Group is ‘a true north star’ in guiding independent retailers

Nick Nickitas, general manager of local independent grocers at Instacart and founder of Rosie, said his relationship with ROFDA goes back to his first conference as a guest of Jim Reid of Olean Wholesale Grocers in 2014.

“ROFDA helped our team understand the power of channel partners and the connectivity between cooperative wholesalers across the United States more completely,” Nickitas explained. “As a regional company at the time, Rosie’s subsequent growth and success came in part from the partnerships we forged at ROFDA, as we expanded operations from the northeast to support retailers across the country.

“We’ve learned, listened and have truly enjoyed our time with the members and participants of ROFDA. Now, as part of Instacart, we plan to continue to lean into our strong partnership with ROFDA. We look forward to our continued work together as we build the technologies and best practices to help power local independent grocers – and more broadly – the future of the grocery industry.”

As Instacart is focused on serving as a retail enablement platform, Nickitas said it sees “incredible benefit” from the relationships and information ROFDA provides on the independent grocery industry.

“Wholesalers and member partners freely share information on their needs, expectations for future technology and customer behaviors. Because of this information sharing, we’ve made swift business decisions to better support this part of the grocery ecosystem due to direct engagement and partnership with ROFDA wholesaler leadership and member companies.”

Nickitas also noted that ROFDA membership has provided tremendous benefits.

“We’ve hired key members of our team through our ROFDA networks, been introduced to wholesaler and vendor ecosystem partners who helped us serve independent grocers across the country, have had cold leads turned into deals and learned about the shifts into omnichannel and retailer brand loyalty in digital,” he said.

“We’ve also built incredible relationships that make working in grocery so much fun. The learnings we’ve gained from ROFDA have made us a stronger company and helped lead us to this stage in our corporate journey now as a part of the Instacart platform.”

He added that ROFDA has acted “as a true north star” in guiding independent retailers, cooperative warehouses and locally-focused grocery vendors for the past 60 years.

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