “fresh” has resulted in supermarket fresh food sales increasing by 5.4% since 2013 for an overall average of 30% of total supermarket sales.2 Also consider that farmers can bypass supermarkets to go directly to consumers such as through membership in Consumer Supported Agriculture and as evidenced in the proliferation of farmers’ markets around the country: an increase of 76% to 8,268 since 2008.3 An important food distribution trend is what is known in the industry as “portable pantries.” People are picking up food in multiple places and have extra stashes in their cars, bags, back packs, offices, and bedrooms. At the same time, consumer surveys report that half of all eating occasions are now snacks.4
Shopping Frequency and Spending The American shopper averages 1.6 visits a week, including 1.2 visits to their primary store.1 And we spend almost 10% of our disposable income on food. This includes 5.4% of income spent on food for at-home consumption and 4.3% spent on food away from home.5 832
Supermarkets have among the lowest profit margins of any industry, nearly a penny on every dollar in profits. For example, in 2013 total profits were at 1.3% of sales in US grocery stores.6 Successful supermarkets make up for these low profit margins though high sales volume.
Digital Shopping Trends Smartphones are used to compare grocery prices, locate products, and get nutrition information by 89% of all US smartphone owners while they are shopping.7 Yet, online grocery sales are only 3% of total food sales.1 Compared to other industries like clothing, books, and photography, food is the last bastion of traditional brick-and-mortar retailing. It is said that consumers want to touch and feel products, especially perishables. The already low profit margins make it difficult for online retailers to undercut brick and mortar companies as was done with books. Add to that the need to cover the extra labor to pick and then deliver groceries for online orders.8 Another barrier for online grocers is that shoppers must plan their order. This could be a difficult task for those who shop by habit or impulse.
THE MULTIPLIER EFFECT Christine Olson, PhD, professor of nutrition science at Cornell University, shared the idea of “the multiplier effect.” Professor Olson believed that nutritionists could be much more effective by sharing messages more broadly, and thereby take those messages to far more people than could ever be reached individually. Her teachings made me consider who might serve as “multipliers.” Food retailers are fabulous community partners. Schools, towns, and other groups routinely approach us and sometimes a supplier gets involved. In 1991 Dole Food Company suggested a produce nutrition tour for classrooms. School children had long come to Wegmans on tours, but it was to see the cakes being iced, touch the lobster, and peek in to the back room. Dole’s idea inspired us to instead develop a food pyramid tour. Since that time we have had over a quarter million 4thgraders attend a free 2-hour nutrition tour based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans at Wegmans. Teachers tell us that it’s the best tour of the year.
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Today we have employees staffing the tour who toured as kids. The multiplier effect is at work. Our division nutritionists regularly collaborate with community partners. Krystal Register first called me on behalf of the Virginia Dietetic Association to seek a donation for an annual meeting. I ended up attending the meeting and became impressed with Krystal. When we needed a nutrition consultant in Virginia, I immediately called her. She is now our division nutritionist for Virginia and Maryland. There’s a never-ending demand for free services. Krystal works strategically so that community partners see the supermarket dietitian as a trusted expert and relationship builder. Krystal shares that, “When we open a store we look for opportunities to raise awareness with medical professionals. People there have no idea of what Wegmans is about. They don’t know that we have pharmacies—or RDNs. So we created an event to bring health care professionals into our store (before it officially opens) to introduce our products and services. “Sometimes the most rewarding connections are at the grassroots level. For example, a celiac support group where 10 to 20 folks are gathered might ask for help with the day-to-day shopping. In turn, when a celiac expert is visiting the store, I can reach back out to the support group and invite them to join us.”
THREE SPHERES OF RETAIL NUTRITION I propose that retail RDNs work primarily in three spheres: Public Health, Products, and Clinical (Figure). Of course, there’s crossover and some retailers might have RDNs focus only on one or two spheres. Tactics can vary broadly. For example, I was hired to respond to consumer questions about nutrition and consider that role to be in the public health sphere, but so are our proactive efforts to help customers “Strive for 5” fruits and veggies a day.
Public Health Sphere Keys to Wellness. Trish Kazacos, RDN, started with Wegmans as a high school student in the video department. She became a Wegmans Scholarship recipient and worked through college as a cheesemonger. Trish May 2015 Volume 115 Number 5
FROM THE ACADEMY
Figure. Three spheres of nutrition for registered dietitian nutritionists working in the retail sector. passionately inspires others to better health. Her top priority is responding to customers who ask for help. “Wegmans nutrition team is on a mission: to simplify nutrition for healthier better lives. One of the key ways we do that is to advocate for those with special dietary needs. First, we listen to their questions. Then, we monitor the science, sometimes even reaching out to outside experts to help us understand the needs and the opportunities to help make the shopping experience easier. Then we create tools to help. Imagine walking into a store that typically has 37,000 items and not knowing which to choose. When you have a special dietary need, life is challenging and you’d like the shopping experience to be as simple as possible. “Our team has worked with our product developers and labeling specialists to create tools. One example is Wegmans Wellness Keys. Our Gluten Free Wellness Key makes it easy for folks who are looking for gluten-free options to find them with a glance at the package front or the recipe in our magazine. “Our Whole Grain Wellness Key encourages all our customers to get more May 2015 Volume 115 Number 5
whole grains. With this simple key on the front of packages, they can add up to three to be sure that they are getting three whole-grain servings a day. For folks who are lactose intolerant we have a Lactose Free key and for those looking for vegan options. we’ve got a key for that too!” “Part of the Wegmans experience is offering incredible customer service. By educating our employees, we help bridge the tools we’ve created to those customers who could use them. In order to take full advantage of the multiplier effect, our employees must know how to guide our customers to use these tools. We do this in a variety of ways: We have online training or we could bring them in a group, training the entire department. Sometimes we train just the managers so that they can then share with their staff. All this helps customers find products quickly and easily. And in that way we simplify nutrition for healthier better lives.”
