2018Issue1_Alabama_v2.indd

CHAIRMAN' S MESSAGE

chang i ng w i t h t h e t i me s

FRANK D'AMICO, III BTC WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTORS AGA CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

February 15 is also the cut-off date to receive the early bird discount on your exhibit booth for the Alabama Grocers Association Annual Convention. We are excited to be going back to Sandestin and hope you have already added July 29th - August 1st to your calendar of events. So we can all work together to change our business with the times. We anticipate another huge crowd this year and hope you will consider this event among your “do not miss” events of 2018! I look forward to seeing each of you soon!

While 2017 was a rough year for non-grocery retailers, it reminds us how important it is to stay viable as we move forward.

Be sure you are reading your every Tuesday Market Minute to know when and where these will take place. We are continuing to strengthen our relationship with the Alabama ABC Board, Alabama Department of Public Health and all other agencies so that we can stay on top of hot topics that face our industry. Please join us in our fight, if you have any issues that come up, please let us know. We work on a daily basis to keep our retailers and vendors strong in this unpredictable market. As many of you know, we offer Alabama Grocers Education Foundation Scholarships to students currently in college and children of parents that work for an AGA member company. Please remember that the cut-off to get in your application and high school and college transcripts is February 15. We hold three events each year to raise money for these scholarships and are proud that we have awarded over 1.2 million dollars to date!

According to Business Insider more than 8,000 stores closures were announced. Many of these were staples of the retail industry such as Payless shoes (closing 900 locations), RadioShack filing chapter 11, Kmart closing another 283 stores and appliance and electronic powerhouse HHGregg closing 220 store locations. Even Sears and JCPenney’s is closing over 100 stores each. While these are non-grocery retail locations, it shows us that we need to be constantly changing with the times to stay viable in a volatile market. Now more than ever we need to band together through your Association to help each other fight for the good of the grocery industry in our State. As we move into 2018 we need to keep our focus on moving forward. We are still working with the Alabama WIC Department on rolling out eWIC in the 4th quarter of 2018. As the pilot date draws near, we will be hosting several eWIC seminars throughout the state to help with the conversion.

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