The indie with impact: Raley's is on mission to nourish the world

The Raley's Companies is on an ambitious mission of change.

The West Sacramento, Calif.-based family-owned, independent grocery company released its 2022-2023 Impact Report earlier this year, and while it contains impressive milestones such as 17,500,000 pounds of food donated, its strategic acquisition of other family-owned, like-minded businesses may be the key to it realizing its goal of “changing the way the world eats, one plate at a time.”

Supporting this mission of change, are Raley's four pillars of service: “Nourishing Our Purpose, Nourishing Our People, Nourishing Our Communities, and Nourishing Our Planet.”

The Raley's Companies currently operate in eight states and four Tribal Nations under 11 brands, including Raley's, Bel Air, Nob Hill Foods, Raley's O-N-E Market, Bashas', Bashas' Diné, Food City, AJ's Fine Foods, Full Circle, Farm Fresh to You and fieldTRUE Organic. Starting with a single store in Placerville, Calif., in 1935, today the company boasts more than 233 locations and 21,000 employees.

To learn more about Raley's impact and how its acquisitions have extended its reach, The Packer connected with Chelsea Minor Carbahal, vice president of community impact and public affairs for The Raley's Companies and Ashley Shick, Bashas' director of communication and public affairs.


Meeting the customer where they are

“The Raley's Companies are focused on growth. Being a regional, family-owned, independent grocer is something we are proud of, but we also recognize that the need to scale and diversify in order to meet the customer where they are is critical to staying relevant in the highly competitive grocery market,” said Carbahal.

In 2021, Raley's acquired Bashas' Family of Stores; on-demand grocery delivery service provider Apium logistics; Fieldera, a platform for farming commerce and home delivery of produce and groceries; and fieldTRUE, a community supported agriculture box company.

fieldTRUE Organic aims to increase accessibility to organic fruits and vegetables. It currently offers over 250 varieties of organic produce in its subscription boxes, with a strong emphasis on seasonality.

“fieldTRUE is a strategic partner with a strong focus on delivering the customer whole products to their front door,” said Carbahal. “They're a CSA that is changing the game in what community supported agriculture does and what direct-to-consumer looks like. They have everything from cottage cheese to ground beef to locally grown produce. They do weekly deliveries, and you can fully customize your box to meet your individual needs, which is pretty incredible.”

Meanwhile, The Raley's Companies acquisition of Fieldera allowed the grocer to bring its e-commerce services in the enterprise, which it also expects to do with its Bashas' e-commerce launch planned for later this year.

With Raley's acquisition of the Phoenix-based Bashas', the company further diversified, expanding its footprint to Arizona, New Mexico and the Navajo Nation.

“Bashas' has been a diversified group of stores for decades,” said Shick. “Our portforlio serves a wide range of communities, focused on hyper-locally meeting our communities where they are. We have our Bashas' supermarkets that are mainstream; we have AJ's Fine Foods, which is our gourmet, more culinary, experiential stores; our Food City brand is focused on serving the Hispanic community and price-conscious shoppers; and our fourth brand that is beautifully unique and special to us are our nine Bashas' Diné Markets exclusively serving the Navajo Nation.

“In total, we serve four tribal communities out of the 22 recognized tribes that reside in Arizona,” Shick continued. “It's certainly a differentiator, in our opinion, to our competitors and an honor and responsibility we take very seriously.”

Bashas' has served the Navajo Nation since 1981, when it opened its first Navajo Nation store in Arizona on a handshake deal, said Shick.

“Our commitment and connection to the Tribal Nations across the state continues to grow and blossom over the 43 years that we've served these communities,” she said. “We are proud and honored to be welcomed guests and partners in service.”


Strength in diversity

From weathering economic headwinds to operating with greater efficiency to leveling up on sustainability, Carbahal sees Raley's diversified portfolio of family-owned brands as a key differentiator.

“It's amazing to think about what we've accomplished in the last two years, but also the importance of our diversification — not only in geography, but in the brands themselves,” she said. “With that said, we still remain family owned and we continue to lead guided by shared values as family-owned businesses in how we do things — in how we report our sustainability practices, our community investment and, of course, our investment in our people.”

Sharing knowledge and resources across Raley's and Bashas' banners has also been beneficial, said Carbahal.

“This diversification allows us to show up in the best ways in each of our communities,” she said. “The Raley's Companies acquired Bashas' and we've learned a lot from them, and I think Bashas' has learned a lot from Raley's, which makes all of us better.”

One example of this collaboration has been bringing Raley's philosophy of nutrition and healthy living to the Bashas' stores. The grocer's Purely Made certified-organic, dietitian-approved private label line is now also available at Bashas' stores and Bashas' buyers have access to a database of some 12,000 Purely Made products.

Bashas' also plans to adopt Raley's Shelf Guide, its icons that help shoppers search for better-for-you, organic and sustainably sourced products.

“The plan is to share our learning, share our knowledge and find ways to grow our relationship in thoughtful ways together,” said Shick. “When you have the resources of a larger organization, you can do more good and have more positive impact.”

Investing in people

“Beyond shared learning, another element of developing and growing into this larger organization is the shared commitment to our people,” said Shick. “Raley's investment in leadership development and people is so strong, and something we were able to bring to the Bashas' organization, which has had a profound impact on our team member experience.”

Raley's invests in leadership development programs and educational opportunities to help its team members expand their skills and grow their careers. Currently, 94% of Raley's store team leader positions are filled by internal candidates, according to its 2022-2023 Impact Report.

Within the last year, Raley's has launched a number of programs, including Leader Launch, designed to develop and promote talent from within.

“We will continue to see that reinvestment in our people,” said Shick. “There's been over 1,100 [Bashas'] team members that have gone through at least one of the new leadership programs. The interest and commitment alone shows just how excited and energized people are around that development on the Bashas' side of the business.”