ShopRite of Hunterdon County, a family-owned company that operates five ShopRite stores in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, shared Tuesday that Sam Colalillo has joined their operations.
Colalillo, a third-generation grocer, will work with his father and president of ShopRite of Hunterdon County, Joe Colalillo, and the retail teams at the family’s stores.
“We are very excited to have Sam join us in the family business,” said the president of ShopRite of Hunterdon County, in a statement. “Sam is a next-generation leader who is passionate about growing the business in new and innovative ways to make our stores the best they can be – for our associates and customers.”
Joe Colalillo’s father, Joseph A. Colalillo, founded the family’s grocery business 65 years ago. ShopRite of Hunterdon County employs more than 1,300 associates across stores. In addition to his role as president of the family company, Joe Colalillo has served for the last 18 years as chairman of Wakefern Food Corp., the retailer-owned distribution and merchandising arm for ShopRite.
Before returning to his family’s business, Sam served as global VP of embedded and retail analytics at NielsenIQ, creating products to help retailers and manufacturers in the food industry use scalable analytics to improve their business. From 2017 to 2021 he led NielsenIQ’s global revenue management and optimization software suite, developing price and promotion software.
Reflecting on the transition back to his family’s stores, the third-generation Colalillo shared that he is “thrilled to return to the business to work and train with my dad. It’s an exciting time for the supermarket industry and I look forward to getting to know our store teams and customers.”
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