IGA to raise funds and awareness to help parents and families end the nation’s opioid epidemic

CHICAGO, 2017-Aug-10 — /EPR Retail News/ — IGA USA today (August 8, 2017) announced that it is collaborating with Partnership for Drug-Free Kids to launch the first-ever IGA Cares initiative. Through in-store fundraising activities and the sales of specially marked IGA Exclusive Brand products, the IGA Cares initiative will support the mission of the Partnership, a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting families struggling with their son or daughter’s substance use. During this national campaign – which began running in participating IGA stores on August 1st – IGA will raise both critical funds and awareness to help parents and families and help end the nation’s opioid epidemic.

A number of in-store fundraising activites are available from August to December through the sale of specially marked IGA Exclusive Brand products available for purchase in participating IGA stores, and an instore pin-up promotion that will run in stores from mid-August through October. In addition to fundraising, IGA will help to raise awareness of the nation’s opioid epidemic and spread the word about how families can get help through the Partnership’s resources with an informational web page on www.igabetterchoices.com.

“For more than 90 years now, IGA retailers have been building the brand’s reputation by doing their part to give back and support worthy causes in the communities they serve,” Dave Bennett, IGA senior vice president of Procurement & Private Brands, said. “It is only natural that we would use the power of our IGA Exclusive Brand line to align IGA and its retailers with the causes that matter to today’s consumer on a national level, as well. Working with Partnership for Drug-Free Kids to raise awareness and funds during our first-ever IGA Cares initiative, we can do our part to make sure families in IGA communities across the country who are impacted by their son or daughter’s substance use don’t have to suffer alone.”

“With the launch of this inaugural IGA Cares initiative, IGA is demonstrating the true spirit of corporate social responsibility and solidifying their commitment to making a difference in the lives of so many families,” said Marcia Lee Taylor, Chief Policy Advisor for the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. “We are honored that IGA has chosen to partner with us, especially at this critical time when the country is facing an urgent opioid epidemic. Through this effort, IGA will help us support parents and families who are dealing with a child’s substance use or addiction, and in doing so, they will undoubtedly help local IGA communities nationwide.”

Learn more about the Partnership’s extensive resources for families at drugfree.org. Learn more about IGA at www.iga.com.

About IGA
IGA is the world’s largest voluntary supermarket network with aggregate worldwide retail sales of more than $36 billion per year. The Alliance includes nearly 5,000 Hometown Proud Supermarkets worldwide, supported by 29 distribution centers and more than 30 major manufacturers, vendors and suppliers encompassing everything from grocery to equipment items and retail services. IGA has operations in 46 of the United States and more than 32 countries, commonwealths and territories.

About the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids
Partnership for Drug-Free Kids is committed to helping families struggling with their son or daughter’s substance use. We empower families with information, support and guidance to get the help their loved one needs and deserves. On our website, drugfree.org, and through our toll-free helpline (1-855-DRUGFREE), we provide families with direct support and guidance to help them address teen substance use. Finally, we build healthy communities, advocating for greater understanding and more effective programs to treat the disease of addiction. As a national nonprofit, we depend on donations from individuals, corporations, foundations and the public sector and are thankful to SAG-AFTRA and the advertising and media industries for their ongoing generosity. We are proud to receive a Four-Star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest and most-utilized independent evaluator of charities, as well as a National Accredited Charity Seal from the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance.

Contact:

Phone: (773) 693-4520
Fax: (773) 693-4533

Source: IGA

IGA announces reach | influence as IGA 2017 Red Oval Partner of the Year

LAS VEGAS, 2017-Feb-16 — /EPR Retail News/ — IGA today (Feb. 15, 2017) announced reach | influence was named IGA 2017 Red Oval Partner of the Year at the IGA Awards of Excellence Brunch on Sunday, Feb. 12 at the IGA Global Rally, held at the Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas Feb. 10 through 12. Red Oval Partner reach | influence received the award for their outstanding commitment in 2016 to the advancement of the IGA Brand and the independent retailers IGA serves.

Utilizing its extensive experience in the independent channel, reach | influence partnered with IGA in 2013 to achieve a strategic opportunity to leverage the size and scope of IGA for the benefit of IGA independent retailers. IGA Performance Insights, the customized solution created by reach | influence, captures item-level sales data and applies proprietary analytics that enable IGA USA to work with product manufacturing partners to provide incremental, value-added shopper marketing events specifically tailored for IGA retailers. Building on the foundation created by Performance Insights, reach | influence continues to present new opportunities and ideas to improve shopper experience and overall IGA brand value with technology-based promotional concepts. Most recently reach | influence worked with IGA to create and develop IGA Digital Offers, a shopper-centric technology delivering personalized coupons to IGA Licensed Distribution partners and participating IGA stores.

“From the creation of the IGA Performance Insights program to capture item-level sales in 2013, to their current work to establish a shopper-centric solution for delivering personalized coupons online, reach | influence continues to make its mark on the IGA Family,” IGA Chairman Mark Batenic said. “It’s not a stretch to say that reach | influence’s innovative, data-driven approach to technology-based promotional concepts is revolutionizing the way IGA goes to market. But it’s reach | influence’s understanding of the needs and challenges of independent retailers—and the trusting relationships they’ve developed—that make them an invaluable partner to IGA.”

“IGA truly defines family and partnership,” reach | influence CEO Eric Green said. “Being included in the family is a great privilege, being recognized as a partner is an honor, being named Red Oval Partner of the Year, unbelievable.  At reach | influence, we love contributing to the IGA culture of people serving people through the use of data and digital marketing / merchandising solutions.  Thank you to Mark Batenic and all his team for creating such a great organization.”

The Red Oval Family—an alliance of the industry’s premier food manufacturers, service providers and associations—partner with IGA to provide extensive resources that are unavailable to other independents. Throughout the year, Red Oval Partners support IGA retailers and Licensed Distribution Centers in a number of ways, from helping to develop, fund and execute in-store and industry events, to providing insights and services that enable IGA retailers to compete more effectively.

About reach | influence

reach | influence is a retail digital marketing firm focused on powering the shopper experience with the goal of leveraging shopper data to increase sales through a combination of marketing and merchandising programs. reach | influence provides services and insight to independent retailers, wholesalers and CPGs to help them measure marketing efficacy, engage their shoppers and provide a conduit to deliver digital offers. The company’s flagship products, reach | engage and reach | offers, provide shopper facing marketing tools for independent grocery stores in 46 states. For more information about reach | influence, visit: www.reachinfluence.com

About IGA

IGA is the world’s largest voluntary supermarket network with aggregate worldwide retail sales of more than $36 billion per year. The Alliance includes nearly 5,000 Hometown Proud Supermarkets worldwide, supported by 29 distribution centers and more than 30 major manufacturers, vendors and suppliers encompassing everything from grocery to equipment items. IGA has stores in 45 of the United States and more than 30 countries, commonwealths and territories. For more information about IGA, visit the IGA consumer website at www.iga.com, or the business site at www.becomeiga.com

Contact:
Phone: (773) 693-4520
Fax: (773) 693-4533

Source: IGA

IGA launches new program for Groceries Online— IGA GO

Chicago, IL, 2016-Sep-23 — /EPR Retail News/ — IGA today (Sept. 22, 2016) announced the launch of IGA Groceries Online—or IGA GO as it will be branded to shoppers—an ecommerce solution that meets shoppers’ need for a convenient online ordering platform from their trusted local Hometown Proud IGA store. IGA has named two preferred partners to bring IGA GO to its more than 1,100 IGA licensed retailers across the U.S. The partners, Digital Foodie and Freshop, will begin providing their optional online grocery services to IGA retailers immediately.

“IGA retailers are in a unique position to offer an online grocery solution when you consider online shoppers migrate towards a trusted brick and mortar store, prefer online shopping as a service rather than a premium offering, and expect a full grocery experience with access to fresh departments like IGA’s meat, produce, bakery and deli,” said IGA CEO Mark Batenic. “Now our shoppers will have two ways to experience IGA’s personalized level of Hometown Proud customer service: within the walls of the IGA stores they know and trust, and online whenever and wherever is most convenient for them. With the industry’s top two providers behind us, we look forward to the immediate benefit our retailers and shoppers will see from this new IGA offering.”

