By: Cynthia Brazzel, director of member relations & advocacy in the western region, Food Marketing Institute

FMI was pleased to help organize a visit to Stater Bros. Markets for Congresswoman Norma Torres (D-CA-35) on July 7th at the Schaefer Avenue store in Chino, California, part of the Congresswoman’s district. Rep. Torres shared that she is a regular shopper at the Stater Bros. Markets in Pomona, where employees know her by name and the meat cutter saves her a turkey for her last-minute holiday shopping.

Stater Bros. Markets CEO, Pete Van Helden, and Executive Vice President of Administration and Distribution, George Frahm, along with store manager, Jeff Doup, guided the congresswoman around the large format store highlighting the popular fresh offerings for the grab-and-go customers and introducing various Stater Bros.Markets employees along the way. Cynthia Brazzel, FMI’s director of member relations & advocacy, western region, participated in the visit.

The tour afforded an opportunity to share with the Rep. Torres the key challenges in the industry including the impact of menu labeling, the enormous costs of swipe fees, and how that translates to a hidden tax on customers, and several tax issues including the need to lower the effective tax rate and the negative impact of a border adjustment tax. In addition, Van Helden explained the investment Stater Bros. Markets makes in its employees vis-à-vis the Retail Management Certificate Program, an 8-course community college competency-based education program developed by the industry. Stater Bros. Markets is proud to support the RMCP with a large number of its employees enrolled and graduated from the program.  

The Chino store boasts a 30 percent energy efficiency and has an in-house pharmacy; an extensive meat selection with a team of butchers who are uniquely trained in Stater Bros. Markets State-Certified Meat Cutter program, a two year intensive training program that ensures the company’s high standards for Quality, Animal Welfare, Food Safety and Sanitation; and a vast produce department with an array of local and organic offerings. Helping encourage its customers to increase their vegetable and fruit consumption, Stater Bros. Markets offers an ongoing promotion of 20 items at 99 cents each, a nudge to encourage good health to customers. Stater Bros. Markets is also a very active FoodPAC Partner and has successfully run a FoodPAC company campaign for over 16 years! 

To further showcase your company initiatives and add value to your community outreach without disrupting your retail operations, FMI will help arrange and support a store visit from a Member of Congress.

Contact Jennifer Hatcher, chief public policy office & senior vice president, government relations, Food Marketing Institute, and let our government relations team do the work for you.