Stop & Shop seeking to fill nearly 3K openings at job fair this Saturday

As labor issues continue to plague retailers, Stop & Shop is looking to hire 2,800 workers to fill various part-time and full-time positions by hosting a one-day career fair on Saturday at each of its 400-plus stores as well as at its Freetown, Massachusetts, distribution center, the company announced on Monday.

The Quincy, Massachusetts-based banner of Ahold Delhaize will host the job fair from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. with on-the-spot interviews for all store roles, shifts and departments. The distribution center is looking to fill full-time positions.

“At Stop & Shop, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace. We believe that the voices of our team members should reflect a diverse set of ideas, experiences and backgrounds. Many members of Stop & Shop’s leadership team started as store associates. The roles we offer at Stop & Shop are more than jobs, they are growth opportunities,” said Maria Silvestri, SVP of human resources for Stop & Shop, in a statement. “We hope that anyone who is interested in starting a career in an exciting work environment, focused on helping their community, will join us in any of our stores on Saturday, Feb. 25.”

On-the-job training, cross-functional job rotation, coaching, networking and mentoring as well as classroom training and tuition reimbursement toward business- or food industry-related higher education are some of the investments the company provides to its employees.

“Throughout its over 100-year history, Stop & Shop has remained committed to developing and investing in its associates, enabling them to build and advance their careers,” the company said in a statement.

Aside from labor issues, last month Stop & Shop announced it is tackling food waste. Through a partnership with digital marketplace Flashfood, which offers shoppers the opportunity to buy food that is heavily discounted and nearing its best-by date, Stop & Shop is increasing the program to include 34 of its Massachusetts stores and 21 of its Rhode Island locations.

“We know that value and variety are important to our customers, and like Stop & Shop, many of our Massachusetts shoppers are focused on helping to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Holland Ricker, regional VP of operations for Stop & Shop, in a statement. “We’re proud of this recent expansion of Flashfood to our Massachusetts customers, and hope that shopping the Flashfood marketplace at Stop & Shop will help offer them sustainable shopping options with ways to also save significantly on groceries.”

Stop & Shop operates more than 400 stores throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey.