Bakery Retail Category Manager — Strategy & Growth

The Fresh Market Inc.; Fisher Park (NC); On-site; USD 75,000 - 115,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Team member discount up to 30%

Health, dental & vision insurance

401K contribution and match

Personal time off and additional time‑

Job summary

The Fresh Market is seeking a Retail Category Manager, Bakery to drive the development, execution, and financial performance of an assigned category from our Store Support Center. You will set product assortment, pricing, promotions, and merchandising standards to meet department goals.

You will lead cross-functional collaboration with marketing, stores, and vendors, monitor trends, evaluate new items, and ensure quality across all category initiatives.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• 4–7+ years of Category Management or related experience.
• Deep knowledge of the grocery business and systems/processes.
• Experience understanding consumer demand in fast-paced retail/grocery.
• Ability to develop/maintain strong working relationships with peers and cross-functional teams.
• Demonstrate strong analytical, negotiating, and problem-solving skills.
• Willing and able to travel for trade shows and store trips.
• Flexible and adaptive to changing priorities.
• Organize and prioritize workload to meet deadlines.
• Proficient with MS Office applications.
• Project management skills.

Responsibilities

• Set product assortment for your category based on brand standards and item performance.
• Develop pricing strategy to achieve department financial goals.
• Define the promotional strategy based on the role of your category.
• Determine merchandising minimums, by SKU, for your category.
• Optimize sales to space through the category review process.
• Define monthly shrink targets by category.
• Evaluate new item performance.
• Maintain schematic integrity with consistent review and updates.
• Review fixture plans for new store openings.
• Define and collaborate with cross-functional partners on marketing strategy to support category programs.
• Monitor trends in new products, consumer behavior, market share, and competition, to inform decisions and initiate and enable innovation.
• Finds and evaluates new vendors and approves new items/vendors for buys.
• Ensure quality standards are upheld.

Skills

Category management

Merchandising

Pricing strategy

Analytics

Cross-functional collaboration

Travel willingness

MS Office

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience

Tools

Nielsen/IRI

MicroStrategy

Job description

The Fresh Market is seeking a Retail Category Manager, Bakery to drive the development, execution, and financial performance of an assigned category from our Store Support Center. You will set product assortment, pricing, promotions, and merchandising standards to meet department goals.

You will lead cross-functional collaboration with marketing, stores, and vendors, monitor trends, evaluate new items, and ensure quality across all category initiatives.