Template:Infobox Co-operative
The Wakefern Food Corp., founded in 1946 and based in Elizabeth, New Jersey (United States), is the largest co-operative group of supermarkets in the United States. The name "Wakefern" is a portmanteau of the founders' names (W for Louis Weiss, A for Al and Sam Aidekman, K for Abe Kesselman, an E added for pronunciation, and FERN for Dave Fern), though the company adopted the name ShopRite for its stores in 1951.
Wakefern owns one of the Northeast's largest trucking fleets and is the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the country.
Wakefern also created and operates or franchises the PriceRite limited-assortment chain of stores throughout Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and California. PriceRite is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wakefern.
The company supplies all of its members' ShopRite stores as well as the PriceRite chain. 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.
Wakefern also provides stores with services such as: computer services, insurance, advertising, marketing, merchandising, and procurement.
See also[]
- ShopRite (United States)
- PriceRite