ALLEN SEIDNER

Grocery Store & Prepared Foods Design,

Development & Operations Consultant

 

​Principal, Thought For Food

Allen Seidner is principal of Thought For Food Consulting, a store and prepared foods design, development and operations consulting firm exclusive to organic and natural grocery retailers.

 

Together, with associate Michelle O’Connor, the team provides the most comprehensive package of prepared foods design, development and operations services in natural foods retailing. 

 

Since 1997 Seidner’s created program, financial and fixture plans for more than 150 co-op and independent store expansion, renovation and new store projects. His team’s recent work has supported the prepared foods success in each of the past four Cooperative Retailer of the Year award winners: City Market/Onion River Co-op, Burlington, VT; BriarPatch Food Co-op, Grass Valley, CA; Middlebury Natural Food Co-op, Middlebury, VT; and Oryana Community Co-op, Traverse City, MI.

 

Seidner is a former partner at Good Earth Natural Foods in Fairfax, Calif.; Northern California regional foodservice director for Wild Oats Markets; prepared foods team leader and traveling troubleshooter for Whole Foods Markets; prepared foods and human resources manager for Oak Street Market (Evanston, Ill.), and a long-time manager of Chicago’s renowned vegetarian restaurant, Blind Faith Café.

With O’Connor, Seidner produces and presents DeliOps 101, an annual 3-day intensive on the essential aspects of foodservice operations excellence. And, with Carolee Colter and Mark Mulcahy, he’s a co-creator and -presenter of Rising Stars, a series of leadership development seminars presented to more than 2500 industry leaders over the past 20 years.

A native of Chicago, Seidner lives with his twin teenagers and one sweet cat in San Francisco. ​​