Culinary
Nutrition. Wegmans has an army of culinary professionals. Our RDNs, especially Jen Felice, RDN, and Kirby Branciforte, RDN, collaborate
with them to bring nutrition insight to recipe development along with nutrition analysis. Nutrition was a second career for Jen, who interned with Wegmans, both as an undergraduate at Rochester Institute of Technology and then at Syracuse University. See her in our nutrition videos on Wegmans.com. Making great meals easy is a goal that starts in recipe development sessions. Jen is the lead nutritionist on the culinary team as they create recipes for Wegmans Menu magazine. This incredibly talented team of chefs knows that Jen respects their work and loves food and cooking almost as much as they do. One of the principles she conveys is that of balance. According to Jen, “No guilt is associated with enjoying great meals when they are mixed with the balance of plenty of fruits and vegetables. Great cooking techniques help keep calories in check.I’m not the ‘food police,’ but rather encourage and sometimes debate with the team so that our customers end up with plenty of wholesome choices to bring balance on the plate. “The food culture at Wegmans has always been strong, but I see it shifting to even more wholesome foods. Whole grains, beans, and seafood are being introduced along with basic cooking techniques that give people the confidence to try foods that might be new to them or that they may not have previously enjoyed. The Mediterranean way of eating has taken hold, and I’d like to think that the voice of nutrition has had an effect on that shift. “Menu magazine is the seasonal playbook for our entire company. And I want the recipes to fit the needs of as many customers as possible . people who stay gluten-free, have diabetes or celiac disease. I take the opportunity to work with the chefs to see what might be substituted to meet special needs.”
Clinical Sphere After joining Wegmans I sought to avoid the clinical sphere. Having “been there, done that,” I believed the public health sphere could provide greater impact. But customers kept calling for help with nutrition in diabetes, for example, convincing me that partnerships with pharmacy would help us
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FROM THE ACADEMY In retail lingo, the “category merchant” is the editor of the product mix within a defined category. He or she decides which brands to carry, what sizes, flavors, and pricing. He or she must understand the trends within his or her category and often turns to internal experts, such as RDNs.
Private
Wegmans magazine Menu, Fall 2014 issue on the Mediterranean style of eating. reach more people struggling with what to eat. Some retailers have RDNs in each and every store to be reimbursed for medical nutrition therapy. Wegmans isn’t there yet. However, in the past 10 years we’ve placed an RDN in each geographic area, called divisions, to serve 10 to 15 stores. Mallary Whipple, MS, RDN, is our division nutritionist in Buffalo, NY. Mallary interned with us while at the University of Buffalo. Her career moved to pediatric obesity in Pittsburgh, PA, before coming back to Buffalo as our division nutritionist. Mallary believes that, “One of the most exciting things about being a Wegmans dietitian is working closely with our pharmacy teams. This helps me make nutrition more approachable and visible in our stores. It’s the multiplier effect in action!” Brian Pompo, RPh, is a pharmacist who has been to so many nutritionist 834
meetings that we tease him about being an honorary RDN. Brian recalls that in the past, pharmacy and nutrition worked separately in different silos. “One of the executives challenged us to begin working more collaboratively and have pharmacy and nutrition at the same table. We want our pharmacists to approach health differently. It started with our quarterly Eat Well Live Well teaching tables to help equip the pharmacist with concepts around food. In that way the pharmacist is no longer just counseling on medication, but can give information on healthy foods options as well.”
Product Sphere Robert Wegman’s words in a 1961 speech called “I am a Merchant” still resonate today: “To do something that no one else is doing, and to be able to offer the customer a choice that [he or] she does not have at the moment.”
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Label. Shopping with a handful of national brand coupons I came to realize that even with a coupon, the national brand product was more expensive than the Wegmans’ brand counterpart. This benefit was explained to me as “private label math.” By reducing broker and marketing costs—so-called middle men— retailers could charge less to the customer while getting a higher profit margin than with the national brand product. And by the way, every other store was selling that same national brand product. Retailers could create unique products and tie them to easy recipes while saving people money. In that way we could follow Robert Wegman’s advice to offer consumers a choice—unique products at greater value—that they otherwise didn’t have. In 1988, Wegmans brand products, though high quality, seemed to be rather generic. We were not doing a good job of telling their stories. That is how I became the ghost writer for Danny Wegman. Beginning with the “Food You Feel Good About” line of products, I wrote the stories on the side panel of products for a few years, an atypical role for an RDN. Mike DeCory is vice president of grocery, dairy, and frozen, and has worked closely with the nutritionists, especially on Wegmans brand products. He reports that, “The nutritionists have been so incredibly helpful for a couple of key reasons: they help us protect the trust, credibility, and integrity that we’ve worked so hard to build.and they help us innovate by fully understanding ways to help our customers be healthier. I don’t know that our merchants have the skill set to figure this out on their own. We need the nutritionists to point us in the right direction and then to provide validation.”
Quality Assurance. Janet Flynn, RDN, worked, as I once had, in clinical nutrition at the University of Rochester Medical Center. But Janet’s first career was as a lab tech at a pharmaceutical May 2015 Volume 115 Number 5
FROM THE ACADEMY
Wegmans Nutrition Team (July 2012). L to R: Jen Felice, RDN; Mallary Whipple, MS, RDN; Krystal Register, MS, RDN; Marda Heuman, RDN; Jane Andrews, RDN; Kelly Springer, MS, RDN; Trish Kazacos, RDN; Brian Lilly, RDN; Brittany Reynolds, MS, RDN. company. Several years ago she called, hoping to meld those two careers. She is now Wegmans senior quality assurance technologist. No one works harder than Janet to assure that our products live up to the high standards that customers have come to expect. Janet’s role is to “really understand how foods are manufactured, and take that information and move it forward to our consumer service specialists to help answer a consumer question and perhaps even to our category merchants.” Janet always delves into what’s at the heart of the consumer’s question. She may see the need to “advocate for higher quality or more specific information from the supplier. This sometimes takes extra passion to get it right for the customer. and that means that we are getting it right.”
