In December 2011, Jeff Brown unveiled his newly renovated ShopRite of Cheltenham with the help of national and state dignitaries. From left, Wendell Young IV, Local 1776; Sam Kass, Healthy Food Initiatives for the Obama Administration; Josh, Scott and Jeff Brown, Rep. Dwight Evans (D-203) and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. After being active on the PFMA board of directors for many years, Jeff Brown took on the role of PFMA chairman in May.
Jeff Brown is a celebrity in inner-city Philadelphia. Attend one of his store openings and you’ll see customers waiting in line to meet him and thank him for opening a beautiful new store. He’s revered as the person who brought full-service supermarkets to Philadelphia’s former food deserts, where dollar stores and fast food were once the only options to buy food.
Brown followed his family into the supermarket business. His great grandfather operated a corner store in Philadelphia, and his father, Lenny Brown, operated 9 Shop ‘n Bag in South Jersey.
“I was eight years old when I started,” he says. “I worked weekends and summers growing up and I learned all aspects of the business.”
After graduating from high school, he attended Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts and completed his degree in Entrepreneurial Studies and Finance. He eventually went to work for his Dad as the chief financial officer of the Shop ‘n Bag, until he sold the business.
In 1988, Brown became the 4th generation of his family to own and operate a supermarket business when he founded Brown’s Super Stores.
“I wanted to open bigger store with more variety,” he says. “With the ShopRite banner, I was able to bring the consumers better prices and verity with ShopRite’s better buying power.”
The ShopRite banner wasn’t well-known in Philadelphia 29 years ago. The first five years, Brown operated a small business and worked to build brand recognition. As the industry consolidated, he started to see opportunities in areas of the city without a large supermarket to serve their needs.
“I noticed that the majority of underprivileged communities in Philadelphia had no large supermarkets to serve them,” he says.
Through Pennsylvania’s Fresh Food Financing Initiative, he bought some of those former stores in urban food deserts and opened full-service ShopRite supermarkets to serve those communities.
In 2009 when President Obama took office and First Lady Michelle Obama started the “Let’s Move” campaign with the goal of ending childhood obesity, Brown’s work to open stores in food deserts gained national attention. He joined the First Lady at the President’s State of the Union address in 2010.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and other cabinet secretaries visited one of the Brown’s West Philadelphia stores to learn about how the Obama administration could encourage grocers nationally to follow this successful example. Through strategic conversations with the secretary, he helped shape policy to start a nationwide Fresh Food Financing Initiative, known as the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, to eliminate food deserts in America. Brown wanted to assist other entrepreneurs who were interested in investing in food deserts, so he started Uplift Solutions, a non-profit working to assist others in creating sustainable access to fresh and healthy food. To date, Uplift has assisted with projects in 40 states, which can range from securing financing and opening a new store; consulting and technical support to turning around a failing store. In addition, the non-profit offers health solutions to develop in-store clinics and hire dieticians; and workforce development, which provides training to formerly incarcerated people to work in grocery stores.
He volunteers time with many other organizations, including the Philadelphia Youth Network, the State of Pennsylvania Workforce Development Board, the Governor’s Advisory Board of Workforce and Education Innovation, and he serves as an officer on Wakefern Food Corporation’s board of directors.
“I get a charge out of making a difference and helping people make a difference,” he says.
His supermarket business has grown considerably in the past 30 years. Brown operates 11 ShopRites and two The Fresh Grocer locations in Philadelphia.
He and his wife Sandy have been married for 28 years and she’s worked with him for more than 20 years. Her role is director of branding, public relations and social media.
People often ask him how they can work together.
“For us it really works,” he says. “It’s a labor of love. It’s an all-consuming business and we’ve been able to incorporate it into our life.”
Brown credits Sandy for having the vision for the store layout. She takes the ideas and brings them to life for the company’s brand appearance. She also makes sure to monitor their digital brand.
“Sandy or I see every comment on social media and we reply personally,” Brown says. “We try to keep this as a family business.”
Their family consists of four sons, Josh, 26, works for a private equity firm in real estate; Alex, 25, works as a management consultant; Lenny, 22, is a programmer for artificial intelligence and machine learning; and Scott, 20, is pursuing a food marketing degree at Saint Joseph’s University.
The Browns hope their sons will be interested in working in the business one day.
“We have a rule that they must have three years of outside work experience before they join the company,” he says. “We want them to bring new expertise and experience.”
The future looks very bright for the Brown family.
