Retired ShopRite Operator Dies of the Coronavirus

Steve Ravitz, the retired president of Cherry Hill, N.J.-based Ravitz Family Markets, which operates five ShopRite stores and one PriceRite location in southern New Jersey, has died from COVID-19, according to a published report. Ravitz, who passed away April 7 after battling the illness for 13 days in an area hospital, was 73 years old.

“We are deeply saddened by the death of our beloved father and friend Steve Ravitz, the patriarch who guided our family business, Ravitz Family Markets, for 40 years before retiring in 2019,” his family told NJ Advance Media via statement. “Steve died on Tuesday night at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia from complications due to the coronavirus.”

A Philadelphia resident who grew up working in his father’s grocery store, Ravitz also ran the family’s charitable foundation for two decades before stepping down from doing so in 2016 as chairman emeritus, and he was a board member of retailer cooperative Wakefern Food Corp. for 27 years. His sons, Jason, Shawn and Brett Ravitz, currently run the family business.

Additional survivors include his son David; his daughter, Remy Strause; daughters-in-law Debbie Ravitz and Lauren Ravitz; son-in-law Brett Strause; his brother, Ron Ravitz; and eight grandchildren.

The largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States, Wakefern comprises 50 members that independently own and operate 353 supermarkets under the ShopRite, The Fresh Grocer, Price Rite Marketplace and Dearborn Market banners in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Virginia. Together with its member companies, Wakefern, which is No. 8 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States, employs more than 70,000 people, and is one of the largest employers in New Jersey.