Wakefern cuts 79 jobs, outsources advertising as grocery marketing shifts

Wakefern Food Corp. is eliminating 79 positions as it outsources advertising and weekly circular production to Quad, a move that takes effect May 16 and shows how grocery marketing is being pushed farther outside the company. Wakefern said 54 newly created internal roles are being offered first to affected employees, while Quad added 19 jobs tied to the arrangement, and the company says circular output should not be disrupted during the transition.

The reorganization lands at a company with real scale: Wakefern says it is the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States, formally established on Dec. 5, 1946, by eight independent grocers from Newark, New Jersey. It now has 45 member companies and more than 380 supermarkets under banners including ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace, The Fresh Grocer, Dearborn Market, Gourmet Garage, Fairway Market, Di Bruno Bros. and Morton Williams across nine states. Wakefern reported $20.7 billion in retail sales in fiscal 2025, up 3.1% from $20.1 billion the year before, and the company has continued to grow through store expansion and acquisitions, including Morton Williams in 2025.

For Trader Joe’s crew and managers, the point is not the 79 jobs themselves. It is the kind of work being moved, advertising, content development and circular production, and the reason Wakefern gave for doing it: digital and social media have changed how grocers create and deliver marketing. That is the back-office side of grocery that shoppers do not see, but store teams feel when promotions, signage, circulars or other communications are centralized, outsourced or automated. A chain can keep shelves stocked and registers moving while quietly shifting more of the human work elsewhere.

Trader Joe’s is taking a different path. In a March podcast discussion, marketing president Tara Miller and vice president of culture and innovation Matt Sloan said the chain wants to keep shopping human and would rather put money into product development and store labor than retail media screens. Trader Joe’s has also stayed away from self-checkout, grocery delivery, curbside pickup, online shopping, loyalty programs and discounts, which makes its low-tech approach stand out even more as other grocers rethink their media and marketing mix.

That contrast matters because Trader Joe’s is still growing. As of March 31, 2026, the chain had announced plans for more than 20 new stores this year, had already opened two and had 17 more locations in the pipeline across states including California, Washington, Illinois, New Jersey, Louisiana, Utah, Florida, Massachusetts, Kansas, Arizona and Georgia. Wakefern’s move shows how a grocery company can stay operationally busy while trimming office work; Trader Joe’s is showing how another can keep expanding while protecting a labor-heavy, person-to-person model on the sales floor.