Since accepting the gavel in May, your new chairman is already off to a busy start. He recently testified in Harrisburg about the devastating impact the Philadelphia beverage tax is having on his business. He also presided over the Legislative Conference, Agriculture Summit and board meeting, and has met with other lawmakers about issues impacting the grocery industry.
Jeff Brown is a celebrity in inner-city Philadelphia. Attend one of his store openings and you’ll see customers waiting in line to meet him and thank him for opening a beautiful new store. He’s revered as the person who brought full-service supermarkets to Philadelphia’s former food deserts, where dollar stores and fast food were once the only options to buy food.
Brown followed his family into the supermarket business. His great grandfather operated a corner store in Philadelphia, and his father, Lenny Brown, operated 9 Shop ‘n Bag in South Jersey.
“I was eight years old when I started,” he says. “I worked weekends and summers growing up and I learned all aspects of the business.”
After graduating from high school, he attended Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts and completed his degree in Entrepreneurial Studies and Finance. He eventually went to work for his Dad as the chief financial officer of the Shop ‘n Bag, until he sold the business.
In 1988, Brown became the 4th generation of his family to own and operate a supermarket business when he founded Brown’s Super Stores.
“I wanted to open bigger store with more variety,” he says. “With the ShopRite banner, I was able to bring the consumers better prices and verity with ShopRite’s better buying power.”
The ShopRite banner wasn’t well-known in Philadelphia 29 years ago. The first five years, Brown operated a small business and worked to build brand recognition. As the industry consolidated, he started to see opportunities in areas of the city without a large supermarket to serve their needs.
“I noticed that the majority of underprivileged communities in Philadelphia had no large supermarkets to serve them,” he says.
Through Pennsylvania’s Fresh Food Financing Initiative, he bought some of those former stores in urban food deserts and opened full-service ShopRite supermarkets to serve those communities.
In 2009 when President Obama took office and First Lady Michelle Obama started the “Let’s Move” campaign with the goal of ending childhood obesity, Brown’s work to open stores in food deserts gained national attention. He joined the First Lady at the President’s State of the Union address in 2010.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and other cabinet secretaries visited one of the Brown’s West Philadelphia stores to learn about how the Obama administration could encourage grocers nationally to follow this successful example. Through strategic conversations with the secretary, he helped shape policy to start a nationwide Fresh Food Financing Initiative, known as the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, to eliminate food deserts in America. Brown wanted to assist other entrepreneurs who were interested in investing in food deserts, so he started Uplift Solutions, a non-profit working to assist others in creating sustainable access to fresh and healthy food. To date, Uplift has assisted with projects in 40 states, which can range from securing financing and opening a new store; consulting and technical support to turning around a failing store. In addition, the non-profit offers health solutions to develop in-store clinics and hire dieticians; and workforce development, which provides training to formerly incarcerated people to work in grocery stores.
He volunteers time with many other organizations, including the Philadelphia Youth Network, the State of Pennsylvania Workforce Development Board, the Governor’s Advisory Board of Workforce and Education Innovation, and he serves as an officer on Wakefern Food Corporation’s board of directors.
“I get a charge out of making a difference and helping people make a difference,” he says.
His supermarket business has grown considerably in the past 30 years. Brown operates 11 ShopRites and two The Fresh Grocer locations in Philadelphia.
He and his wife Sandy have been married for 28 years and she’s worked with him for more than 20 years. Her role is director of branding, public relations and social media.
People often ask him how they can work together.
“For us it really works,” he says. “It’s a labor of love. It’s an all-consuming business and we’ve been able to incorporate it into our life.”
Brown credits Sandy for having the vision for the store layout. She takes the ideas and brings them to life for the company’s brand appearance. She also makes sure to monitor their digital brand.
“Sandy or I see every comment on social media and we reply personally,” Brown says. “We try to keep this as a family business.”
Their family consists of four sons, Josh, 26, works for a private equity firm in real estate; Alex, 25, works as a management consultant; Lenny, 22, is a programmer for artificial intelligence and machine learning; and Scott, 20, is pursuing a food marketing degree at Saint Joseph’s University.
The Browns hope their sons will be interested in working in the business one day.
“We have a rule that they must have three years of outside work experience before they join the company,” he says. “We want them to bring new expertise and experience.”
The future looks very bright for the Brown family.
Since accepting the gavel in May, your new chairman is already off to a busy start. He recently testified in Harrisburg about the devastating impact the Philadelphia beverage tax is having on his business. He also presided over the Legislative Conference, Agriculture Summit and board meeting, and has met with other lawmakers about issues impacting the grocery industry.
 |  Sandy and Jeff Brown attend the PFMA Annual Conference in Hershey this past May, one of the many industry and community events they attend together. |
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