I went to ALDI once as a child, retained a faint memory of being confused about the shopping cart system, and never went back. That is until I went to college and got a reality check, seeing the store through a new perspective. Now, I consider ALDI to be my “go-to” grocery store.  

I do understand the appeal of shopping at larger grocery stores; you are likely to find almost anything you are looking for. However, ALDI provides so much more than convenience. Although it may seem confusing at first, ALDI’s unique way of operating provides a fresh relief from the craziness of the mass retailers. Understanding the cart system, layout, product, and prices, all help make shopping at ALDI a great experience.  

I wanted to provide accurate personal opinions and observations, so in preparation for this article I did my grocery shopping at both a mass grocery retailer and ALDI, here are my comparisons. For those who aren’t as familiar with ALDI, I also included some tips to help understand and navigate ALDI to ensure a great shopping experience: 

Remember Your Quarter! (The Cart System) 

When you first get to ALDI, if you want a smooth shopping trip, my best advice would be as simple as making sure you bring your quarter. The carts are connected to one another, each by a small chain. By putting your quarter in the small slot, it will push out the chain and disconnect your cart allowing you to begin your grocery expedition. If you forget your quarter (something I have done numerous times) no worries, you can grab a box if you see one around the store, otherwise, a departing shopper is usually kind enough to give you theirs upon asking. 

I was at first confused why these extra steps were necessary but implementing this allows for less staff needed at a time, which in the end helps lower prices on food. It also keeps customers accountable for returning carts to help decrease the chances of a rogue cart hitting a car. Once your cart is returned and you hook the chain back in, it will pop your quarter out. Although my own random act of kindness has been to leave my quarter for the next person (helps me sleep at night). In short, bring your quarter, and don’t worry because you’ll get it back once you return the cart.  

Layout 

When I went to a larger grocery store to shop and do my research, I couldn’t help but notice that when I was walking around it was easy to find myself in someone else’s personal space and vice versa. After thinking about it, I decided to attribute it to the fact that there was no steady flow of foot traffic. Everyone was on their own confusing path to the point that it was overwhelming. ALDI’s has a simpler organization strategy that allows for aisle-like walking space through the produce and bakery section, all without feeling too condensed. This creates a steady flow of energy, instead of the roaming and bumping you find in the vastly open produce and bakery sections of the larger grocery store.  

I love having a feeling of a collective community connection in a grocery store and ALDI promotes this friendly community feel by providing a welcoming, organized environment. Being a college student, I find that the sense of loneliness can tend to be a new concept for people in my age group. To be able to go somewhere I feel connected while having my personal space be for the most part respected, is a nice escape from the close-quartered lifestyle so many of us find ourselves living today.  

Products  

One thing that is important to note is that due to ALDI being smaller in comparison, it should be expected that they might not have everything on your grocery list. This frustrated me at first, but I was soon able to find relief in the smaller selection. Whereas when I walked down the chip aisle at the larger grocery retailer, I was greeted by what seemed like an almost staggering number of choices. At ALDI there was still a respectable amount to choose from, but not to the point of being overwhelming. I also appreciate the fact that ALDI tends to have many healthier options and offers a lot of food that is clearly labeled gluten-free and organic. Some of my favorite Aldi products are Friendly Farms oat milk, Choceur dark hazelnut chocolate bars, and Appetitos mozzarella cheese sticks. ALDI has a well-rounded selection of cheeses and high-quality chocolates; I always shop these sections when I’m in the store. I also like to check out the ALDI Finds aisle which has a constant rotation of new household products. 

Prices 

ALDI’s prices are extremely affordable compared to the larger supermarket I visited. I appreciate this very much, especially during school when I am cooking for myself and there is an even greater emphasis on saving.  

As a student in college trying to balance a budget and prepare my own meals, I appreciate all that ALDI has to offer including affordable prices, quality food selection, and the sense of community that it creates. When grocery shopping, my personal routine is to first stop at my local farmers market (if the season permits) then ALDI. Since ALDI has a more limited selection, if necessary, I will make a quick stop at a larger grocery store to grab the remaining items on my list. I understand some may not like the possibility of needing to make more than one stop, however, I found what caters to my personal needs and wants, as a college student.  

If you are not familiar with shopping at ALDI, I gently encourage you to step out of your comfort zone, even just once, to better understand and optimize your shopping experience in a way that caters best to you. As a side note, I also personally suggest investing in an air fryer, to elevate your food experience and overall quality of life. You can thank me later!  

Sarah Lenz 

Julie Curtis was the featured speaker at a NextUp event about networking earlier this year. As a member for over 15 years, she was honored to be asked and happy to give back to a community that has enriched her career.

NextUp (formerly Network of Executive Women) is a nonprofit community focused on advancing all women, growing business, and transforming workplaces.

Leading an executive search firm requires constant networking and building relationships, so Julie was the perfect candidate for the job! If you weren’t able to attend the event, you’re in luck. Read on for her key takeaways on building a diverse network in a hybrid world.

Why build a diverse network?

Diverse networks add value. We all know that networking is an important part of building a successful career, but it’s also important to broaden your community. If you want to grow personally and professionally, you need to go outside your comfort zone and hear different experiences and perspectives than your own.

Diverse networks:

• Encourage diversity of thought
• Helps us learn from others
• Broaden viewpoints and perspectives

What does a diverse network look like?

There are so many aspects to diversity that go beyond things like gender, age, race, and ethnicity. Those are great ways to include diversity, but don’t stop there. Think about personal and professional characteristics such as:

• Industry
• Experience
• Level
• Life stage
• Communication style
• Aspiration

Building a diverse network in a hybrid world

1. Rethink what it means to network

A hybrid work environment offers more opportunities to connect and extend our networks beyond our comfort zones.

2. Get uncomfortable

Try new experiences, talk to someone about things you don’t have in common—get out of your comfort zone!

Tip: Ask friends each month for introductions to people in their networks.

3. Find meaningful connections

Think about the “why” behind networking. What do you want to get out of it, and what’s in it for the person on the other side? Reach out to:

• Peers that hold your role in other companies to gain their perspective.
• People that have achieved the level you want to achieve (both internally and externally).

4. Seek out “Collabortarians”

Create your own group of people that have different backgrounds, experiences, ideas, and opinions. Use the group for healthy debate and brainstorming.

How to build your network

1. Ask for introductions from others.

Look at your connections on LinkedIn and see who they are connected to that could help build your diverse network.

Ask for an introduction. The answer is almost always “yes.”

Once you have the introduction, ask for a 20-minute GTKY (get to know you) over an in-person or virtual coffee. Know why you want to meet that person and be clear about your intentions. Are you interested in their background, career path, or point of view? Are you considering a job or career change?

Tip: Follow and connect with other people you could learn from.

2. Think about building your network both internally and externally

The biggest mistake people make is only focusing on their internal network within their company, friends, and family. You never know when you will want to, need to, or be forced to look for another role outside of your current organization. Be prepared for that day.

If and when that moment comes is not the time to start building your network—relationships take time to foster.

3. Participate

Join organizations or clubs that you’re passionate about and attend meetups or conferences that speak to you.

It’s important to be active in the groups we belong to. The more you can attend and contribute to online or in-person events, the stronger your network will be. At events, talk to new people and build on relationships that are not as comfortable. Consider going alone, but if you do go as a group don’t sit with your team. Introduce yourself to people you don’t know. You never know where it will lead.

Tip: Look through the participants list prior to the event to determine who you want to meet. If you don’t get the opportunity during the event, connect with them afterwards.

4. Reach out and follow up

A network is not made up of one-time introductions or connections. You have to spend time getting to know people and building real relationship with them. When you read an article or listen to a podcast or TED Talk you think they might find interesting, send them a link. It lets them know you’re thinking about them and how you can contribute to their life and career.

Networking is a two-way street—you should give as much to the other person as they’re giving to you.

Relationships are earned; that’s what drives and energizes our entire team at Curtis Food Recruiters. We feel fortunate that people put their trust and confidence in us each and every day, and we are so thankful for the relationships we have built over the past 16 years.

Our diverse network is made up of proven performers in CPG, food, and grocery retail, and over 50% of our placements represent racial and gender diversity. Reach out to us to find your next role or your company’s next leader.

Across America, employees are quitting their jobs in record numbers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs in August 2021 alone, and those numbers are climbing. Maybe you’ve even noticed it at your own company.

Industries with the highest resignation rates

Industries that experienced the highest demand during the pandemic also experienced the highest turnover.

• Hospitality & Leisure
• Retail (apparel, food, and grocery)
• Healthcare
• Education & Childcare
• Technology

In November 2021, quits increased in several industries, with the largest increases in food services, transportation and warehousing, and health care [U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics]. Blue-collar and white-collar sectors are being equally affected as well as hourly and salaried positions.

What’s driving “The Big Quit”?

It’s easy to blame the stress of COVID-19 for the obvious burnout many workers are feeling, but it’s not the whole story. Research done by Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review points to a more insidious root cause that can be hard to identify and even harder to fix: workplace culture.

Specifically, toxic work culture.

Researchers found toxic work culture to be the biggest factor that led people to quit, and it was 10 times more important than pay in predicting turnover.

Identifying toxic work culture

Whether your company has worked on defining and cultivating a workplace culture or not, you have one. Unfortunately, companies that don’t proactively work on a positive culture often develop a negative one.

Many things can create toxic work environments, but here are some of the usual suspects:         

• Trust and transparency

Companies that treat employees with distrust or discourage open and honest dialogue with leaders put undue stress on employees and lower morale.

• Recognition and compensation

Heavy workloads and responsibility without proper compensation or opportunities for career growth can be the breaking point for many workers.

• Leadership and management tactics

It should go without saying that abusive management techniques based on fear or intimidation will drive high performers elsewhere fast, but micromanagement is another big culprit.

• Lack of concern for mental health and wellbeing

How companies handle workloads, flexibility, and of course, policies around things like return-to-office and vaccines show employees whether companies care about them as individuals or not.

These issues were amplified during the Coronavirus pandemic, leading to a boiling point for large numbers of workers. Many others reported that the pandemic gave them time to reevaluate their jobs, careers, and life goals.

This was especially true for women and older individuals, providing a blow to many companies’ diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) efforts.

Women and Baby Boomers are leaving the workforce

COVID burnout, stress, and job insecurity is leading many older workers in advanced career positions to choose an early retirement. Women are also stepping out of the workforce temporarily (and sometimes permanently) for a variety of reasons. Some of these include being stretched too thin due to remote learning, losing daycare options, choosing to home school in response to COVID concerns, and taking on additional caretaker roles for elderly family members.

What do employees want?

A healthy company culture is at the top of the list, but competitive compensation and benefits are still highly important. Lateral career opportunities and job enrichment such as training opportunities or tuition reimbursement were also highly rated. Lateral career opportunities are 12 times more predictive of employee retention than promotions [MIT Sloan Management Review].

Finally, flexibility for better work-life balance — which is closely tied to culture — was a top consideration.

Flexibility can be as simple as allowing employees to adjust their work hours to better fit their personal schedules (particularly for parents). Allowing employees to work from home a certain number of days each week is another example. In fact, candidates are 2.5 times as likely to apply to jobs that are partially or fully remote.

Leveraging the Great Resignation

Now’s the time to implement a targeted strategy to attract and retain employees, and partnering with a full-service executive recruitment agency can be a crucial component.

Even if you’re not seeing turnover issues internally, this is an opportunity to hire top talent leaving (or considering leaving) other companies.

At Curtis Food Recruiters, our industry insights, research, and access to a network of diverse executive talent gives you a market advantage. As a woman-owned company, we’re also committed to DE&I, and it shows — over 50% of our placements are women or racially diverse individuals. Our goal and guarantee is to find you the right candidate for your job. Reach out to us, and let’s start a conversation about building your best team.

