Bashas’ Names Director of Ops

Bashas’ Family of Stores has promoted Karen Giroux to director of operations, as which she will oversee retail operations, including merchandising, sales, promotional execution, food safety and compliance, for 58 Bashas’ supermarkets across Arizona, including Food City, AJ’s Fine Foods, Eddie’s Country Store, and both Bashas’ and Bashas’ Diné banners.

Giroux began her career with Bashas’ in 1975 as a part-time courtesy clerk, steadily rising through the ranks to become a key member of the chain’s management team.

Among other distinctions, she was the first woman to work on a night crew at Bashas’, helped in 1981 to open the company’s first grocery store on the Navajo Nation, and held the role of senior store director, helping to train newly promoted store directors. She has also worked as director of retail regulatory agency relations, where she oversaw the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); the State Board of Pharmacy OTC; and Bashas’ Groceries on the Go delivery program, among other responsibilities, and as manager of food safety.

“For more than four decades, Karen has proven herself to be a trailblazer, working her way up from an 18-year-old part-time courtesy clerk to a director who not only shoulders immense responsibility, but is greatly respected,” said Robert Ortiz, SVP of operations at Chandler, Ariz.-based Bashas’.

Giroux has received several honors and awards from the company, including Grocery Manager of the Year, Store Director of Year, Woman of the Year and the President’s Award.

With more than 100 grocery stores, family-owned Bashas’ is one of the largest employers in Arizona.