Category Specialist - Fresh Food

Who we Are:

Yesway, Inc. (“Yesway” or the “Company") (Nasdaq: YSWY), is an award-winning convenience store operator established in 2015 and headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. With 424 stores across nine states in the Midwest and Southwest, Yesway is renowned for its iconic foodservice offerings, diverse grocery selections, and private-label products, including Allsup’s deep-fried burrito. Through strategic acquisitions, new store developments, and a commitment to customer satisfaction, Yesway continues to solidify its position as one of the leading convenience retailers in the United States. For more information, visit www.yesway.com.

The Opportunity:

Yesway is seeking a Category Specialist – Fresh Food to support one of the company's most strategic categories. This role partners closely with the Senior Category Manager – Fresh Food and Dispensed Beverages to execute category plans, maintain merchandising system accuracy, coordinate supplier communications, and support assortment, promotional, pricing, and program initiatives across all banners.

The Category Specialist plays an important role in ensuring disciplined category execution by maintaining product data integrity, supporting vendor coordination, helping monitor food quality, availability, and waste, and preparing reports and insights that help drive Fresh Food performance.

This role offers an opportunity to gain category management experience within a growing convenience retail organization. The position provides exposure to core category management and foodservice processes while developing the knowledge and skills needed for continued career growth.

Position Responsibilities:

Category Support

• Provide the Senior Category Manager – Fresh Food and Dispensed Beverages with day-to-day administrative and operational support to execute Fresh Food merchandising strategies.
• Assist with preparation of reports, presentations, and materials for category reviews, supplier meetings, and internal planning discussions.
• Support the development, implementation, and maintenance of Fresh Food assortments, merchandising standards, and planograms in partnership with the Senior Category Manager and Space Planning team.
• Coordinate internal and supplier communication related to promotions, assortment updates, new product launches, and category initiatives.
• Collaborate closely with the Category Specialist – Dispensed Beverages to cross-train in both categories, share knowledge and best practices, provide backup support during vacations, absences, and periods of increased workload, and contribute to consistent execution across the Fresh Food and Dispensed Beverages business.

Item Maintenance & Data Integrity

• Maintain accurate product information including item attributes, cost, retail, UPCs, pack sizes, shelf life, and other Fresh Food specifications.
• Coordinate new item setup, item maintenance, product transitions, and discontinuations.
• Help ensure pricing, promotional, product, recipe, and program data accuracy across merchandising systems and supporting files.

Promotions & Pricing Execution

• Assist with promotional setup, pricing updates, limited-time offers, daypart initiatives, and promotional calendar coordination.
• Support tracking and reporting of promotional performance, new item launches, sales, margin, waste, and product mix.

Vendor Coordination & Service Resolution

• Coordinate with supplier partners to support Fresh Food programs, promotional execution, product quality, and new product launches.
• Work with wholesale and direct store delivery (DSD) suppliers to resolve store service issues such as missed deliveries, product availability, quality concerns, and execution issues.
• Partner with Operations, Supply Chain, Quality Assurance, and Training teams to address issues impacting food safety, product quality, availability, waste, and store execution.

Reporting & Cross-Functional Support

• Pull, organize, and analyze POS, margin, waste, and category performance data to support the Senior Category Manager's decision-making.
• Collaborate with Marketing, Loyalty, Pricebook, Operations, Supply Chain, Quality Assurance, and Training teams to support Fresh Food initiatives.
• Perform other duties and special projects as assigned in support of merchandising initiatives.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Merchandising, or a related field preferred.
• 1–3 years of experience in retail merchandising, category management support, foodservice, or related retail operations roles preferred.
• Experience working with product data, merchandising systems, foodservice programs, or reporting systems preferred.
• Strong organizational and analytical skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Limited travel may be required (approximately 5% or less).

Preferred Skills and Competencies:

• Strong attention to detail and commitment to data accuracy.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint; experience with POS reporting, foodservice, or merchandising systems a plus.
• Highly organized, self-motivated, and collaborative team player.

***We do not provide sponsorship for employment visa status now or in the future. Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. on a full‑time basis without restriction.***

Benefits

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• Company Paid Life Insurance
• Health Savings Account
• Flexible Savings Account
• Company Paid Short- & Long-Term Disability
• Employee Assistance Program
• 401K with Company Match
• Paid Vacation
• Paid Sick Time
• Paid Holidays
• Voluntary Supplemental
• Life Insurance
• Disability
• Critical Illness
• Hospital Indemnity
• Accident Coverage
• Pet Care Plan
• Legal Insurance

Yesway is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. #LI-BM2 #LI-ONSITE