Specialty Focus. Eric Meredith, RDN, spent 6 years in France learning how May 2015 Volume 115 Number 5
to properly age cheese. In 2012 he was hired to build and manage Wegmans’ affinage, also known as cheese caves. Eric bridges tradition and food science to bring exceptional cheeses to market. Starting out as a cook, Eric completed a 2-year culinary arts program and then went on to be among the first to complete the culinary nutrition program at Johnson and Wales. After a dietetic internship he found himself in a neonatal intensive care unit—almost as far away from food as possible while still nourishing people. Eric shares that he “wanted to get back to my roots, back to food. Cheese was the gateway that got me spiraling to France to learn to be an affineur. Cheese has three simple ingredients: milk, salt, and rennet. That’s just the beginning of the process. Affinage is the complex alchemy that occurs after the fresh cheese is produced. It’s the intricacies,
the scientific background that drove me to learn more about this career path. “We reach hundreds of customers daily in each of our 85 stores. We can have a huge impact explaining how these three ingredients can become wonderful products, thousands of unique products. Sharing that information so that our customers learn to appreciate cheese is what drives me now.”
Product Labeler. Nothing irritates me more than over-hearing the phrase, “If you have to ask, you don’t really want to know.” Customers ask because they truly do want to know! We are passionate about the customer’s right to accurate ingredient and nutrition information, especially on the unique products that we offer. Even when it’s not part of regulatory requirements, we do our best to provide helpful product information to consumers.
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FROM THE ACADEMY Sovanny Nuon, RDN, nutrition labeling specialist, is our only RDN on the product labeling team, which includes nine others. Product labeling is a terrific career path for food and nutrition majors, whether they choose to apply for a dietetic internship or not. It is a career that cuts out the clinical piece, but puts food and nutrition knowledge along with organizational skills to work. Sovanny is the nutrition labeling specialist for our specialty cheese, deli, and kosher deli departments. She has been with us since high school, earning a Wegmans Scholarship to the Rochester Institute of Technology then on to a dietetic internship at Syracuse University. Sovanny describes her work with merchants “to ensure that our products are in regulatory compliance. I also build relationships with our suppliers and help them provide us with accurate ingredient specifications. By relying on my food science and regulatory knowledge, I am able to provide our customer service employees and customers with reliable resources. I make a difference by providing accurate ingredient and nutrition data to help our customers make decisions so that they can live healthier and better lives.”
Worksite Wellness. Wegmans is a self-insured company that offers generous benefits to over 45,000 employees. The division nutritionists work in all three spheres; however, their first priority is with employees in a worksite wellness role. We first met Marda Heuman, RDN, at a pre-opening event at one of our Philadelphia, PAearea stores. And not unusual, she asked about how she could get a job with Wegmans. We told her to apply for a job, any job, to get her foot in the door. Marda grew up working in the family restaurant near Pittsburgh, so she knew how to throw a party and landed a part-time job at the catering desk. Staff came to know her as the catering clerk who could help with nutrition. Today she is our division nutritionist for Pennsylvania. Marda builds strong relationships with staff members and recognizes that “one of the greatest things about Wegmans is our knowledge-based service. We put a lot of time and effort 836
into educating our employees. Having dietitians on staff is a great example of that. “I do a lot of coaching on the fly. I’ll be in the aisle and someone will stop and ask me a question. The first thing that I do is to stop and listen. I feel so honored that people invite me into their lives. Everyone has a story. I try not to lose sight of how transformational it is to have someone stop and actually listen. It helps get to where they are so that I can share some nutrition tips and coach them to make small changes that can make a difference.”
Jane Welsh Andrews, MS, RDN, is the 52nd Lenna Frances Cooper Memorial Lecturer. She is the nutrition & product labeling manager for Wegmans Food Markets, Inc, a family-owned chain of 84 stores. From the corporate office in Rochester, NY, Andrews leads the 10member nutrition team as well as eight product labeling staff. She regularly contributes to Wegmans’ Menu magazine, wegmans.com, and scores of consumer brochures. Andrews is an active member of the Food and Culinary Professionals dietetic practice group and has served on their executive committee. She is a member of the Food Marketing Institute’s Genetically Modified Organism Task Force and the Retail Dietitians Business Alliance Advisory Group. View her full Cooper Memorial Lecture announcement in the November 2014 issue of the Journal.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE We couldn’t be more thrilled with the caliber of today’s dietetic interns. More and more of them have previous work experience at Wegmans. Whenever we hire a new RDN, others are impressed and ask, “Where do you come up with these people?” I wink and say, “That’s what you get with registered dietitian nutritionists!” If you say “Yes”.
Fascinated by research on food, nutrition, and consumer trends? Driven to inspire people to better health? Love to talk about food all day long? Willing to flex your role as needed? Want to work with and through others? Perform especially well on crossfunctional teams? Have high ethical standards? Able to bridge science, culture, and personal tastes? Need a fast-paced environment where change is constant?
. then retail may be right for you.
References 1.
Food Marketing Institute. U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends 2014. Arlington, VA: Food Marketing Institute; 2014:10-11.
2.
