What keeps Bashas' new president up at night?

It’s been a big week for Steve Mayer.  

The grocery executive, whose tenure includes time at Schnucks Markets, Meijer, Bi-Lo, Ahold Delhaize USA and Flavor 1st, was promoted to president of Bashas’ Operating Company this week, on the same day the grocery chain opened its new headquarters in Chandler, Arizona. 

In addition to Bashas’, he oversees the retailer’s other Arizona- and New Mexico-based banners: Bashas’ Diné, Food City and AJ’s Fine Foods. He also serves on the Enterprise Leadership Team at Raley’s, the chain’s parent company. 

Running Bashas’ 112 stores is no small task, particularly because the demographics of the four Bashas’ banners are so unique.  

For instance, the company runs nine stores under the Bashas’ Diné banner, primarily serving the Navajo Nation. They also have Bashas'-branded grocery stores that serve a number of Native American tribes in the region, including the White Mountain Apache Tribe, San Carlos Apache Tribe and Tohono O'odham Nation. Physically visiting all nine Bashas’ Diné locations means a roughly 1,600-mile road trip, Mayer said. 

At the same time, Bashas’ operates more than 20 supermarkets in Phoenix, where the stores cater to metropolitan shoppers and a flood of new residents moving to the city. “We’re honored to be on a few of the Native American reservations,” Mayer told Winsight Grocery Business.  

Meanwhile, the company must cater to the shopping needs of higher-income customers at AJ’s and value-focused Hispanic shoppers at Food City.  

The wide variety of its customer-base makes for a challenge when implementing new technologies, such as developing an onmichannel presence, he acknowledged. Mayer noted that the company has an app for the Bashas’ chain and it’s developing apps for Food City and AJ’s, but he noted that there’s a “cultural sensitivity” at play when working in these widely disparate demographics.  

“Being on the reservations, we are truly guests up there,” he said. “We have to understand their culture and adapt to them, and not the other way around. We want to truly be a reflection of the communities we are in.” 

Mayer said he won't make decisions in a vacuum in his new role, but he does have a lot of initiatives planned over the next year, particularly dealing with leadership training. “We’re doing a lot of work around investing in our team,” he said, noting that the effort entails building training programs for those on track for future leadership roles. 

“We want to grow our folks in the right way,” he added. That means providing training in new technologies at the company and working with grocery data analytics provider Dunnhumby. The Dunnhumby relationship has been part of the equation since Raley’s purchased the Bashas’ group in 2021, Mayer said.  

While West Sacramento, California-based Raley’s brings its technological and logistical innovation to the grocery chain, Mayer said they’ve largely left it to the Bashas’ team to run their operation. “The nice thing about The Raley’s Companies is we’re autonomous here in Arizona,” he said. “We make decisions here in Arizona because we’re here in Arizona, and The Raley’s Companies have been very supportive.” 

While Raley’s can lend a hand in supporting the operation, it’s the larger issues that are out of everyone’s control, such as inflation, that keeps Mayer hard at work. “What I try to do and the organization is trying to do is put our guests in the center and focus on what affects them—and that’s what keeps us up at night,” he said.  

That means spending an inordinate amount of time working to figure out ways to keep from passing cost increases on to customers, he said. “We’re holding the line on some things where, quite frankly, costs have gotten out of control,” he said.  

Mayer also is focused on labor shortages, which he says have gotten “slightly better,” and supply chain problems. “It feels like it’s starting to stabilize … but we have a long way to go to get to where it used to be,” he said.  

Asked about what the future holds for new stores coming in the next 12 months, Mayer wasn’t quite ready to reveal what’s next, but he did say the company continues to search for new locations. “Arizona is a growing place, and we’re always looking for new opportunities,” he said.  

* This story was updated to clarify the Native American tribes served by Bashas'.