Announcing IGA's 2022 Five Star Retailers

The Independent Grocers Alliance has a fresh set of Five Star retailers for 2022! These retailers and their teams have continued to use their independent flexibility and ingenuity to not only keep their businesses running during the second full year of a global pandemic, but to adapt and evolve to make their stores thrive.

In fact, this year, more stores earned Five Star status than in 2021, according to the IGA Coca-Cola Institute, who oversaw the process. "650 stores—76 percent of our U.S. stores—earned Five Star status this year," says Jason King, training and development manager for the IGA Coca-Cola Institute.

Why such a large number of Five Star retailers this year? Independent Grocers Alliance CEO John Ross has a theory. "Many of these top retailers entered 2021 with a proverbial list of lessons learned from the first year of the pandemic, which brought panic buying and out-of-stocks, but also strong profits," he says. "And many of them were ready to reinvest those profits in their business, updating signage, reaching more shoppers through the Digital Ad, and getting their eCommerce programs up and running."

Ross says those reinvestments made a difference, and put the stores in good positions for the challenges that arrived in 2021, like labor and supply chain issues.

The 2021 Assessment continued to reflect the changes stores were going through, streamlining the survey to address what was really important, eliminating graded questions about in-stock levels (since many retailers continued to experience uneven supply levels), and refocusing what customer service looks like during the pandemic.

"The Assessment aims to identify and honor the stores that are excelling in the independent industry, and at the same time, offer guidance and feedback to the stores who need it," says Dr. Paulo Goelzer, president of the IGA Coca-Cola Institute. "It's not about catching you doing something wrong, but rather identifying tactical ways we can help you do better.”

The Assessment Process

The Five Star Award winners were determined from the average of two assessment visits in 2021, which were conducted in the spring and summer/early fall, using new measurement goals and a more modern and advanced process for providing retailers with the purposeful feedback they need to continually improve the shopping experience.

"We continued our streamlined study in 2021 to ensure we addressed what was really important during COVID-19," says King. He says they worked with the National Retailer Advisory Board (NRAB) to develop current and valuable criteria that reflects the shopper experience.

In spring and late summer/early fall, a trained local shopper visited each Independent Grocers Alliance store for an assessment. "Local is the keyword," King notes. "Because the assessor is a shopper of the area, the feedback you get is more targeted to your shoppers—and ultimately more useful in gauging how well you are meeting your shoppers’ needs."

The assessor walked the store to fully document the strengths and opportunities for improvement, and took ample photos. While the initial walk was not revealed to management as it happened, once the assessor finished the task, they presented management or the service desk with a letter informing management that they will complete the remaining assessment with photos.

Those photos were then analyzed by Survey.com to ensure the data is both objective and accurate. Store owners and directors received reports following each evaluation, and can access their dashboard (maintained by Survey.com) to see photos and other information collected during the assessment.

The 2022 Five Star Winners

To qualify for Five Star status:

The retailer must have been a member of the Independent Grocers Alliance for at least one year (beginning in 2021)
The store owner must be the same for both shops conducted

Stores excelling in operations, merchandising, and service earned high marks, setting a high standard for IGA retailers everywhere.

See the full list of outstanding retailers who earned 2022 Five Star status. Congratulations to the winners!

The 2022 evaluations will begin in mid-April, with the second visit expected in late summer/early fall. King encourages anyone with questions about the program or in need of access to their scores to contact him, which you can do here.