Wong V. It’s true, we’re buying more fresh food. Business Week website. http://www. businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-13/itstrue-were-buying-more-fresh-food. Published March 13, 2014. Accessed February 24, 2015.
3.
US Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Marketing Service. Farmers markets and local food marketing: National count of farmers market directory listing graph: 1994-2014. http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams.fetch TemplateData.do?template¼TemplateS&navID¼ WholesaleandFarmersMarkets&leftNav¼Whole saleandFarmersMarkets&page¼WFMFarmers MarketGrowth&description¼Farmers%20 Market%20Growth&acct¼frmrdirmkt. Modified August 14, 2014. Accessed February 24, 2015.
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Hartman Group. Modern eating: Cultural roots, daily behavior. http://www.hartmangroup.com/download/report/modern-eating2014. Accessed February 24, 2015.
5.
US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Food expenditures. http:// www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-expen ditures.aspx#26636. Modified December 1, 2014. Accessed February 24, 2015.
6.
Food Marketing Institute. Grocery store chains net profit—Percent of sales. http:// www.fmi.org/docs/default-source/factsfigures/grocery-store-chains-net-profit_ 2013.pdf?sfvrsn¼2. Accessed February 24, 2015.
7.
Google Shopper Marketing Council. Mobile in-store research: How in-store shoppers are using mobile devices. https://www.think withgoogle.com/research-studies/mobile-instore.html. Published April 2013. Accessed February 24, 2015.
8.
Markey J. Expert column: Surviving, thriving on the U.S. digital grocery shelf. Progressive Grocer website. http://www.progressive grocer.com/departments/technology/expertcolumn-surviving-and-thriving-us-digitalgrocery-shelf. Published August 22, 2014. Accessed February 24, 2015.
Practice Applications
Take advantage of the multiplier effect no matter what your practice area. Encourage clients to use nutrition resources at their local retailer. Work more closely with a food retailer on community collaborations. Mentor young people interested in nutrition careers to consider a first job in retail.
JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF NUTRITION AND DIETETICS
May 2015 Volume 115 Number 5
2014 Lenna Francis Cooper Memorial Lecture: Inside Out: How Retail RDNs Transform Food Culture Jane Welsh Andrews, MS, RDN Editor’s Note: This lecture was first presented on Sunday, October 19, 2014, at the Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo in Atlanta, GA. This lecture has been edited from its original version for Journal style and to fit within a print format.
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HUNDRED YEARS AGO, women didn’t have the right to vote and few worked outside the home. Lenna Francis Cooper, a woman who defied expectations, changed the culture of health care. It was in 1914 that her book, “The New Cookery,” was first published. She appreciated the fast pace of change in nutrition science and called for a new profession able to translate the science and inspire change in individuals as well as food systems. Registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) working in supermarkets follow in her footsteps.
BRINGING FOOD TO PEOPLE, A HIGH CALLING I grew up on a family farm just north of Terre Haute, IN, several hours south of Cooper’s home in Michigan. The Welsh family has been farming on either side of the IndianaeIllinois state line for generations. As a youngster I learned to serve customers as they came to the farm to buy eggs. One of my fondest memories is tagging along as my father delivered eggs to area businesses. In an article entitled “Sells ‘em Across the River” from the Terre Haute Tribune Star, circa 1935, my grandfather, Frank Welsh, described his ability to anticipate customers’ needs for eggs and dressed chickens. The article mentions the same diners and pool 2212-2672/Copyright ª 2015 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2015.03.001
ª 2015 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Jane Welsh Andrews, MS, RDN halls that I delivered eggs to 30 years later. Success in the food business depends on building lasting relationships based on customer needs. As a youth I was intrigued by everything about food. My mother, a registered nurse working in public health, was almost as passionate about nutrition as she was about serving others. She also grew up in the food business, working in her father’s grocery store in the village of St Mary’s of the Woods, IN. She often said that if you knew John Foradori you’d never go hungry. During the Great Depression, my grandfather allowed customers to keep a tab as long as needed. Fifty years later, people were still trying to settle their parents’ debts. I learned that bringing food to people was an important way to serve others.
MY BEGINNINGS AT WEGMANS John and Walter Wegman also grew up working in their parents’ grocery store
Lenna Francis Cooper—“The science of nutrition travels so rapidly that it is almost impossible to keep up with it.” in Rochester, NY. John started peddling produce around town from a pushcart. By 1916 he and his brother formed the Rochester Fruit and Vegetable Company that later became Wegmans Food Markets. As a dietitian in preventive cardiology at the University of Rochester and the mother of three young sons, my life was full. And as a shopper I couldn’t wait to see what product or service Wegmans would come up with next. One particular summer a recruitment T-shirt caught my eye. Every time I shopped, often with the boys, I saw people wearing the message: “If you love shopping here, you’ll love working here.” My silent response: “Yes!” My mother, Mary Foradori Welsh, knew what it was like to work in a food store and did not send her only daughter to college to bag groceries! But Wegmans was doing more work in
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Welsh Farms, 1958: Jane, David, and Don Welsh (L to R).
