By Mukundan Sivaraj · AIM Media House
“Our AI team does not work for IT,” said Mike Stigers , president of Wakefern Food Corp., during a keynote at the National Grocers Association’s annual conference earlier this month. “We’re a selling organization.” Wakefern is a retailer-owned grocery cooperative based in Keasbey, New Jersey.
It supports more than 380 supermarkets across nine East Coast states under banners including ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace, The Fresh Grocer, Fairway Market, Gourmet Garage, Di Bruno Bros. and Morton Williams.
Over the past year, the cooperative has rolled out new AI-enabled systems across marketing, consumer analytics, distribution center buying and loyalty. Each announcement stood on its own. Taken together, they outline a coordinated build-out of Wakefern’s commercial infrastructure across its member stores.
Building a centralized commercial system In August 2025, Wakefern announced a partnership with NielsenIQ. The cooperative adopted NIQ’s Activate Platform to support consumer insights and assortment optimization.
The software uses AI tools to help banners develop data-driven assortment strategies and manage business performance.
“NIQ’s advanced measurement capabilities, combined with our cooperative’s nearly eight decades of supermarket expertise, ensures that our teams, Members, and suppliers have the tools and knowledge we need to make fast decisions,” said Darren Caudill, chief sales officer at Wakefern.
One month later, Wakefern deployed Birdzi’s customer intelligence platform. The system includes Visper, an AI-driven campaign engine designed to automate personalized promotions across banners such as ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace and The Fresh Grocer.
“Working with Birdzi enables our supermarket banners to better respond to shopper needs as grocery retail enters an AI driven era,” Caudill said at the time of the announcement .
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