Grocery Aisle

Last night came back from a grocery trade show at a Connecticut casino. While I didn't win any money (actually lost $15.00 since that was my totally-worth-it entry fee to Bingo), I did walk away with some take away but let me back up a bit.

While I haven't yet read Sheryl Sandbergs new book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, I have been very aware of the buzz it has created. I have thought a lot about my role in the work place, what are some goals and aspirations that I have and would like to set for myself.

So it was with all these thoughts that I went into the trade show on Tuesday morning. And what I realized there is just how few women are in a position of decision making in the grocery world. This is an industry that should be run by women. As a few articles have cited,  roughly 69% of all grocery shopping is done by women. But when I looked around at my buyers, I was shocked to realize how many of them are men. Sure, this isn't always the case and some companies seem to be better than others but if women are deciding what they take home from the store, shouldn't they also be deciding what gets placed on the shelf to begin with? While so much attention is placed on Fortune 500 companies for their lack of women, lets widen the scope a bit and think a little more locally.


* sorry for the slightly different type of post. I will be back to my fun self shortly, just been a weird few weeks!