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Whether you’re a team manager or a team member, there are a variety of things to consider in establishing career paths within retail dietetics programs.

The nation’s biggest-selling plant-based fall foods – nuts, apples, pumpkins, cranberries and cranberry sauce - have the nutrition, distinctive tastes, and close association with special days such as Halloween and Thanksgiving to be tabletop perennials.  Yet customer demand for each varies widely during the 12 weeks ending at Thanksgiving: dollar sales, scale and fresh vs. packaged splits move to their own distinct weekly rhythms, as revealed by Nielsen data.

I am the Nutrition Strategist and Brand Influencer for all Raley’s banners. I work closely with teams to provide insight on nutrition content, messaging, and product assortment while continuing forward with our mission -- Infusing life with health & happiness by changing the way to world eats, one plate at a time. I aid in driving nutrition strategies through employee and consumer engagement, work with internal partnerships and merchandising of products, marketing, social media, and community outreach.

Produce may be the showpiece department of food retailers, but when it comes to spice sales in the fall season, the dry grocery aisle is consumers’ go-to place to buy.  Spice dollar sales there far outpace fresh spice sales from the produce department.

Conquering your calendar means shining a light on what’s important to your work and to lead by example. If your crammed calendar looks more like a battle plan than a focused, realistic schedule, you’re not alone. Here are some tips for ensuring your days provide the space you need for opportunities, growth and success:

I am one of two corporate dietitians at Fareway, based out of Boone, Iowa (near Des Moines). I maintain three weekly TV segments across the state, develop monthly 0:30 second recipe commercials, produce a quarterly magazine called CentsAble Health and provide various businesses and communities with free presentations on health and wellness. 

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a proven counseling method that can help people resolve ambivalent feelings to find the internal motivation they need to change their behavior. The process involves a practical and empathetic facilitative style that takes into consideration how difficult it is to make life changes. This technique helps people become motivated to change negative behaviors and retail dietitians may find this intervention helpful in a variety of workplace situations.

Mark your calendars now as the Retail Dietitians Business Alliance (RDBA) and Winsight Grocery Business (WGB) and announce the return of Retail Dietitian Exchange (RDE) in 2019. The event will take place May 20-22 at McCormick Place Chicago in partnership with the National Confectioners Association’s (NCA) Sweets and Snacks Expo. The event brings business best practices, engaging networking opportunities, timely industry updates and much more to retail dietitians across the nation.

I started as a Retail Dietitian with Sobeys in 2002. My role has evolved over the last 16 years. Overall, the responsibility of a Sobeys Dietitian is to provide dietitian services to our customers.

If you follow various industry organizations in social media and through their e-newsletters, you’re likely to see announcements over time about other retail health and wellness initiatives.  Over the summer alone there have been key announcements – Kroger is hosting a wellness and music festival, Hy-Vee has streamlined their store tour process and is marketing the program more, Raley’s added a dietitian back to their organization, to name a few.