Category Coordinator

Are you ready to kick-start your career in merchandising and category management? Join our dynamic team as a Category Coordinator - Food Service, where you’ll play a key role in shaping product assortments, pricing strategies, and promotional plans—all while building strong relationships with vendors and internal teams.

This is an entry-level opportunity designed for individuals eager to learn, grow, and advance within the company. You’ll gain hands-on experience in category management, supply chain coordination, and strategic planning, setting the foundation for a long-term career.

What You’ll Do

• Support category planning, pricing, and promotional strategies.
• Coordinate with internal teams and vendors to ensure smooth product setup and updates.
• Analyze market trends and internal data to help optimize assortments.
• Assist in managing vendor relationships and resolving supply chain issues.
• Communicate key updates across merchandising, marketing, and operations teams.

What We’re Looking For

• Strong communication and organizational skills.
• Analytical mindset with attention to detail.
• Ability to collaborate and build relationships.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office and Google Suite.

Why Join Us?

• Entry-level role with clear growth opportunities—develop your skills and advance into category management or leadership positions.
• Work in a collaborative environment where your ideas matter.
• Gain exposure to merchandising strategy, vendor negotiations, and supply chain management.

The Category Coordinator is responsible for planning assortment by geographical areas, developing pricing strategy, planning promotional activity, and managing key supply chain relationships with vendor partners. Must be able to effectively communicate appropriate plans with internal stakeholders.

Main Responsibilities

• Act as subject matter expert for assigned categories, providing thought leadership to organization.
• Reevaluate sourcing standards as a team to ensure alignment with company mission and category assortment needs.
• Ensure items are setup correctly in Pricebook and within our acceptable margins.
• Send communications if any changes and coordinate with the field merchandisers, regarding price changes, updating tags, and verify items are scanning on the register.
• Analyze internal and external data to develop category strategies aligned with industry and consumer trends.
• Manage onboarding and offboarding of products within time-bound category review schedule in accordance with sourcing standards.
• Assists negotiate costs, distribution and delivery terms with suppliers and execute pricing strategy to meet margin targets for assigned categories.
• Examine competition to determine trends and pricing bandwidth.
• Work with Buyers and Merchandisers to implement successful exit strategies for stagnant items from inventory.
• Manages, improves and recommends the product assortment for the stores on a national basis for assigned category.
• Plans include assortment and positioning, product improvements and development plans, projected revenues and gross profit, display, price, promotion and communication to stores.
• Drill plans down into seasonal calendars, monthly implementation plans and recurring assortment change calendars.
• Performs monthly analysis and verification of plans.
• Develop recommended retail pricing guidelines (which are subject to executive committee approval) for the stores to optimize category profitability and establish suggested retail prices within these guidelines.
• Reviews competitor pricing information gathered by Zone Merchandisers and pricing group and recommends pricing.
• Works with merchandising leadership on advertising/promotions for assigned category.
• Works on POP, co-op agreements and promotion timetables and strategies.
• Develops cost/benefit analysis to determine return on advertising and promotional dollars. Vendor or Supplier Relationships / Supply Chain Management.
• Works with suppliers to stabilize product supply through forecasting of key products to solve issues.
• Reviews and works with manufacturers to resolve out-of-stock issues.
• Develops and maintains effective working relationships with representatives and senior management of national suppliers.
• Meets with national vendors on a regular basis to discuss new product development and ways to lower costs.
• Guides Merchandisers in the development of the schematics.
• Gathers input