2022 Top Women in Grocery: The Sky's The Limit

It should come as no surprise in the 16th year of our Top Women in Grocery recognition program, but this year, as we on the judging panel sifted through 1,158 submissions to arrive at 401 honorees, we were struck anew by how far women have advanced in the grocery industry, even since the time that the program debuted, back in 2007.

While there were always high-ranking female executives among our honorees, over the years we’ve watched them enter segments of the industry that were once almost exclusively male — IT, warehouse logistics and construction, to name just a few — as well seeing more ascend to the highest positions in the c-suite. Truly, women have the ability and tenacity to go all the way to the top of the industry, if given the chance.

That’s where mentoring comes in. So many women who have progressed to previously unprecedented heights in their own careers — some even becoming the first woman to hold a certain role at a particular company — are reaching back to help others behind them on the same path, and many of those mentors, as well as those they’ve helped, have been chosen as honorees this year. Whether as part of a formal program or as a personal relationship between colleagues, mentoring is the reason that so many women are excelling in their grocery industry careers and coming to our attention as Top Women in Grocery nominees. There are, of course, many male allies who enable women to move forward in their particular areas of the industry, but the special mentoring bond between women, who know firsthand all of the issues that female employees face, and can discuss those issues frankly, is especially deserving of note.

Further, in this current time, after two grueling years of pandemic lockdowns, civil unrest, horrific mass shootings in supermarkets, skyrocketing inflation, supply chain woes leading to severe product shortages, and a labor crisis serious enough to be dubbed The Great Resignation, it feels wonderful to celebrate the strides that women continue make in the grocery industry. For those with the will to succeed and the right support from their companies and mentors, that infamous glass ceiling blocking female success doesn’t stand a chance.

Click on the links in the box above to find out more about this year’s slate of Senior-Level Executives, Rising Stars and Store Managers, as well as our 2022 Trailblazers, Mary Ellen Adcock, SVP of operations at The Kroger Co., and Michele Buck, chairman, president and CEO of The Hershey Co.