John Foradori and family, 1918. 830
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nutrition education than anyone else in the community. Having toyed with having my own business, I instead wanted to work with and through others. When in 1988 Mary Ellen Burris asked me to do some contract work, which lead to a half-time position, I said “yes!” Mary Ellen Burris, MS, senior vice president for consumer affairs, is an industry legend who has helped bring consumers to the table since 1971. Mary Ellen changed the workplace as she climbed up the executive ladder. She was among the first in the nation to hire a registered dietitian nutritionist in the supermarket setting. It takes a key leader in the organization, like Mary Ellen, to see the possibilities. Every retailer is organized differently. Nutrition might report up through store operations, marketing, pharmacy, human resources, merchandising, or quality assurance. At Wegmans, Nutrition & Product Labeling is part of the Consumer Affairs Department with over 100 staff including Consumer Services, Media Relations, Community Relations, Quality Assurance, Food Safety, and Sustainability. We provide value by maintaining consumer trust and building loyalty. According to Mary Ellen Burris, “About 15 years after I joined Wegmans I met Jane. Wegmans was collaborating with a researcher at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He had a grant from the National Institutes of Health to bring buses to our parking lots to screen people for cholesterol. The objective was to see what happens once people get screened and what information they needed. Jane had prepared that information and I was very impressed. She knew how to do ‘consumer speak,’ she knew how to listen, and she was entrepreneurial. It was that entrepreneurial drive that I so admired. “I hired Jane in 1988. Our customers were beginning to ask a lot more questions about health back then, questions that I, with my generalist knowledge, was not able to answer. So I definitely needed help. And Jane came in and ultimately hired other likeminded nutritionists. They have these qualities of really listening and of focusing on what makes the difference to help people change behavior. I learned from my days in cooperative extension that telling people to ‘eat May 2015 Volume 115 Number 5
FROM THE ACADEMY your vegetables’ just does not make anybody eat their vegetables. You need a way to try, and try again, and figure out what works and what doesn’t work and find ways to make things easy for customers. Jane and her team have a great talent at figuring out what is really going to make a difference and help people to live healthier better lives. That’s what we want. We’re not just simply giving a prescription. We are figuring out what really works to change behavior. “In a fast-paced world like today, more than ever, we need nutritionists who are not confined within a box but who can see what’s going on around them, can see the trends even before they happen, and can develop programs and projects that are going to meet those needs.”
FOOD RETAIL FACTS & FIGURES Wegmans Produce Department in 1930—John and Walter Wegman made national headlines when they opened a 20,000-square-foot store, gigantic by standards of the day.
Retailers may be privately owned, publicly traded, employee owned, or part of a cooperative buying arrangement. Ownership status can be an important factor in how quickly go-to-market strategies change. Consolidation is ongoing. Much like mergers in health care, RDN jobs can be here today and gone tomorrow! Retailers must readily pivot to respond to forces in the overall culture. Economic realities, such as a recession, will dramatically change consumer buying habits. As cooking skills are lost, retailers step in to provide more value-added products. Advances in technology can change marketing and distribution systems. Changing immigration patterns result in specific stores taking on a different mix of ethnic products. Long commutes to work (averaging 1 hour for one way in some communities) can have a profound effect on buying habits as does the current trend of smaller families. Perhaps the most abrupt changes are due to competitive forces such as a discount supercenter moving into the region. Retailers consider these and other trends as they decide where to build and what foods to place in stores.
Where People Shop
Mary Ellen Burris, Wegmans voice of the consumer. May 2015 Volume 115 Number 5
The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) routinely surveys the shopping habits of Americans. FMI Trends 2014 noted that, “Loyalty to a single primary store is giving way to a diversity of stores.” JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF NUTRITION AND DIETETICS
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FROM THE ACADEMY Compared to the prior year, 9% fewer shoppers could name a store as their “primary” place to shop. Of those who did mention a primary store, it was a supermarket—54%, supercenter— 22%, warehouse—5%, discount—3%, limited assortment—4%, or organic/ specialty—2%. Shoppers report visiting two to three different food shopping channels regularly, including: supermarkets—85%, supercenters—46%, discount stores— 29%, warehouse club—26%; low-price, no-frills grocery store—16%, drug store—15%, dollar store—15%, natural or organic food store—11%, convenience store—5%, ethnic grocery—5%, online—3%.1 An emerging trend is the growth of smaller-format discount stores in urban and rural neighborhoods. These include dollar stores that provide packaged shelf-stable foods as well as a growing selection of refrigerated and frozen items.
The Center Store Is Shrinking Consumers’ attraction to all things “fresh” has resulted in supermarket fresh food sales increasing by 5.4% since 2013 for an overall average of 30% of total supermarket sales.2 Also consider that farmers can bypass supermarkets to go directly to consumers such as through membership in Consumer Supported Agriculture and as evidenced in the proliferation of farmers’ markets around the country: an increase of 76% to 8,268 since 2008.3 An important food distribution trend is what is known in the industry as “portable pantries.” People are picking up food in multiple places and have extra stashes in their cars, bags, back packs, offices, and bedrooms. At the same time, consumer surveys report that half of all eating occasions are now snacks.4
Shopping Frequency and Spending The American shopper averages 1.6 visits a week, including 1.2 visits to their primary store.1 And we spend almost 10% of our disposable income on food. This includes 5.4% of income spent on food for at-home consumption and 4.3% spent on food away from home.5 832
Supermarkets have among the lowest profit margins of any industry, nearly a penny on every dollar in profits. For example, in 2013 total profits were at 1.3% of sales in US grocery stores.6 Successful supermarkets make up for these low profit margins though high sales volume.
Digital Shopping Trends Smartphones are used to compare grocery prices, locate products, and get nutrition information by 89% of all US smartphone owners while they are shopping.7 Yet, online grocery sales are only 3% of total food sales.1 Compared to other industries like clothing, books, and photography, food is the last bastion of traditional brick-and-mortar retailing. It is said that consumers want to touch and feel products, especially perishables. The already low profit margins make it difficult for online retailers to undercut brick and mortar companies as was done with books. Add to that the need to cover the extra labor to pick and then deliver groceries for online orders.8 Another barrier for online grocers is that shoppers must plan their order. This could be a difficult task for those who shop by habit or impulse.
