IGA has announced that Perch’s IGA of Alpena and owners Terry and Julie Curtis have been awarded the IGA Five Star honor for achievement in IGA’s Assessment Program. Five Star is the highest level of recognition possible under the assessment program’s rigorous standards.

“We at Perch’s IGA are so proud to be Alpena’s Five Star IGA,” Terry Curtis said. “We achieved this honor by working as a team to meet the needs of our customers. We’d like to thank our dedicated team for their hard work day in and day out.”

The IGA Assessment Program measured performance with three unrevealed and one revealed assessment in 2016, focusing on store appearance and product quality, employee training, customer service, participation in IGA-only shopper-focused offers from national brand partners, and support and involvement in the local community.

Perch’s is supplied locally by Great North Food

“IGA’s customers know that when they shop at IGA, they’re supporting not only their local independent grocer, but their community as a whole,” IGA Chairman and CEO Mark Batenic said. “The heart and soul of IGA is providing our customers with the very best level of service along with a personalized, community-focused shopping experience.

“Perch’s IGA is a shining example of a store that provides the total IGA Hometown Proud customer experience. We’re proud of Terry and Julie Curtis and Perch’s IGA’s achievement and thank all the shoppers who inspired the Perch’s IGA team to be the best. It’s stores like Perch’s IGA that are making it possible for IGA to move forward into the next 90 years.”

The Independent Grocers Alliance, or IGA, was founded in 1926, bringing together independent grocers across the United States to ensure that the trusted, family-owned local grocery store remained strong in the face of growing chain competition. IGA is the world’s largest voluntary supermarket network with aggregate worldwide retail sales of over $36 billion per year.

The alliance includes nearly 5,000 Hometown Proud Supermarkets worldwide, supported by 36 distribution companies and more than 55 major manufacturers, vendors and suppliers encompassing everything from grocery to equipment items. IGA has operations in 46 of the United States and more than 30 countries, commonwealths and territories.