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Wakefern Profile

Wakefern Food Corporation, PriceRite’s parent company, is the largest retailer-owned food cooperative.  Its 43 member-owners operate approximately 215 ShopRite supermarkets throughout New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Delaware.

PriceRite is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wakefern Food Corporation.  The first PriceRite store opened in 1995 in West Springfield, Massachusetts, and Wakefern currently owns and operates thirty-five stores in five states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. 

Wakefern and its member owners bargain with eleven UFCW locals throughout the northeast, including Locals 1,  27,  100R,  152,  342,  371, 464A, 1262, 1360,  1500, and 1776.

Wakefern and the UFCW negotiate contracts for almost 30,000 workers at ShopRite stores, unlike PriceRite, which operates 100 percent non-union. Over 90% of Shop Rite 215 stores are union stores. Since 2000, PriceRite has grown by 260%, adding over 20 new stores, while ShopRite has grown by 2.44%. 

The company is growing predominantly in areas where its workers are not represented by the UFCW, focusing on New England, upstate New York, and central and northern Pennsylvania.  By contrast, the UFCW represents 100% of ShopRite workers in NJ and Delaware, as well as the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas.

In July, 2007, the cooperative announced that for the first time, it was offering its wholesale services to third-party supermarket operators, in Northeast and other areas of the country. Since then, Wakefern has announced deals to supply Gristedes Supermarkets in the New York City area, as well as the Heinen's Fine Foods chain of supermarkets in Ohio.

Many of the officers and directors of Wakefern, who also own and operate ShopRite stores, oversee PriceRite operations: