Industry Intelligence

As breakneck busy as they've been for the Progressive Grocer team, the waning weeks of 2011 finds us gratefully reflecting on an amazing 12 months of unprecedented growth for our venerable brand under the Stagnito Media umbrella.

More importantly, we’re revved up to shift into even higher gear in 2012, as we embark on a yearlong commemoration of PG’s 90th year of continuous publication. Clearly much has changed in the nine decades since the debut of The Progressive Grocer in January 1922, at the outset of an era that embodied the beginning of modern America, and with it, the birth of modern consumerism in which grocery stores played an integral role.

Consequently, the table was set for “The National Magazine for Retail Grocers” to quickly establish itself as the premier source of “practical, helpful information of what the other fellow is doing to get more business and to make more money.” Pledging in our first issue to deliver “an interesting magazine … dedicated to the grocer who believes in his business and is anxious to improve his opportunity to serve his community,” we are justifiably proud of our enduring heritage and abiding commitment to serve an industry that’s largely viewed as the most indispensible of all retail sectors.

We will kick off our yearlong 90th anniversary festivities in our January issue with the first installment of a decade-by-decade retrospective illustrating how America’s supermarkets — and the suppliers that serve them — have kept pace with the times. The monthly series will culminate in a special issue in late 2012, chronicling the evolving retail food industry, with a special focus on its most historically influential leaders.

We will complement our in-print feature series with an interactive multimedia platform that you’ll learn more about in the coming weeks, for which we’ll be enlisting the contributions of our valued readers and fellow food industry buffs, whom we urge to break out the vintage photos, ads, sales flyers and floor plans — anything that displays pieces of your companies’ most important people, places and events that have occurred during the last 90 years — to help us commemorate the significant role those companies have played in shaping American culture, commerce and community. Please stay tuned for further details.

Meanwhile, back to the present: As we look ahead to a New Year and new opportunities, all of us at Progressive Grocer and Stagnito Media are grateful the faithful support of our readers and advertisers, for allowing us to remain the most well respected source of need-to-know news in the industry. Whether you count on us for the day’s top headlines, or to learn something new about the latest industry and consumer trends, or to simply keep tabs on your competitors from a distance, your loyalty provides us with ample inspiration to do our very best to provide the diverse and dynamic food industry with the most reliable, timely coverage in the marketplace.

Best wishes for the holidays and a prosperous New Year!

Meg Major
mmajor@stagnitomedia.com

Season's Greetings from your friends at Progressive Grocer and The Gourmet Retailer, including (l-r) Susan Haderer, Jeff Friedman, Joe Tarnowski, Shari Levenson, Robert Kuwada, Meg Major, Jim Dudlicek, Anna Wolfe, Bridget Goldschmidt and Debra Chanil.