Monday we will kick off the convention with a golf tournament at the stunning Baytowne Golf Course. The evening will follow with a “Wear Your Team Color” evening. Whether you cheer for Alabama, Auburn, the SEC or one of the other conferences, we are encouraging all convention attendees to be proud and wear your team colors for an enjoyable evening of pleasant rivalry. The evening will have a reception, welcome dinner and Barbara Dooley, wife of retired Georgia football coach Vince Dooley and cancer survivor will address our attendees following dinner.

Tuesday will prove to be a day you will not want to miss! The morning business session will feature Harold Lloyd who will help you access your progress from two years ago and will host a retailer panel on “The Next 3 Years… Strategize or Agonize”. We will also have a social media seminar from Dr. Glenn Richey of the University of Alabama, an Alabama Economic Development seminar from Gene Hallman, Founder of the Alabama Sports Foundation and an Alabama Legislative Panel. Immediately following this amazing business session we will move into our exhibit hall for 4 hours of networking with some of our most dedicated members sampling new and innovative products. There will be over 75 vendors sampling their products and presenting their new and innovative ideas. Tuesday night will feature a reception, the Chairman’s Banquet and Entertainment from the hilarious yet clean Comedian Henry Cho, who has been featured on NBC’s The Tonight Show, CBS’s The Late, Late, Show and NBC’s Young Comedian Special.

Some other noteworthy events for the convention include: Silent auction to raise monies for the AGEF, Best Bagger competition, Children’s program on both convention nights and Bingo for ladies and children on Tuesday. We are positive that after the convention you will walk away with knowledge to share with your constituents and remarkable memories of fun and excitement for both you and your families. For more information on the convention, and to sign up to be an exhibitor, sponsor, advertiser or to attend the events, please visit the convention section of this website.

Photos from the AGA Washington Trip

Golf Outings: The Alabama Grocers Education Foundation hosts 3 golf outings a year, April, July (at the convention) and October. We are always looking for sponsors for these events, golfers to come out and play and volunteers to help us with registration and running the events. We email information 3 months in advance of the golf outings. Please find a way to join us. If you are not a golfer, join us for lunch. It is a great chance to help with the AGEF and mingle with other AGA members you may not see on a regular basis.

Silent Auction: At the AGA Convention we host a silent auction. Last year this event raised over $12,000! You can help us by donating items for the silent auction or bidding on items you really want. Some of the best items we receive are electronics, autographed photos, trips, logo merchandise, etc. We accept Silent Auction items at the Association Office thru July 1st or you can bring your donation with you to the convention.

Raffles: At the AGA Convention we raffle off a gun and 5 chances to win $1,000. We have a Silent Auction Committee that works tirelessly to confirm items for our silent auction and sells raffle tickets at $10 each for a chance to win a gun. Every year the gun is a different model but normally valued at around $500. Also, there will be 5 drawings of $1,000 each at the Chairman’s Banquet of the convention. These tickets are $50 each and are sold by the AGEF Board of Trustees, the AGA Board of Directors and each member company is mailed 5 to sell. You can help the scholarship fund by being sure that your company sells their 5 allotted and by purchasing tickets for your chance to win $1,000! Money collected is tax deductible and you do not have to be present to win. For more information on these raffles, please contact the Association Office at 205.823.5498.

Piggybacks: Your company could help students with their education by being a Piggyback donor. All you have to do is contact the Association Office with a set amount you would like the scholarship to be for, how many scholarships you would like to provide and the terms in which the scholarship be awarded. Some companies do piggybacks for their employees or children of their employees and some piggybacks are open to all applicants regardless of company. It is all up to the piggyback donor. This is a great way to make an enormous impact on a student’s life.

We are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to raise monies to help these children in college, if you have an idea, please let us know! Our members feedback is one of the most important things to us!

The Association will continue to email out any Class 1 recalls (the critical recalls) as soon as we receive them. We will also email out separately anything that we feel cannot wait until the next Market Minute. If someone in your company should be receiving the Market Minute and is not, please email jbrown@alabamagrocers.org and let us know. We will be happy to add anyone within an AGA member company to the mailing list. Hopefully you will find this new publication useful, easy to read and very informative.

Buy Alabama’s Best Dry Entry

2011 September Display Contest Winners

• First Place – Gateway Foods in Double Springs
• Second Place – Foodland #108 in Muscle Shoals
• Third Place – Gardendale Foodland

Buy Alabama’s Best Wet Entry

2011 September Display Contest Winners

• First Place – Gardendale Foodland
• Second Place – Bruno’s #310 in Mobile
• Third Place – Publix #842 in Vestavia Hills

The award, presented by Alabama Grocers Association President, Ellie Smotherman Taylor, and As-sociation Chairman, Jim Dunn was given in recognition of his outstanding service and devotion to the
Alabama Grocers Association and the grocery industry in the Sate of Alabama.

Mr. Pizzatola started his career as a minor league baseball player. He played for 5 years with teams that spanned from North Carolina to Quebec, Canada. After his baseball career was over, Vincent
went to work for Kellogg’s. After leaving Kellogg’s he owned several businesses from grocery stores
to restaurants. Mr. Pizzalota joined the food brokerage business with several prominent Alabama brokerage companies over the years and is employed by D&T Sales and Marketing.

The Alabama Grocers Association Broker of the Year Award was established in 1996 to honor those
that support the Association and have commitment to the State of Alabama food industry. We are hon-ored that the 2011 recipient of this award was Mr. Vincent Pizzatola of D&T Sales and Marketing.

The convention kicked off with the Larry D. Eddleman, Sr. Golf Classic at the Sandestin Baytowne Course. That eve-ning followed with a Sports Night Welcome Buffet . The dinner included a special presentation of the Spirit of Alabama Award to Commissioner John McMillan. Also at the dinner was the announcement of the golf outing winners. Third place winners were: David Gullege, and Don Richardson with Coca-Cola Bottling, and Herman Fields and Greg Waldrop with Gateway Foods; second place winners were Robbie Roberts, Case Roberts, and Terry Preston with May-field Dairy Farms and Tom Heath with Dean Foods; first place winners were Ed Foust, Kevin Foust and Kevin Gillespie with Sara Lee and Jimmy Leith with Leith Property Management. Monday sports night closed with Legendary Hall of Fame Coach Gene Stallings which gave a fantastic motivational presentation.

Business Sessions were held the following day and the sessions included: an Alabama Legislative Update from Representative Paul DeMarco, Alabama House of Representatives; a Healthcare Seminar from Mr. Scott Smith & Ms. Joanna Hull with Northwestern Benefits; an Alabama Industry Trends seminar from Dr. Glenn Richey with the University of Alabama; and a motivational session on “Getting to know your Customers from Mr. Michael Sansolo.

The afternoon continued with the Annual Best Bagger Contest. Contestants included: Karen Freeman, Freeman’s Shur Valu Foods; Bryan Nowell, Publix Super Markets, Inc.; Stephen Thomas, Greer’s Food Tiger; and Ross Umphrey, Western Supermarkets. The winner was Bryan Nowell, Publix Super Markets, who will now go on to the national com-petition at the NGA Convention in Las Vegas, NV in February. Tuesday afternoon also included an exhibit hall with over 70 booths with vendors from all aspects of the grocery industry. Exhibit winners included the Most Original Ex-hibit, US Diagnostics and the Most Spectacular Exhibit, Barber’s/Purity. There was also a silent auction and raffle held during the exhibit hall which raised over $12,800 for the Alabama Grocers Education Foundation. Mr. John D. Fox, Jr. served as Silent Auction Chairman.

Tuesday night the Chairman’s Banquet was held and several industry awards were given. The Retailer of the Year was Mr. Peter V. Gregerson, Jr., Gregerson Foods; Manufacturer of the Year was Mr. John D. Fox, Jr., C&M Food Distribut-ing Company; Broker of the Year was Mr. Vincent Pizzatola, D&T Sales and Wholesaler of the Year was Mr. Tom Kel-ler, Associated Grocers of the South. Mr. Greg Ferrera from the National Grocers Association was also in attendance to give two individuals the Spirit of America Award, Mr. John Davis of A&R Supermarkets and Mr. Dennis Stewart of Piggly Wiggly Alabama Distributing Company. Mr. Jim Dunn was given the Chairman’s Plaque of Appreciation for his dedicated work during the 2010/2011 Fiscal Year and the gavel was transferred to Mr. Harold Garrett, Gateway Foods, who will serve as Chairman for the 2011/2012 Fiscal Year. The current year officers were also installed and can be found at www.alabamagrocers.org. Following the Chairman’s Banquet, Comedian Jeff Allen performed.

The 2012 Annual Convention will be held at the Sandestin Beach Resort on July 23 through July 25.

The award, presented by Alabama Grocers Association President, Ellie Smotherman Taylor, and As-sociation Chairman, Jim Dunn was given in recognition of his outstanding service and devotion to the
Alabama Grocers Association and the grocery industry in the State of Alabama.

Mr. Fox has over 30 years’ experience in the grocery industry. For the last 19 years he has been em-ployed with C&M Food Distributing and currently serves as their Regional Vice President. Johnny
currently serves as an Alabama Grocers Education Foundation Trustee, Board Member of the Ala-bama Grocers Association, President of the Food Sales Executive Club of Birmingham, and President
of the Alabama Food Manufacturers and Producers Association.

The Alabama Grocers Association Manufacturer of the Year Award was established in 1996 to honor
those that support the Association and have commitment to the State of Alabama food industry. We
are honored that the 2011 recipient of this award was Mr. John D. Fox, Jr. of C&M Food Distributing.

The award, presented by Alabama Grocers Association President, Ellie Smotherman Taylor, and As-sociation Chairman, Jim Dunn was given in recognition of his outstanding service and devotion to the
Alabama Grocers Association and the grocery industry in the Staet of Alabama.

Mr. Gregerson is very active in civic and governmental affairs. He currently serves on the Board of
Directors of the Food Marketing Institute, Alabama Retail Association, Community Credit Union,
Gadsden Etowah chamber of Commerce, Zamora Shrine Center, and the Gadsden Etowah Industrial
Development Authority. He also serves as Secretary of the Alabama Grocers Association Board of
Directors and has served as the AGA Legislative Committee Chairman for many years. Greg has re-ceived many distinguished awards including the 1997 Alabama Grocer of the Year, the Paul Harris
Fellow Award from the Rotary Club and the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Sara Rose
Foundation. He is currently President and CEO of Gregerson’s Foods, managing member of Greger-son’s Properties, LLC and CEO of S.D.M. Refrigeration and S.D.M. Electrical Contracting Company.

The Alabama Grocers Association Retailer of the Year Award was established in 1996 to honor those
that support the Association and have commitment to the State of Alabama food industry. We are hon-ored that the 2011 recipient of this award was Mr. Peter V. Gregerson, Jr. of Gregerson’s Foods.

The award, presented by Alabama Grocers Association President, Ellie Smotherman Taylor, and As-sociation Chairman, Jim Dunn was given in recognition of his outstanding service and devotion to the
Alabama Grocers Association and the grocery industry in the State of Alabama.

Mr. Keller graduated from Gannon University, School of Business in Erie, Pennsylvania. He has over
31 years of grocery experience and throughout his career he has held the titles of Director of Food
Service, Director of Merchandising, Corporate Director of Meat Merchandising, Corporate Director of
Private Label, Corporate Director of Store Brands, Director of Category Management, Division Man-ager and Vice President of Merchandising. Throughout his career, Tom has worked with many suc-cessful grocery operations including Fleming Companies, Homeland Stores, Roundy’s, Inc, Nash
Finch Company and is currently Vice President of Merchandising for Associated Grocers of the
South. .

The Alabama Grocers Association Wholesaler of the Year Award was established in 1996 to honor
those that support the Association and have commitment to the State of Alabama food industry. We
are honored that the 2011 recipient of this award was Mr. Tom Keller of Associated Grocers of the
South.