Heritage Grocers COO: Regional Grocery Consolidation, Fresh Theater & From-Scratch Tortillas

Prabash Coswatte,, COO of Heritage Grocers Group, reveals the operational secrets behind running four regional grocery banners and why consolidation is the future for mid-tier retailers. In this exclusive interview recorded live from the VusionGroup Podcast Studio at Groceryshop 2025, Prabash shares: ✅ Operating Cardenas, Los Altos, Tony's, and El Rancho as distinct regional banners ✅ The "groceraunt" concept—stores as part grocery, part restaurant, full theater ✅ Making tortillas from corn kernel to masa to chips in a single day in-store ✅ Weekly sales recap emails that drive fierce store-level competition ✅ Fresh item management technology delivering shrink savings AND sales lifts ✅ Pricing agility strategies in uncertain economic times ✅ Why regional grocery consolidation is inevitable and necessary ✅ Balancing technology investment with customer-first operations From his 18-year retail journey starting at 99 Cents Only Stores to becoming COO overseeing operations, manufacturing, and logistics at a $3 billion regional grocer, Prabash brings hard-won insights into what it takes to compete against giants like Walmart and Kroger. Discover how Heritage maintains what makes each banner special while achieving back-office efficiency, and why fresh-forward merchandising with full butcher shops and in-store kitchens creates the differentiation regional grocers need. Subscribe for more grocery and retail insights from industry leaders! #HeritageGrocers #RegionalGrocery #GroceryOperations #RetailConsolidation #FreshRetail #Groceryshop This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy