Natural Food Retailers Association

On April 7th and 8th a number of INFRA’s large store members gathered at Down To Earth in Honolulu, HI for two days of best practice sharing. The group discussed the topic of succession planning for their organizations both emergency succession and long term.  We also discussed sustainability practices, the value of employees understanding the impact they have on the bottom line of the company and as always a few other items that were not on the agenda. 

Down to Earth’s CEO/ CFO  Mark Fergusson provided the group with a wonderful presentation about Down to Earth’s mission, and how they manage operations to support that mission. We all agreed that Mark has raised the bar for hosting stores with the depth of information provided. This along with peer store audit and feedback to Down to Earth on the audits filled our time quickly. 

The next large store share group was set for October 3-5 with Wildberries in Arcata, CA hosting. The primary topic chosen by the members of the group will be sharing various ways that stores provide employee motivation and reward performance.