Price Rite’s Jim Dorey to become Inserra Supermarkets president

Jim Dorey, president of value grocer Price Rite Marketplace, has joined ShopRite operator Inserra Supermarkets Inc. as senior vice president, a stepping stone to becoming the grocer’s president and chief operating officer.

Mahwah, N.J.-based Inserra said Friday that Ron Onorato, its current president and COO, aims to retire within the next two years, and Dorey will eventually transition to that role. He starts at Inserra as senior vice president effective immediately.

A member of the Wakefern Food Corp. grocery retail cooperative, Inserra Supermarkets  operates 22 ShopRite stores and two Price Rite locations in New Jersey and New York.

With the departure of Dorey, plans call for Kevin McDonnell, currently senior vice president of operations at Price Rite Marketplace, to lead the Price Rite team. The chain operates 62 grocery stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Maryland.

“We welcome Jim to our team at Inserra Supermarkets,” Lawrence Inserra Jr., chairman and CEO of Inserra Supermarkets, said in a statement. “His valuable experience with Wakefern Food Corp. makes him a great choice to lead us into the future. We congratulate Ron on his planned retirement and are grateful for all the contributions he has made to Inserra Supermarkets over the years. He will work closely with Jim in making this transition in leadership.”

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Dorey (left) has served as president of Price Rite Marketplace since October 2017, when he succeeded the retiring Neil Duffy. Dorey joined Price Rite in 2009 as director of marketing and was promoted to vice president of marketing and merchandising in 2010, followed by an appointment to executive vice president in 2015. He held that role until being named president over two years later. The company noted that Dorey led Price Rite through a rebranding effort that included remodels of all of its stores.

His association with Wakefern goes back even farther. Dorey joined the Keasbey, N.J.-based cooperative in 2004 as manager of real estate and business development and rose through the organization, holding management posts in procurement in support of the frozen food and dairy divisions.

A 40-year supermarket industry veteran, Onorato (left) has served as president and COO of Inserra Supermarkets since coming to the company in 2015. Before that, he was senior vice president of operational initiatives at Ahold USA and earlier served as president of Stop & Shop’s New York metro division. He previously served as senior vice president of sales and operations for that Stop & Shop division and, prior to that, as senior vice president of operations for Stop & Shop in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York.

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Price Rite’s McDonnell has been the chain’s senior vice president of operations since October 2021, when he came over to the discount grocery banner after spending over three years as director of retail operations at Wakefern. He joined the cooperative after nearly 10 years at Fairway Market, most recently as co-president and COO. His more than 30-year career in the supermarket sector also includes roles as senior vice president of sales at A&P and at Waldbaum’s Supermarkets.

The largest U.S. retailer-owned grocery cooperative, Wakefern has a retail network of more than 360 supermarkets in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island under the ShopRite (nearly 280 locations), The Fresh Grocer, Price Rite Marketplace, Gourmet Garage, Fairway Market and Dearborn Market banners.