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Kroger names new mid-Atlantic president

Kroger has named Kate Mora president of its mid-Atlantic division, replacing Lori Raya, who’d held the role since 2021 and is retiring, according to a Tuesday news announcement by the grocery store chain, which has nearly half a million employees across 2,800 stores in 35 states, including 68 stores in Virginia. 

Mora will work in Glen Allen, where Kroger’s mid-Atlantic division has been based since 2021, when the company relocated its regional headquarters from Roanoke. 

Mora joined Kroger in 2022 as vice president on special assignment supporting End-to-End Fresh, an initiative to designed to get the freshest food to shoppers. She went on to serve as vice president for merchandising in the company’s Michigan division. 

Before coming to Kroger, Mora worked for more than 26 years at Walmart, leaving in 2021 as a vice president managing a section of the mid-Atlantic region, according to her LinkedIn page. 

Mora holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania and sits on the board of Gleaners Community Food Bank in Detroit. 

“With more than 25 years of retail management and leadership experience, she is a proven leader and strategic thinker, with a history of operational excellence,” Valerie Jabbar, senior vice president of retail divisions for Kroger, said in a statement. 

The company’s mid-Atlantic division operates more than 100 stores in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio staffed by about 18,000 associates. In March, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 and Kroger officials reached a contract agreement that narrowly averted a strike in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. 

In 2022, Kroger and Albertsons Companies announced plans for a $24.6 billion merger agreement set to be completed in 2024. However, in February the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit aiming to stop the merger, alleging that it would reduce competition and lead to higher grocery prices. Nine attorneys general joined the complaint. The trial is scheduled to begin at the end of this month in Oregon. 

Separately, the attorney general of Washington state and the attorney general of Colorado have both filed state lawsuits to block the merger. The UFCW International Union, which represents more than 100,000 Kroger and Albertsons workers, opposes the merger. 

Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2023: LORI RAYA

In 2021, Raya became president of Kroger’s mid-Atlantic division, overseeing more than 100 stores in five states and 18,000 employees.

She brings more than three decades in the grocery business to the job, mostly spent at Safeway and Albertsons, including as president of Safeway’s Vons division from 2012 to 2015. In 2018, Albertsons acquired Safeway, and Raya became division president for Southern California, leading the store brands’ integration. In 2019, she left the company for a chief merchandising and marketing officer role at wholesaler SpartanNash and joined Kroger two years later.

In October 2022, Kroger and Albertsons announced a $24.6 billion merger agreement set to be completed in 2024, but the Federal Trade Commission has recently cracked down on major mergers, and some Virginia Kroger workers are concerned that unionized stores could be closed due to the deal. Unionized workers in Richmond and Hampton Roads ratified a collective bargaining agreement with the chain in August 2021, giving them raises and maintaining their health care plan.

A graduate of Colorado Mesa University and the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, Raya received an honorary doctorate from CMU in 2018.

Kroger begins effort to eliminate single-use plastic bags in mid-Atlantic stores

Kroger employees wore green shirts that read “Reusable in, Single-use out,” as they greeted customers on Monday with colorful bags.

A Kroger located in Henrico County in Central Virginia is the pilot store for Kroger’s initiative to remove single-use plastic bags in the mid-Atlantic division by 2025, according to James Menees, the corporate affairs manager for Kroger mid-Atlantic, which includes Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio. This is part of the company’s push to eliminate single-use plastic in all U.S. stores by 2025.

“We’re looking forward to moving our Zero Hunger, Zero Waste initiative forward,” Menees said. “One of the pillars of that social impact plan is to eliminate single-use plastic bags in all of our stores in the state of Virginia.”

The Zero Hunger, Zero Waste Foundation is Kroger’s nonprofit for innovation in food waste, access and security, according to its website.
Customers are encouraged to bring their own bags, or purchase the 10-cent plastic bag or the 99-cent tote bags. The reusable, 10-cent plastic bags are at least 40% made out of recycled material and are designed to be used 125 times, according to the written information on the actual bags. The proceeds from the purchase of reusable bags will go to the foundation, according to a press release.

More than 100 billion single-use plastic bags are thrown away each year, according to Kroger, and 90% of those bags are never reused. Even with initiatives such as reusable bags and bag taxes, the U.S. has one of the highest rates globally for plastic waste generated per person, according to the

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD is an international organization established over 60 years ago to work with governments and citizens on policy initiatives.

The world produces twice as much plastic waste as two decades ago, according to a recent OECD report. The bulk of plastic waste ends up in landfill, incinerated or leaking into the environment, and only 9% successfully recycled, according to the report. The OECD has statistics to illustrate the consequences of plastic in the environment, including its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions that ultimately cause global warming, according to the organization.

The best option is choosing the bag one already owns rather than buying new ones, because even reusable bags have an environmental cost upfront, according to National Geographic.

State legislators passed a law in 2021, after years of attempts, that allowed localities to adopt a plastic bag tax. Only a few districts have incorporated the measure, including Roanoke and areas in Northern Virginia.

A main issue is remembering to bring one’s own reusable bag to the grocery store, according to Henrico County resident and Kroger customer Mary Atkins. Atkins has been waiting for the push to come to Richmond, she said.

“If I were thinking about the fact that I was coming to the store,” Atkins said, “but sometimes it’ll be a set of things on a list, and I’ll head out the door and then realize.”

A representative with the county’s program Keep Henrico Beautiful greeted Kroger customers at the door Monday, handing out “Go Green” bags on the first day of the initiative.

“We love to see people out with their reusable bags,” said Megan Brown, the executive coordinator for Keep Henrico Beautiful. “A lot of people are already coming and have mentioned that they don’t use plastic bags anyway, so it’s just super nice to see that and see their smiles.”

Kroger has 17 other Richmond-area locations, although a grocery representative did not have a timeline for phasing out plastic bags at those locations.

New York-based grocer Wegmans is phasing out single-use plastic bags entirely by 2022. Aldi, a German-founded grocer with U.S. headquarters in Illinois, announced it will phase out plastic bags in all stores by the end of 2023.

Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.

Kroger Co. names new president of mid-Atlantic division

The Kroger Co. has named Lori Raya as the president of its mid-Atlantic division, the grocery chain announced Tuesday.

Raya was previously the chief merchandising and marketing officer for wholesale grocery distributor and retailer SpartanNash, which is headquartered in Michigan. From 2015 to 2018, Raya was division president for Albertsons Cos. Inc. From 2012 to 2015, she served as division president for a Albertsons company VONS, where she led its largest division.

Raya succeeds Paula Ginnett, who has been promoted to group vice president of retail operations with Kroger’s corporate headquarters in Cincinnati.

Valerie Jabbar, Kroger’s senior vice president of retail divisions, said in a statement, “Lori is a respected leader within the grocery retail industry, and her perspective will be a valued addition to the mid-Atlantic division. She is a people-first leader who will build on the success of Paula and the division team to continue to deliver a full, fresh and friendly experience to every customer. We are so grateful for the leadership that Paula has shown over the past two years, and we are pleased to know that we’ll continue to benefit from her experience as she transitions to a new role with the company.”

Kroger’s mid-Atlantic division operates more than 100 stores and has more than 18,000 employees. In January, the division opened its new headquarters in Glen Allen, a relocation from Roanoke.