Award-winning grocery platform creator Digital Foodie is providing an IGA program option that includes retailer-branded web service, linked to IGA branded native mobile applications for placing orders and shopping planning, as well as state-of-the-art in-store picking and fulfillment tools for optimized store pick-up and home delivery. IGA and Digital Foodie also established a marketing partnership for digital experiences that draws upon Digital Foodie’s marketing and consumer adoption best practices, leveraging its successes in more advanced European grocery markets. Digital Foodie will work closely with IGA and its retailers to develop marketing offers and training programs for converged groceries proven to achieve a high level of consumer adoption with profitable results for grocers.

“The retail grocery industry is undergoing a digital transformation that requires grocers to provide converged services including on-demand and in-store solutions to extend and enhance their current bricks and mortar business and to fend off digital inroads by competitors such as Walmart, Amazon and other large grocery chains,“ said Kalle Koutajoki, CEO of Digital Foodie. “We have nearly a decade of experience in deploying online grocery in the most competitive on-demand grocery markets in the world, while simultaneously ‘cracking the code’ to achieving retailer profitability. I am very excited about this partnership, and with our platform and secret sauce to profitability, IGA retailers can jumpstart their on-demand business instantly while keeping the control of the store brand.”

Freshop’s program option will provide full digital personalized engagement and online shopping for IGA’s independent retailers. The company’s full-service offering powers mobile, web and app-clickable circulars, full product catalogs, recipes to shopping lists, list building, and the personalized offers critical to IGA’s independent grocers. Freshop, known throughout the industry for its efficient processing, also offers integration with loyalty platforms, PCI compliant payments, ADA compliant websites, and walkpaths for order fulfillment and outstanding support, all for one simple charge per store.

“Online Grocery is not just for big metro areas—grocers are successfully using Freshop in more than 25 states in communities of all types and sizes,” said Freshop’s CEO Brian Moyer. “IGA’s partnership with Freshop allows IGA stores to not only compete in online grocery but to go beyond what the ‘big guys’ are offering. Freshop’s powerful, easy to use platform enhances each local IGA, highlighting products and personalized services tailored to the community.”

For more information about the program please contact IGA VP of Brand Development Jim Walz at jwalz@igainc.com.

About IGA (www.iga.com)
IGA is the world’s largest voluntary supermarket network with aggregate worldwide retail sales of more than $36 billion per year. The Alliance includes nearly 5,000 Hometown Proud Supermarkets worldwide, supported by 29 distribution centers and more than 30 major manufacturers, vendors and suppliers encompassing everything from grocery to equipment items. IGA has stores in 45 of the United States and more than 30 countries, commonwealths and territories. For more information about IGA, visit the IGA consumer website at www.iga.com, or the business site at www.becomeiga.com.

About Digital Foodie (www.digitalfoodie.com)
Digital Foodie is a customizable and scalable cloud platform that transitions grocery stores’ businesses instantly into the on-demand commerce space. For consumers it enables a fully personalized grocery shopping service used by major retailers and brands. The core of the service is formed by highly personalized food and product recommendations that make everyday shopping easy and fun. For retailers, the on-demand platform provides all the tools needed to run modern online operations, click and collect and home deliveries including efficient fulfilment of orders. Digital Foodie operates currently in USA, Finland, Baltics, Russia and UK. http://www.digitalfoodie.com

Digital Foodie is part of EnterWorks Holding Company, a product content and master data management (MDM) platform that serves the entire value chain in the consumer products industry, from brands to consumers, including customers such as Abbott Nutrition, US Foods, Mary Kay, and Fender Musical Instruments. http://www.enterworks.com

About Freshop (www.freshop.com)
Freshop understands grocery and each tailored solution caters to the unique needs of independent grocers. Freshop offers a comprehensive, customizable, online grocery shopping platform that enables independent grocers of any size to create and extend their in-store experience to an online environment. Our solution enables greater control with a flexible, store-branded platform with complete administrative control for our customers. For more information, please visit www.freshop.com.

Media Contact:
Ashley Page – IGA Communications
apage@igainc.com
773.742.7417

Source: IGA