Through year-round advocacy at the State Capitol, CGA works to ensure that grocers and their local communities thrive in California. With more than 11 million Californians residing in food deserts according to recent USDA data, CGA is supporting a legislative effort to expand food access and help bring grocery stores to food insecure areas.

CGA is sponsoring The Food Desert Elimination Act (SB 1419) in collaboration with Senator Rubio, which seeks to provide financial assistance to grocery stores operators who wish to establish a store within a delineated food desert or areas at risk of becoming food deserts.

You can help the effort by urging your legislators to support The Food Desert Elimination Act. To take action, click here to submit a letter to your elected officials in support of SB 1419— it takes less than 60 seconds. Stand with California’s grocery community in calling for new incentives for grocers to expand food access across the state!

Grocery retailers and suppliers traveled to Sacramento in early April for CGA’s Grocers Day at the Capitol event to advocate on behalf of California’s grocery industry.

Grocers met with lawmakers and staff to educate them on the grocery industry’s most pressing issues and speak to their firsthand experience running a business in California. While the day’s top priority was sharing the impacts of retail theft on stores and communities, grocers also asked for legislators’ support on two food access bills, and asked for opposition on harmful self-checkout and store closure bills that would negatively impact stores and customers.

In addition to legislative meetings, attendees were joined by guest speakers from the Capitol community. Journalist Laurel Rosenthal, Sacramento bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, joined us to share her insights on the legislative landscape and takeaways from the March primary election. Members of the Assembly Public Safety Committee Asm. Rick Chavez Zbur and Asm. Juan Alanis joined us for a candid fireside chat around retail theft.

This year’s event also featured the inaugural Legislative Bagging Competition with Senate Candidate Christopher Cabaldon, Asm. Greg Wallis, and Asm. Tom Lackey, judged by our friends at Nugget Markets. Our day of advocacy wrapped up with a President’s Reception back at CGA Headquarters to mix and mingle with lawmakers and members of the Capitol community.

Thank you to all who joined us for a productive advocacy day! Check out event photos below.

It has been a very busy few months since I became chair of the California Grocers Association.

Let me start by saying how proud I am to serve this Association in a leadership role. I do not take this position lightly and vow to do my best in representing retailers and suppliers in this industry that we all love.

In my first official duty as Chair last December, I testified in front of the Little Hoover Commission to share the grocery perspective on retail theft on behalf of CGA and its members. Tasked by the Legislature to conduct research and report back with a policy recommendation on retail theft, this was the second in a series of retail theft hearings to help the commission complete its report. This was quite the experience, and I encourage you to watch the segment online if you haven’t already.

Chair of the Commission Pedro Nava stated in one of the hearings that the witness testifying should consider it a compliment if you are interrupted with questions from commissioners. My testimony, which was slated to take 10 minutes tops, ran almost a full hour. Their interest was an indication of the greater momentum around finding a solution to retail theft in the Legislature and Capitol. While I was happy with the level of engagement from commissioners, I was also surprised by the tone of the questions and their expectations. We learned that they are data-starved, and we as an industry need to do a better job in reporting all incidents to law enforcement and tracking the number of incidents occurring in our locations along with the dollar value of each incident.

To help tackle this need, CGA has created a Retail Theft Committee to gather data from members that we can share with the Legislature to demonstrate the severe impacts of retail theft. We’re hopeful that our efforts will lead to some change in legislation to positively help our industry. I look forward to working closely on this issue with CGA and members throughout the year.

In January, I took a break to attend the Independent Operators Symposium on the Big Island in Hawaii. This was such a special time to spend with members of the Association who represent independent stores and family businesses. It was a beautiful setting for the perfect dose of education mixed in with a whole lot of fun.

We had the pleasure of welcoming a warm friend and colleague to the industry for a special session, Leslie Sarasin from FMI. In her session, Leslie discussed state politics and the issues she and her team are battling in Washington on behalf of the industry.

We also heard from Steve Black on the “5 Rules” for Transforming your Culture for Yourself, Your Team, and Your Family. This was my favorite educational session as it provided me with confirmation that you can and should be a kind and compassionate leader while still expecting successful results from your teams. Be sure to read Steve’s leadership piece later in this issue.

Steve brought wristbands for everyone to take back to their teams with the 5 Rules printed on them and I was excited to share them and what I learned during our weekly team meeting.

The wristband is a quick reminder for us to follow the rules:

Do Your Job,
Be Kind,
No Surprises,
No Drama, and Protect The Brand.

As we celebrate industry leadership in this issue and consider what it means to be a leader in grocery, this is sage advice that we can all benefit from.

The View From Here

The first quarter of the year is a natural time to take stock of leadership within our organizations and ourselves. California Grocer magazine’s latest issue, “The View From Here,” is packed with wisdom from leaders in the grocery industry, highlighting both new faces and seasoned veterans.

CGA Chair Lynn Melillo pens her first column about her recent experience on a retail theft panel, leadership guru Steve Black imparts his top five rules for transforming culture, grocery rising stars — from family-owned stores to national retailers— share their takes on the industry, industry influencer Kevin Coupe muses about retailers balancing authenticity and new opportunities, and Headlite of The Illuminators Greg Siegel speaks to his calm yet confident outlook. The issue also takes a look at the state of the industry, exploring new dynamics in restructuring and consolidation.

Be sure to check out the following must-read sections from Issue 1:

• State of the Industry
  • Pg 16 | Michele Fuller
• The Five Rules for Leading Culture Transformation
  • Pg 22 | Steve Black
• Grocery Industry Rising Stars
  • Pg 26
• Greg Siegel Brings Serious Energy and Good Fun to The Illuminators
  • Pg 36 | Dorsey Griffith

Share Your Story

With more than 30 bills introduced this session aimed at finding an answer to retail theft, everyone wants a piece of the retail theft puzzle. However, few are as intimately familiar with the lived experience of retail theft as California grocers.

We need your voice at Grocers Day at the Capitol on April 3 to educate lawmakers on the grocery industry’s most pressing issues— including retail theft— during face-to-face meetings. CGA’s premiere advocacy event gives grocers the opportunity to candidly share with legislators the severity of retail theft and its impacts on constituents and communities.

The Agenda

• Gather in the morning for a legislative briefing from CGA’s government relations and lobbying team to cover retail theft, PAGA, packaging and more.
• Stay for a Senate leadership overview from Sen. Angelique Ashby and a retail theft fireside chat with Asm. Rick Chavez Zbur and Asm. Juan Alanis.
• Compete for “Best Bagger” during our Legislative Bagging Competition.
• Join peers for a full afternoon of in-person meetings with legislators.
• Unwind with CGA during our evening President’s Reception from 5-6:30 p.m.

ERP: CONNECT

Enterprise Risk Protection professionals— join us a day early in Sacramento for CGA’s inaugural ERP CONNECT event on April 2. We’ll help connect enterprise risk protection challenges to real solutions and engage on pressing issues including retail theft policy solutions and partnerships, implementation of state-mandated Workplace Violence Training (SB 553), and new best practices for grocers.

Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper will join us for a retail theft conversation, and legal and OSH expert Rachel Conn will provide a workshop on workplace violence plans and compliance. Our event is free for CGA members and includes free attendance to grocers Day at the Capitol. Contact Tim James to RSVP.