THE MULTIPLIER EFFECT Christine Olson, PhD, professor of nutrition science at Cornell University, shared the idea of “the multiplier effect.” Professor Olson believed that nutritionists could be much more effective by sharing messages more broadly, and thereby take those messages to far more people than could ever be reached individually. Her teachings made me consider who might serve as “multipliers.” Food retailers are fabulous community partners. Schools, towns, and other groups routinely approach us and sometimes a supplier gets involved. In 1991 Dole Food Company suggested a produce nutrition tour for classrooms. School children had long come to Wegmans on tours, but it was to see the cakes being iced, touch the lobster, and peek in to the back room. Dole’s idea inspired us to instead develop a food pyramid tour. Since that time we have had over a quarter million 4thgraders attend a free 2-hour nutrition tour based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans at Wegmans. Teachers tell us that it’s the best tour of the year.
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Today we have employees staffing the tour who toured as kids. The multiplier effect is at work. Our division nutritionists regularly collaborate with community partners. Krystal Register first called me on behalf of the Virginia Dietetic Association to seek a donation for an annual meeting. I ended up attending the meeting and became impressed with Krystal. When we needed a nutrition consultant in Virginia, I immediately called her. She is now our division nutritionist for Virginia and Maryland. There’s a never-ending demand for free services. Krystal works strategically so that community partners see the supermarket dietitian as a trusted expert and relationship builder. Krystal shares that, “When we open a store we look for opportunities to raise awareness with medical professionals. People there have no idea of what Wegmans is about. They don’t know that we have pharmacies—or RDNs. So we created an event to bring health care professionals into our store (before it officially opens) to introduce our products and services. “Sometimes the most rewarding connections are at the grassroots level. For example, a celiac support group where 10 to 20 folks are gathered might ask for help with the day-to-day shopping. In turn, when a celiac expert is visiting the store, I can reach back out to the support group and invite them to join us.”
THREE SPHERES OF RETAIL NUTRITION I propose that retail RDNs work primarily in three spheres: Public Health, Products, and Clinical (Figure). Of course, there’s crossover and some retailers might have RDNs focus only on one or two spheres. Tactics can vary broadly. For example, I was hired to respond to consumer questions about nutrition and consider that role to be in the public health sphere, but so are our proactive efforts to help customers “Strive for 5” fruits and veggies a day.
Public Health Sphere Keys to Wellness. Trish Kazacos, RDN, started with Wegmans as a high school student in the video department. She became a Wegmans Scholarship recipient and worked through college as a cheesemonger. Trish May 2015 Volume 115 Number 5
FROM THE ACADEMY
Figure. Three spheres of nutrition for registered dietitian nutritionists working in the retail sector. passionately inspires others to better health. Her top priority is responding to customers who ask for help. “Wegmans nutrition team is on a mission: to simplify nutrition for healthier better lives. One of the key ways we do that is to advocate for those with special dietary needs. First, we listen to their questions. Then, we monitor the science, sometimes even reaching out to outside experts to help us understand the needs and the opportunities to help make the shopping experience easier. Then we create tools to help. Imagine walking into a store that typically has 37,000 items and not knowing which to choose. When you have a special dietary need, life is challenging and you’d like the shopping experience to be as simple as possible. “Our team has worked with our product developers and labeling specialists to create tools. One example is Wegmans Wellness Keys. Our Gluten Free Wellness Key makes it easy for folks who are looking for gluten-free options to find them with a glance at the package front or the recipe in our magazine. “Our Whole Grain Wellness Key encourages all our customers to get more May 2015 Volume 115 Number 5
whole grains. With this simple key on the front of packages, they can add up to three to be sure that they are getting three whole-grain servings a day. For folks who are lactose intolerant we have a Lactose Free key and for those looking for vegan options. we’ve got a key for that too!” “Part of the Wegmans experience is offering incredible customer service. By educating our employees, we help bridge the tools we’ve created to those customers who could use them. In order to take full advantage of the multiplier effect, our employees must know how to guide our customers to use these tools. We do this in a variety of ways: We have online training or we could bring them in a group, training the entire department. Sometimes we train just the managers so that they can then share with their staff. All this helps customers find products quickly and easily. And in that way we simplify nutrition for healthier better lives.”
Culinary
Nutrition. Wegmans has an army of culinary professionals. Our RDNs, especially Jen Felice, RDN, and Kirby Branciforte, RDN, collaborate
with them to bring nutrition insight to recipe development along with nutrition analysis. Nutrition was a second career for Jen, who interned with Wegmans, both as an undergraduate at Rochester Institute of Technology and then at Syracuse University. See her in our nutrition videos on Wegmans.com. Making great meals easy is a goal that starts in recipe development sessions. Jen is the lead nutritionist on the culinary team as they create recipes for Wegmans Menu magazine. This incredibly talented team of chefs knows that Jen respects their work and loves food and cooking almost as much as they do. One of the principles she conveys is that of balance. According to Jen, “No guilt is associated with enjoying great meals when they are mixed with the balance of plenty of fruits and vegetables. Great cooking techniques help keep calories in check.I’m not the ‘food police,’ but rather encourage and sometimes debate with the team so that our customers end up with plenty of wholesome choices to bring balance on the plate. “The food culture at Wegmans has always been strong, but I see it shifting to even more wholesome foods. Whole grains, beans, and seafood are being introduced along with basic cooking techniques that give people the confidence to try foods that might be new to them or that they may not have previously enjoyed. The Mediterranean way of eating has taken hold, and I’d like to think that the voice of nutrition has had an effect on that shift. “Menu magazine is the seasonal playbook for our entire company. And I want the recipes to fit the needs of as many customers as possible . people who stay gluten-free, have diabetes or celiac disease. I take the opportunity to work with the chefs to see what might be substituted to meet special needs.”
