Big Y Foods Inc. is investing millions of dollars in its associates through a pay raise scheme that is set to go into effect June 26. Starting pay rates for all clerks, customer service, fresh food and center store specialists, and assistant department managers will go up, and almost 7,600 members of its workforce will receive a pay increase.

Hourly store operations teams eligible for the raise work in Big Y Markets, as well as Table & Vine and Big Y Express Gas and Convenience Stores. After June 26, all retail Big Y employees will be paid above minimum wage in both Massachusetts and Connecticut. 

“We are proud to be investing in our hard-working store teams who have been on the front lines these past two years to support our customers and our community. We know that household budgets are being squeezed by inflation. We hope that by boosting their hourly rates, we will help them to weather these tough times as we recognize and appreciate their efforts and their loyalty” said Charles L. D’Amour, president and CEO. 

Springfield, Mass.-based Big Y operates 85 locations throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut, including 71 supermarkets, Table & Vine Fine Wines and Liquors, and 13 Big Y Express gas and convenience locations, with almost 12,000 employees. The company is No. 75 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.

Seeking to help create sunnier days for children facing health hurdles, Aldi US is launching a summertime campaign supporting Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF). Beginning June 15, the retailer is offering reusable shopping bags designed by ALSF child artists and selling lemon-themed items such as lemonade drink mixes, ice pops and confections. Proceeds from sales of those items, along with donations by customers and associates, will go to this cause.

This is Aldi’s fourth annual fundraising effort benefiting ALSF, a nonprofit organization founded by pediatric cancer patient Alex Scott, who raised $1 million before passing away at the age of eight. This year, the discount retailer announced a fresh goal to donate $10 million to the foundation by 2027.

“Thanks to your generosity and the contributions of our employees, we have raised more than $3 million for ALSF since 2019,” said Dave Rinaldo, co-president of Aldi US, in a letter to customers.

“All donations will honor Alex’s legacy by funding research for a cure or providing financial support to families who need to travel for treatment,” Rinaldo continued. “As a member of the ALSF advisory council, I’ve seen the empathy and energy with which ALSF works to make a positive difference in the lives of those affected by cancer. It’s an honor to work with ALSF and you to fight this disease. Together, let’s put the squeeze on childhood cancer."

Operating in 38 states, Batavia, Ill.-based Aldi U.S. is No. 24 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.

Boxed, Inc., an e-commerce grocery platform that sells bulk consumables and licenses its e-commerce software to enterprise retailers, has revealed its stock will be added to the Russell 2000 Index, effective as of market open on June 27.

The Russell 2000 Index measures the performance of the small-cap segment of the U.S. equity market. Membership in the Russell 2000 Index, which remains in place until the next reconstitution, is based on membership in the broad market Russell 3000 Index. Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for active investment strategies. Approximately $12 trillion in assets are benchmarked against Russell's U.S. indexes. Russell indexes are part of FTSE Russell, a global index provider.

Boxed merged with Seven Oaks Acquisition Corp. on Dec. 8, enabling the company to raise approximately $198 million in gross cash proceeds. 

Chieh Huang, co-founder and CEO of New York-based Boxed, commented, “The addition of Boxed to the Russell 2000 Index is indicative of further momentum following our successful business combination in December. We believe being a part of these highly regarded and widely used indexes will bring greater awareness to Boxed as we work to achieve our growth potential.”

Inflation-wary consumers turning to bulk products recently helped propel Boxed to a solid first quarter. Boxed boosted its net revenue by 14.1% compared to a year ago to reach $46.6 million. The platform’s retail net revenue rose 11.3% on a year-over-year basis and net revenue from its software and services arm surged 127.1% in that same period.

With no “big-box” store membership required, Boxed’s bulk pantry consumables delivery service is powered by the company’s own purpose-built storefront, marketplace, analytics, fulfillment, advertising and robotics technologies. Boxed also operates its Software & Services business, which offers customers in need of an enterprise-level e-commerce platform access to its end-to-end technology.

Chicago-based Foxtrot, which bills itself as an upscale, modern convenience retailer offering both in-store discovery and rapid delivery, is positioning itself for further growth by bringing on a seasoned executive as president and CFO. Liz Williams takes on those new roles, in which she will oversee the operations, finance, strategy, real estate, human resources, supply chain and growth functions.