The retail grocery and food and beverage manufacturing industry is rapidly approaching 2022. We want to provide some important things to consider as you are crafting your executive compensation plans to attract the industry’s most sought-after leadership talent.

Here are some of the current trends that indicate what the future may bring, even with so many unknowns still up in the air. We hope you find this helpful and informative when searching for your next executives.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Various Compensation Plans

What does your executive compensation plan look like?

Ideally, the most attractive plan will balance the support of your company’s goals and align with your corporate strategy. But a great benefit and compensation plan will also discourage self-serving tendencies and instead incentivize your executives to contribute to the long-term growth and profitability of the business.

The variety of packages you may offer could differ dramatically depending on your business, your desired outcome, and the executives you seek.

Compensation Plans For More Immediate Results

Some compensation plans are geared to produce immediate results but are not sustainable for a longstanding growth strategy. Some brief examples are bonuses tied to production and cost-reduction benchmarks, and overall effectiveness

Many executives prefer these benefits because they have a more noticeable impact on the executive’s paycheck and are easier to quantify according to performance and growth metrics.

While these compensation plans can be useful in motivating productivity year over year, they are less effective in increasing overall value and sustainable growth.

Additionally, there is a conflict of interest that should be considered: many executives have oversight to the metrics to which their compensation is measured, and ultimately, tied. Therefore, safeguards should be taken to eliminate the inherent temptation to manipulate the results in order to receive a higher bonus.

Win/Win Compensation Plans

The most effective compensation plans are based on a win/win model: their ultimate purpose is to incentivize the executive to act on behalf of your business and work to increase value and drive the long-term growth and profitability of the company.

Examples of these could include incentives such as deferred compensation and profit-sharing plans or compensation that is ultimately higher but matures over a longer period, such as phantom or restricted stock options with appreciation rights and profit interests.

These incentives may not be the shot-in-the-arm that your immediate packages could offer. But ultimately, they are far more effective in getting the executive’s buy-in to act on behalf of the company as more of a contributor with a long-term strategy, rather than according to their self-interest with more short-sighted goals.

You could choose to offer a variety of incentives. You could even diversify to include some more immediate results that could motivate an executive today, mixed with other compensation that will incentivize higher performance and retention over the long term. Ultimately, it’s important to keep in mind how the success of these plans pivots on two important details:

1. How strategically aligned their mechanics are tailored to your overall business goals.
2. Highlight and clearly present how your plan translates to the executive’s own personal wealth.

Increased Benefits and Perks

The wave of employer confidence in hiring is fueling competition for top employees. This, in turn, is fueling a need for increased benefits to attract the top talent.

In 2021, 48% of employers took a strong stance on attracting the industry’s top executives by offering a signing bonus. But it doesn’t stop there. Today’s executives are savvier than ever. We can presume employers who don’t offer a signing bonus will either be asked for benefits of equal value, whether that’s more flexibility or other financial perks.

These days, we’re hearing from executives in the retail grocery and food/beverage manufacturing industries that attractive benefits packages and perks can be just as important, if not more important than their base salary when considering a new position.

In 2022, businesses can expect some of the top benefits executives will be looking for are an increase in health and dental insurance, paid time off, retirement savings plans, as well as robust signing bonuses and relocation allowances. While we may see an increased demand for better benefits, we feel 2022 will be known as the year when perks became a priority for all the industry’s top talent.

Of the perks today’s executives are looking for, the foremost is flexibility like remote work options or flexible schedules. Indeed, flexibility and the ability to have more of a work/life balance was one of the main reasons our CEO founded Curtis Food Recruiters in the first place.

Today’s executives know they can run a household and raise a family, all while contributing to a thriving career as long as their employer recognizes the importance of a work/life balance and makes proactive steps to support their employees in that regard.