Clinical Sphere After joining Wegmans I sought to avoid the clinical sphere. Having “been there, done that,” I believed the public health sphere could provide greater impact. But customers kept calling for help with nutrition in diabetes, for example, convincing me that partnerships with pharmacy would help us
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FROM THE ACADEMY In retail lingo, the “category merchant” is the editor of the product mix within a defined category. He or she decides which brands to carry, what sizes, flavors, and pricing. He or she must understand the trends within his or her category and often turns to internal experts, such as RDNs.
Private
Wegmans magazine Menu, Fall 2014 issue on the Mediterranean style of eating. reach more people struggling with what to eat. Some retailers have RDNs in each and every store to be reimbursed for medical nutrition therapy. Wegmans isn’t there yet. However, in the past 10 years we’ve placed an RDN in each geographic area, called divisions, to serve 10 to 15 stores. Mallary Whipple, MS, RDN, is our division nutritionist in Buffalo, NY. Mallary interned with us while at the University of Buffalo. Her career moved to pediatric obesity in Pittsburgh, PA, before coming back to Buffalo as our division nutritionist. Mallary believes that, “One of the most exciting things about being a Wegmans dietitian is working closely with our pharmacy teams. This helps me make nutrition more approachable and visible in our stores. It’s the multiplier effect in action!” Brian Pompo, RPh, is a pharmacist who has been to so many nutritionist 834
meetings that we tease him about being an honorary RDN. Brian recalls that in the past, pharmacy and nutrition worked separately in different silos. “One of the executives challenged us to begin working more collaboratively and have pharmacy and nutrition at the same table. We want our pharmacists to approach health differently. It started with our quarterly Eat Well Live Well teaching tables to help equip the pharmacist with concepts around food. In that way the pharmacist is no longer just counseling on medication, but can give information on healthy foods options as well.”
Product Sphere Robert Wegman’s words in a 1961 speech called “I am a Merchant” still resonate today: “To do something that no one else is doing, and to be able to offer the customer a choice that [he or] she does not have at the moment.”
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Label. Shopping with a handful of national brand coupons I came to realize that even with a coupon, the national brand product was more expensive than the Wegmans’ brand counterpart. This benefit was explained to me as “private label math.” By reducing broker and marketing costs—so-called middle men— retailers could charge less to the customer while getting a higher profit margin than with the national brand product. And by the way, every other store was selling that same national brand product. Retailers could create unique products and tie them to easy recipes while saving people money. In that way we could follow Robert Wegman’s advice to offer consumers a choice—unique products at greater value—that they otherwise didn’t have. In 1988, Wegmans brand products, though high quality, seemed to be rather generic. We were not doing a good job of telling their stories. That is how I became the ghost writer for Danny Wegman. Beginning with the “Food You Feel Good About” line of products, I wrote the stories on the side panel of products for a few years, an atypical role for an RDN. Mike DeCory is vice president of grocery, dairy, and frozen, and has worked closely with the nutritionists, especially on Wegmans brand products. He reports that, “The nutritionists have been so incredibly helpful for a couple of key reasons: they help us protect the trust, credibility, and integrity that we’ve worked so hard to build.and they help us innovate by fully understanding ways to help our customers be healthier. I don’t know that our merchants have the skill set to figure this out on their own. We need the nutritionists to point us in the right direction and then to provide validation.”
Quality Assurance. Janet Flynn, RDN, worked, as I once had, in clinical nutrition at the University of Rochester Medical Center. But Janet’s first career was as a lab tech at a pharmaceutical May 2015 Volume 115 Number 5
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Wegmans Nutrition Team (July 2012). L to R: Jen Felice, RDN; Mallary Whipple, MS, RDN; Krystal Register, MS, RDN; Marda Heuman, RDN; Jane Andrews, RDN; Kelly Springer, MS, RDN; Trish Kazacos, RDN; Brian Lilly, RDN; Brittany Reynolds, MS, RDN. company. Several years ago she called, hoping to meld those two careers. She is now Wegmans senior quality assurance technologist. No one works harder than Janet to assure that our products live up to the high standards that customers have come to expect. Janet’s role is to “really understand how foods are manufactured, and take that information and move it forward to our consumer service specialists to help answer a consumer question and perhaps even to our category merchants.” Janet always delves into what’s at the heart of the consumer’s question. She may see the need to “advocate for higher quality or more specific information from the supplier. This sometimes takes extra passion to get it right for the customer. and that means that we are getting it right.”
Specialty Focus. Eric Meredith, RDN, spent 6 years in France learning how May 2015 Volume 115 Number 5
to properly age cheese. In 2012 he was hired to build and manage Wegmans’ affinage, also known as cheese caves. Eric bridges tradition and food science to bring exceptional cheeses to market. Starting out as a cook, Eric completed a 2-year culinary arts program and then went on to be among the first to complete the culinary nutrition program at Johnson and Wales. After a dietetic internship he found himself in a neonatal intensive care unit—almost as far away from food as possible while still nourishing people. Eric shares that he “wanted to get back to my roots, back to food. Cheese was the gateway that got me spiraling to France to learn to be an affineur. Cheese has three simple ingredients: milk, salt, and rennet. That’s just the beginning of the process. Affinage is the complex alchemy that occurs after the fresh cheese is produced. It’s the intricacies,
the scientific background that drove me to learn more about this career path. “We reach hundreds of customers daily in each of our 85 stores. We can have a huge impact explaining how these three ingredients can become wonderful products, thousands of unique products. Sharing that information so that our customers learn to appreciate cheese is what drives me now.”
Product Labeler. Nothing irritates me more than over-hearing the phrase, “If you have to ask, you don’t really want to know.” Customers ask because they truly do want to know! We are passionate about the customer’s right to accurate ingredient and nutrition information, especially on the unique products that we offer. Even when it’s not part of regulatory requirements, we do our best to provide helpful product information to consumers.