Williams comes to Foxtrot from her most recent position as CEO of Drybar in Irvine, Calif., where she championed an e-commerce re-platform and improved operations while reducing new unit costs. Before that, she spent nine years at Taco Bell, where she served as CFO and president of its international business. Her background also includes a stint as senior director of corporate strategy at Yum! Brands in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

According to company information, Williams will leverage her brand and foodservice experience as Foxtrot continues to enhance and evolve its culinary offerings, including the rollout of a new PM Café program and pizza program. She also will implement new inventory and delivery operations to help Foxtrot meet its customers’ needs and its own goals.

The Foxtrot exec will hit the ground running, as the retailer plans to open 50 stores over the next two years, including potential sites in New York, Miami, Nashville and Austin, Texas. Foxtrot currently operates 20 stores, including several locations in its hometown of Chicago in addition to spots in Washington, D.C. area and in Dallas. Earlier this year, the company secured $100 million in Series C funding to help facilitate its nationwide expansion.

Cadia, a private label brand from Naperville, Ill.-based KeHE Distributors LLC, will unveil a major rebranding at its 2022 Holiday Show on June 15-16. Created exclusively for KeHE independent retailers to help them compete against larger chain stores, Cadia offers food and household products that are thoughtfully selected for consumers seeking higher-than-expected quality at a lower-than-expected price. The brand offers more than 250 SKUs in 40 categories, including an organic line of bulk goods.

The theme of the rebrand – The Corner Store – was inspired by Cadia’s belief that neighborhood grocers are a vital source of goodness in local communities. The packaging redesign makes that commitment plain to consumers, bringing indies to the forefront of the brand message.

Cadia’s new look and feel aims to show the brand as empowering, resolute, grounded, cool, quirky, and neighborly, with a grass-roots vibe. The redesign will evoke the era of mom-and-pop stores, taking inspiration from the past and giving it a modern twist. The brand refresh also includes the creation of Cadia Everyday, a lower-priced line of non-organic products free from artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.

Cadia’s new packaging will be on display in booth 5096 at the KeHE 2022 Holiday Show at The McCormick Center in Chicago. The Holiday Show affords KeHE’s retailer partners the opportunity to learn about and experience 800-plus products. 

KeHE is the largest pure-play distributor of natural and organic, specialty, and fresh products to more than 30,000 natural food stores, chain and independent grocery stores, e-commerce retailer, and other specialty products retailers throughout North America. The company has more than 6,800 employee-owners and is a Certified B Corporation.

Indicating that the time is ripe for technology that ensures the quality of fresh food, reduces waste and optimizes sales, Strella Biotechnology, Inc. has raised $8 million in Series A funding for its produce sensor technology.

Strella’s solution is based on novel biosensors and real-time data streaming that measure the ripeness of each piece of fresh produce. According to company information, the technology enables the monitoring of freshness from harvest to the store shelf.

“Suppliers, retailers and importers are doing their best to bring high-quality, healthy produce to consumers in the most efficient way possible. However, unlike manufactured foods, there is no accurate expiration date for produce, which makes optimizing inventory a challenge for the industry across the entire supply chain,” explained Katherine Sizov, CEO and co-founder of the Seattle, Wash.-based tech startup. “We’re proud to work with such incredible investors to tackle this increasingly urgent problem and support growers and retailers with an end-to-end solution.”

While the technology was first used to assess the maturity of apples, the latest funding will propel product development in other commodities. Strella Biotechnology will also use the fresh capital to expand its work with grocers nationwide, the company said. To date, Strella has monitored over 2.1 billion pieces of fruit.

Supporters in this latest round of fundraising include lead investor Millennium New Horizons, along with Google Ventures, Rich Products Ventures, Mark Cuban, Yamaha Motor Ventures, Catapult Ventures and Union Labs.

“More and more retailers are making waste reduction their top priority, with over a dozen of the world’s largest grocers looking to halve food waste by 2030,” remarked Ray Cheng, a partner at Millennium New Horizons. “By combining molecular biology with data science, Strella is uniquely positioned to solve food waste challenges at scale, as it has already demonstrated with its early customers.”