What began in 1946 as a seven-member food retailing cooperative is today a bustling enterprise of over 200 stores in the eastern United States. Village Super Market, Inc. (VLGEA) is a group whose main activities are operating their chain of supermarkets under the ShopRite banner in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
VLGEA trades on the NASDAQ exchange as part of the Grocery Stores sector and has headquarters in Springfield, New Jersey. They have a market capitalization of $333.8M. All ShopRite storeowners are members of Wakefern Food Corporation, the merchandising, and distribution arm of ShopRite. There are now 200 ShopRite stores in existence with 43 member-owners who individually own and operate the supermarkets.
In 1946 a Del Monte Foods sales representative encouraged seven independent grocery stores owners around Newark, New Jersey to band together as a buying unit to get better inventory purchasing deals. Each of these seven grocers invested $1,000 and Wakefern Foods came into being. While they had increased buying power so they could offer their customers better deals, each grocer still operated his business under his own name. However, that changed in 1951 when they came together under the ShopRite name.
Today, VLGEA’s ShopRite stores serve 4 million customers each week. The Wakefern distribution arm of the business has 50,000 employees. With all of the ShopRite owners’ members of the Wakefern Food Corporation, the ShopRite stores are the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States. They are also New Jersey’s largest employer.
Wakefern purchases, warehouses, and distributes their grocery inventory to all ShopRite stores. They operate out of a 2.5 million square foot warehouse in Elizabeth, New Jersey. They have an arsenal of 400 tractors and 2,000 trailers to get the groceries out to their supermarket network and their customers.
Village Super Market, Inc. is a major grocery store player in their market territories. Their ShopRite stores have come a long way from their humble beginnings as a seven-member cooperative splitting case lots to offer their customers better prices. They continue to provide their customers the quality and selection of supermarket goods they demand.
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