Wakefern Food Corporation Business Analysis

Introduction and Background In 1946 at the end of World War Two a representative from Del Monte foods introduced the concept of cooperative buying to eight independent grocers in the Newark, New Jersey area (Wakefern History, n.d.). The representative showed the grocers that by buying collectively they could purchase products in larger quantities at a lower cost and pass the low cost onto the consumers. In December of 1946 Wakefern Food Corporation was born with each grocer investing $1,000 (Wakefern History, n.d.). Wakefern Food Corporation is now a cooperative wholesale company that has 50 members and operates under the grocery store chain Shoprite. ShopRite stores were initially located in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania,

All owners of ShopRite stores are members of the Wakefern Food Corporation which now has 50 members and between Wakefern and Shoprite employ over 50,000 employees (About Us, 2017). ShopRite’s purpose is “to care deeply about people, helping them eat well and be happy” (Career Opportunities, n.d.). ShopRite offers a variety of employment opportunities from front line all the way to management positions. They believe making their associates, customers and communities feel valued, welcomed, and respected is what matters most (Career Opportunities, n.d.). In order to maintain ShopRite’s purpose to help people eat well employees need to be trained and have continuous training on food handling safety. ShopRite stores are very fast paced and have new employees joining stores on a regular basis. As they continue to add more ready to eat food options in their departments this training and continuous training will be imperative to the company and the

See Appendix A
Utilizing Training Questionnaire The training questionnaire will help measure the knowledge current ShopRite employees have in regards to safe food handling and what training needs to be conducted immediately to get current employees up to proper standards for food handling. The questionnaire will ask employees questions in regards to what their current work habits are in regards to proper food handling, how much training have they received, and questions about future training. Having the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA’s) to popery perform their jobs will continue to let ShopRite meet their purpose of helping customers eat well. Employees will be given time at work to answer the survey via the web. Administering the survey via the web will allow employees to remain anonymous therefore allowing them to answer honestly. This will also allow ShopRite to receive the results of the survey faster than administering a paper survey. The results of the survey will allow ShopRite to review how effective their current program is, take action on immediate training needs, and make changes to the program they have based on the employee and company