Other perks we can expect will be front and center include:

• Child Care assistance
• Employee discounts
• Wellness programs
• Paid parental leave
• Stipends for home office equipment
• Mental health resources

Holistic Wellness Benefits

It is probably not a surprise that during a time when so many people faced an abundance of difficulties and so much uncertainty, executives would want better wellness benefits. Wellness benefits are becoming so popular, we predict that in 2022 wellness, specifically holistic wellness programs, will be at the forefront of an employer’s hiring strategy.

These benefits would include perks such as:

• Gym memberships and other physical wellness programs
• Retirement planning for financial wellness
• Stress reduction programs and other mental wellness programs 
• Work/life balance initiatives like a compressed workweek or permanent, part-time arrangements

For employers whose hiring strategy focuses on long-term retention and growth, wellness benefits are especially important. They contribute to the long-term care and health of your executives, who, in turn, will be more capable and motivated to care for and grow your company for the long term as well. 

Main Takeaway

Employers, if we could impress one thing you should take away from this, it would be the following statistic: starting salaries for executives across all industries are expected to increase by 3% in 2022.

Executive candidates are willing to look at the total package where salary is only part. It’s important to offer a robust compensation plan, as base compensation, bonus, relocation, LTIP, flexibility, overall benefits, as well as company culture are collectively important in attracting top executives.

If you need a retained partner who has up-to-date, first-hand knowledge of recruiting executives in the food manufacturing and retail grocery industries, contact us. Curtis Food Recruiters can be your advocate in searching for and recruiting the top executive talent you need. Make the most of 2022. Contact us today!

October is National Women’s Small Business Month. This month has me reflecting on when Curtis Food Recruiters got its start 15 years ago at the intersection between the great need for a new kind of executive recruiting model, and for the flexibility that owning and operating my own agency could provide.

Being a woman-owned business allows us to create relationships like nobody else, because we know there is no way to rush into them. Relationships are earned, and that is especially true in executive recruiting, an industry that is built on and operates with no small amount of highly sensitive, confidential information.

We are also more in-tune with the nuances of confidentiality and are more aware of how essential trust – from years of delivering results – is key to building the relationships on which our entire business model pivots. 

Women Recruiters Are Effective Advocates For Change

As an executive search firm we are constantly asking people to change. Whether that’s changing careers, changing location, or changing a perception of their fit for a role and getting out of their comfort zone and pursuing a great opportunity.

Sometimes it takes a little nudge to get people to consider change, especially when it involves seeing in themselves the talent and capabilities that we see. That’s where we see an opportunity for a better kind of salesmanship because building relationships is crucial. Developing meaningful relationships with prospective candidates, and our clients is what drives and energizes our entire team. We feel fortunate that people put their trust and confidence in us each and every day.

As women recruiters, we focus on an “honest, but positive” perspective. That means sometimes having difficult and candid conversations that focus on sharing positive aspects and the truth that lies in each role and company. There are good aspects as well as challenges to every job. We aim to be honest about those details and represent our clients in the best light.

Our Women-Owned Recruiting Model Focuses on Results

As we continue to celebrate 15 years as a woman-owned small business in the food manufacturing and grocery retail industries, we are so grateful for the opportunities we’ve had to build relationships. It has been an honor to help recruit and place amazing people, create meaningful solutions for our clients and provide mentoring opportunities for those who are at the forefront of their careers. 

But our work is far from done. Even in 2021, we don’t see anyone else serving the food and grocery industry like we do. Our clients depend on our ability to place diverse talent in VP, SVP, and C-Level roles. With the current demand for talent being higher than it’s ever been, we see the need for more women that are qualified and open for executive-level roles in the food industry. That’s what makes our work as a woman-owned and operated executive recruiting firm even more significant in today’s executive search landscape. 

As we celebrate National Women’s Small Business Month, please think about the courage and confidence it took for these women to start and succeed. Support them when you can and think about the generation behind us that needs a mentor along the way.

Julie Curtis
President / Executive Recruiter

 Recently Curtis Food Recruiters earned their WBENC certification. To learn more about working with the leading executive recruiter for the food manufacturing and grocery retail industries, and a woman-owned business that can deliver results, contact Curtis Food Recruiters today.