Category: Celebrating Innovation

More Village Innovation: Virtual Culinary Classes – All of the fun and flavor, none of the close contact!

In these unique times of isolation and social distancing, people are longing for opportunities to do something fun. Our Bin37 Culinary Studio at the ShopRite of Greater Morristown is usually full of people gathering together over their love of food and cooking, but with social distancing measures in place and classes postponed, it’s been weeks since we’ve been able to offer our unique culinary insight with the community.

Yesterday we ended that isolation streak and hosted our first-ever virtual Bin37 culinary event through Zoom. Participants signed up for the class online and had the option to purchase a box that included everything required to make a truly classic Italian dish along with a perfectly paired bottle of wine.

Thanks go to Craig Lutzca, Chef Danny, Jason Mongiovi, Vicki Plamantouras, and the Bin37 culinary team, as well as Brandon Pantano, Rob Moorhead, and the marketing team for bringing this to life and showing our communities that we will find ways to get through this together!

Here are some highlights from last night’s event:

Guests learned about this event through an email list and through social media. They were able to register directly through Zoom to reserve their spot.

Chef Danny, Jason, and their Bin37 team put together 79 boxes for our class participants. Everything was pre-portioned and ready to cook!

Pre-portioned Ingredients:

Customers were able to choose either contactless curbside pickup or delivery. For those who chose to pick up, they were greeted by our friendly staff who placed their box right in their truck!

Our 100 class participants were treated to multi-camera angles and insider tips throughout the 90 minute class where Chef Danny prepared two Italian Classics, Chicken Sorrentino and Cacio e Pepe. Some people chose to cook alongside Chef Danny while others just observed with a glass a wine waiting to cook later. The class was 100% interactive, and Chef Danny answered questions throughout the entire event.

Behind the Scenes:

Our guests all had a great time! So many of them shared their behind-the-scenes photos and finished products with us. We were so happy were able to connect with our customers over food, no matter how far apart we actually were.

Cooking Along with Us:

We look forward to hosting another cooking class soon! Check out the full class recording here: Dropbox Video

Village Super Market is getting into the employee blog business! You’ve asked us to keep you informed about what’s happening in your company, so we’ve launched this new site for your benefit. The Village Family Room is your resource for all things Village.

Looking for info about how we’re keeping you and your families safe during the pandemic? Got you covered. Want to find out about all the important projects we’re cooking up? You can find that here, too. If you want to stay up-to-date on the interesting things we’re doing for you, our communities, and our customers, this blog is your resource.

It’s easy to navigate, too — the most recent post is always at the top of the page, and you can select a category on the right side of the main site to see only the articles related to it. As we launch new programs, we may ask you to submit photos or videos so we can feature our Associates; you can click the “Media Upload Center” button to send them to us.

And, as always, we’re interested in hearing your feedback. You can use the “Contact Us” button on the right side to ask questions or send us comments, and we’ll forward it to the appropriate people to make sure your voice is heard.

Bookmark this page and visit us again so you can be the first to tell your friends about the new things that are coming your way!

We launched this app for our Associates over a year ago but many Associates still aren’t aware of this incredibly useful tool. Do you know you can see all of this info in the palm of your hand anytime you’d like?

Our Associates can use this app to…

• Check their current and next week’s schedule
• View their current and previous time card
• See how much PTO they’ve accrued

The timeclocks and paper schedules have some of this info as well, but you can view it anytime they’d like by logging in to the Kronos app using their VG/VS/VM user name.

1. Search “Kronos Mobile” in the Apple App Store or on Google Play for Android, or click the links on this line to go straight there
2. When it asks for a server, type in: https://krweb.wakefern.com/wfc
3. Your User Name is your vgxxx, vsxxx, or vmxxx ID (all lowercase)
4. Your Password is the same as your LINK password, or the same one you use to view your paystub online

If you need to reset your password or you’ve never made one before:

• Reset your password by going to myaccount.wakefern.com
  OR
• Call the Wakefern Help Desk at 1-800-339-0495 and follow the prompts

If you’re a first time user and never created a password before, your password will be Welcome (with a capital W) plus your 9-digit employee ID number.

• For example: Welcome300123456

We hope you find this app useful and it saves you some time!

At the end of April, Village began offering an exciting new way to get fresh produce into our customers’ homes: the Fresh Essentials Box! We partnered with Gargiulo Produce to assemble a box of pre-selected items at a fixed price. This way, our customers can get the most popular fruits and veggies in the safest, simplest way at a great price, and it contains enough produce to last most families one week. Customers of our SRFH stores can order through our website or from the Deli & More app, and can choose to pick up the box or have it delivered to their home via DoorDash. A big shoutout goes to Craig Lutcza and Joe Kurtz for developing this great program.

The produce box was a big hit with our customers, garnering a lot of attention on social media. In fact, it was so popular that we expanded the program to include a Cleaning Essentials Box and the Village Family Meals Box.

Starting this Saturday, our SRFH stores will offer the Cleaning Essentials Box which contains some hard-to-find items that are difficult to keep in stock, such as disinfectant spray and wipes, among other basic supplies such as gloves and paper towels. This again provides our customers with safe and convenient options to protect their families, using the same pick-up or delivery methods as the produce box.

We’re also piloting our Village Family Meals Box in a few stores; this program offers fully cooked, heat-and-serve meals for a family of four, providing quality meals without the prep work. Our customers can order any combination of these seven meals through the Deli & More website or app.

The Produce Essentials Box, Cleaning Essentials Box, and Family Meals Box are conveniently available in the catering section of ShopRite.com under “Boxed Essentials”.

We’re thrilled to be rolling out these innovative programs, and we expect them to be a big hit! We’ll keep you informed of all the new and innovative programs we roll out, and we hope you can be proud of a company that’s always finding creative solutions to fit our customers’ needs.