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FROM THE ACADEMY Sovanny Nuon, RDN, nutrition labeling specialist, is our only RDN on the product labeling team, which includes nine others. Product labeling is a terrific career path for food and nutrition majors, whether they choose to apply for a dietetic internship or not. It is a career that cuts out the clinical piece, but puts food and nutrition knowledge along with organizational skills to work. Sovanny is the nutrition labeling specialist for our specialty cheese, deli, and kosher deli departments. She has been with us since high school, earning a Wegmans Scholarship to the Rochester Institute of Technology then on to a dietetic internship at Syracuse University. Sovanny describes her work with merchants “to ensure that our products are in regulatory compliance. I also build relationships with our suppliers and help them provide us with accurate ingredient specifications. By relying on my food science and regulatory knowledge, I am able to provide our customer service employees and customers with reliable resources. I make a difference by providing accurate ingredient and nutrition data to help our customers make decisions so that they can live healthier and better lives.”
Worksite Wellness. Wegmans is a self-insured company that offers generous benefits to over 45,000 employees. The division nutritionists work in all three spheres; however, their first priority is with employees in a worksite wellness role. We first met Marda Heuman, RDN, at a pre-opening event at one of our Philadelphia, PAearea stores. And not unusual, she asked about how she could get a job with Wegmans. We told her to apply for a job, any job, to get her foot in the door. Marda grew up working in the family restaurant near Pittsburgh, so she knew how to throw a party and landed a part-time job at the catering desk. Staff came to know her as the catering clerk who could help with nutrition. Today she is our division nutritionist for Pennsylvania. Marda builds strong relationships with staff members and recognizes that “one of the greatest things about Wegmans is our knowledge-based service. We put a lot of time and effort 836
into educating our employees. Having dietitians on staff is a great example of that. “I do a lot of coaching on the fly. I’ll be in the aisle and someone will stop and ask me a question. The first thing that I do is to stop and listen. I feel so honored that people invite me into their lives. Everyone has a story. I try not to lose sight of how transformational it is to have someone stop and actually listen. It helps get to where they are so that I can share some nutrition tips and coach them to make small changes that can make a difference.”
Jane Welsh Andrews, MS, RDN, is the 52nd Lenna Frances Cooper Memorial Lecturer. She is the nutrition & product labeling manager for Wegmans Food Markets, Inc, a family-owned chain of 84 stores. From the corporate office in Rochester, NY, Andrews leads the 10member nutrition team as well as eight product labeling staff. She regularly contributes to Wegmans’ Menu magazine, wegmans.com, and scores of consumer brochures. Andrews is an active member of the Food and Culinary Professionals dietetic practice group and has served on their executive committee. She is a member of the Food Marketing Institute’s Genetically Modified Organism Task Force and the Retail Dietitians Business Alliance Advisory Group. View her full Cooper Memorial Lecture announcement in the November 2014 issue of the Journal.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE We couldn’t be more thrilled with the caliber of today’s dietetic interns. More and more of them have previous work experience at Wegmans. Whenever we hire a new RDN, others are impressed and ask, “Where do you come up with these people?” I wink and say, “That’s what you get with registered dietitian nutritionists!” If you say “Yes”.
Fascinated by research on food, nutrition, and consumer trends? Driven to inspire people to better health? Love to talk about food all day long? Willing to flex your role as needed? Want to work with and through others? Perform especially well on crossfunctional teams? Have high ethical standards? Able to bridge science, culture, and personal tastes? Need a fast-paced environment where change is constant?
. then retail may be right for you.
References 1.
Food Marketing Institute. U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends 2014. Arlington, VA: Food Marketing Institute; 2014:10-11.
2.
Wong V. It’s true, we’re buying more fresh food. Business Week website. http://www. businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-13/itstrue-were-buying-more-fresh-food. Published March 13, 2014. Accessed February 24, 2015.
3.
US Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Marketing Service. Farmers markets and local food marketing: National count of farmers market directory listing graph: 1994-2014. http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams.fetch TemplateData.do?template¼TemplateS&navID¼ WholesaleandFarmersMarkets&leftNav¼Whole saleandFarmersMarkets&page¼WFMFarmers MarketGrowth&description¼Farmers%20 Market%20Growth&acct¼frmrdirmkt. Modified August 14, 2014. Accessed February 24, 2015.
4.
Hartman Group. Modern eating: Cultural roots, daily behavior. http://www.hartmangroup.com/download/report/modern-eating2014. Accessed February 24, 2015.
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US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Food expenditures. http:// www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-expen ditures.aspx#26636. Modified December 1, 2014. Accessed February 24, 2015.
6.
Food Marketing Institute. Grocery store chains net profit—Percent of sales. http:// www.fmi.org/docs/default-source/factsfigures/grocery-store-chains-net-profit_ 2013.pdf?sfvrsn¼2. Accessed February 24, 2015.
7.
Google Shopper Marketing Council. Mobile in-store research: How in-store shoppers are using mobile devices. https://www.think withgoogle.com/research-studies/mobile-instore.html. Published April 2013. Accessed February 24, 2015.
8.
Markey J. Expert column: Surviving, thriving on the U.S. digital grocery shelf. Progressive Grocer website. http://www.progressive grocer.com/departments/technology/expertcolumn-surviving-and-thriving-us-digitalgrocery-shelf. Published August 22, 2014. Accessed February 24, 2015.
Practice Applications
Take advantage of the multiplier effect no matter what your practice area. Encourage clients to use nutrition resources at their local retailer. Work more closely with a food retailer on community collaborations. Mentor young people interested in nutrition careers to consider a first job in retail.
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