Q&A: Steve Mayer, new president of Bashas’

After Chandler, Ariz.-based Bashas’ announced its new president, Steve Mayer, on June 14, The Packer's PMG spoke with him about his career, the supermarket and its banners, prioritizing produce, differentiation, foodservice at retail and other goals he has in store.

Mayer was formerly Bashas’ vice president of marketing, merchandising and procurement. He’s worked in grocery for more than 30 years, holding leadership roles at Schnuck Markets, Flavor 1st, Ahold Delhaize and Meijer.

One of Mayer’s first jobs was as a dishwasher at Smitty’s in Arizona, which was a supercenter of sorts with grocery, nongrocery and foodservice offerings from the 1960s to 1990s, before such supercenters were prevalent. He stayed 17 years, working his way up to director of foodservice at Smitty’s.

Related: Bashas' names new president, unveils new headquarters

Bashas’ operating company includes Bashas’, Bashas’ Diné, Food City, and AJ’s. In 2021, West Sacramento, Calif.-based Raley’s Holding Co. acquired Bashas’.

The Packer’s PMG: Tell us what you’ll do as Bashas’ president and how it works with Raley’s.

Mayer: Being the president, I oversee and shepherd Arizona and what we do. I’m a conduit for Raley’s, but we here in Arizona and a little in New Mexico, we’re pretty independent and pretty much chart the course here, within their guidelines. We make the day-to-day decisions. They’re both family-owned companies committed to community and service, so it really was two great companies coming together. Raley’s is people-centric; they’ve let us continue our legacy. But they’ve given us new resources and new technology that have helped us, and our learnings have helped them.

PMG: What strategies are you taking to compete with foodservice for the consumer’s daily meal share?

Mayer: We consider all our banners foodservice providers. And it will look different at each of the banners. Everybody who eats, we want them in our stores, so we’ve enhanced our foodservice selection and our grab-and-go. In AJ’s, we are the only one that carries the product of a beloved local bread company. We hired trend-focused chefs. When you go in a store, we’re foodservice as well. You can sit down or carry out. We’re very much focused on our guests, and if they want a hot meal, they can have it with us. If they want to eat it out, they can carry it out. We’re trying to meet the customer where they want to be.

It’s about providing a whole spectrum of what customers want. Sometimes it’s meals completely done, sometimes not done, sometimes somewhere in the middle. People can pick up a meal, get flowers, cake. You can get the full experience; most of the banner locations have tables and chairs. We even have birthday parties in-store with balloons and cake. Around holidays, we’ll have decorate-your-own-cake events, like for Mother’s Day. Halloween is big.

When you talk about foodservice and the foodservice aspects of what we do, we're like a 360-degree experience where you can just pick and choose what you want.

PMG: How are you incorporating your initiatives on social media, e-commerce and smart checkouts into what younger shoppers want?

Mayer: We have pickup in the store. We have delivery. We do self-checkout. We do texting. We have apps that we use, that you sign up for, so you have you sign into them and you say: “I would like to be part of this experience.” And then weekly, we will text that information to you that's relevant to you. We have personalized offers that are geared for you. So, there's a lot of that going on.

It's surprising how many folks use that, so I don't think it's for whatever the definition of “young” is. It’s across the whole spectrum. My mom's 95, and she looks at her phone. It's everywhere. And because we have different banners, it's tailored for the store that you're in.

PMG: What can you tell us about your sustainability initiatives?

Mayer: We're always looking at ways to recycle. We have a bag recycling program. We're looking at sustainability, and we're looking at the lighting, the LED lighting in stores. We're always trying to figure out ways to be responsible with the refrigeration that we use.

PMG: What direction do you see grocery retail going, and how does produce fit in?

Mayer: Specifically in produce, I think we’re going to be uniquely positioned to connect the guest to the farm. We don’t even look at things in produce as supply chain anymore. We see it as demand chain. How do you get it off the bush to the customer as fast as you can? Shelf life belongs to the customer. They’re being more and more savvy, asking “Where does that come from?” I've seen applications where farmers now are talking to our guests through social media. I think that's going to become more and more common.

I think there's a real awareness of smaller local farms and how important they are, so I think that that's becoming more important to our shoppers. That connectivity is we're going to be right in the middle of helping our guests connect better to farms. I think that's a really cool thing. I can't tell you how many small family farms I've done in my career, and it's just a special thing when you're talking to sixth- and seventh-generation farmers. They are incredibly resourceful and hardworking people. So, I feel really honored when we get local farmers or smaller farmers across the country, because I know what they go through.

PMG: What are some of your key initiatives?

Mayer: We're really working hard on growing our leaders in the company — growing future leaders. Raley’s has some great leadership development programs over the years that we’ve been able to tap into.

On the customer side, we are working hard on our personalized offers for customers; we're working hard on loyalty, which is really good. And we're putting more analytics in, like Dunnhumby [a retail customer data science company]. So, we're excited about those kinds of things because it gets us closer to our guests. And the guests get what they want, and we can help them the right way.  

About Bashas’ banners

• Bashas’: The most mainstream supermarket of the banners with a traditional focus on quality, customer service and reaching out to the neighborhood’s customer base.
• Bashas’ Diné Market: Located on Native American reservations throughout Arizona and in part of New Mexico. These stores specialize in serving the needs of Navajo customers with products such as Blue Bird flour for fry bread, mutton and wool. Signs in the store are in the native language.
• Food City: Hispanic, value-based stores with fresh tamales, tortilleria for freshly made tortillas and catering of authentic Hispanic dishes. Expect aisles of traditional Mexican foods along with items found in a mainstream grocery store. The community-focused grocery store is known for holding car seat and water safety events, mobile dental clinics, back-to-school immunizations, backpack giveaways and cultural celebrations.
• AJ’s Fine Food: Stores provide a gourmet shopping experience to delight the senses, focused on specialty foods. From chef-prepared entrees and custom cuts of meat to fresh, homemade desserts and a farmers market, AJ’s offers a selection of high-quality, hard-to-find items. AJ’s also offers a wine collection with a knowledgeable cellar staff, fresh produce and grocery items, unique floral arrangements, a humidor, custom gift baskets and specialty gifts.