Mary Cadigan

Mary's story in her own words

I graduated from Johnson & Wales with a degree in Culinary Arts in 2000.  (After deciding Criminal Justice was not my gig.)  After graduation, I toyed with private catering while I waitressing at the good 'ol Red Lobster on 347.  They offered me a management position and I took it to for the experience of managing the culinary team in the back of the house.  That didn't go as planned and I wound up with the task of "fixing the front of the house" in the second worst location on Long Island, so the burnout happened fast. 

At just the right time, I was recruited by 7-Eleven, Inc.  They hired me as a Field Consultant, and my job was to help franchisees be successful and build there business.  I climbed the ranks from there, and became a Senior FC, and then took on a national role in Merchandising Foodservice.  My role was to travel the Eastern States and determine the flavor profiles/preferences of each region and help the Category Managers develop items in support of the regions. 

At that point, my folks have retired up to Northern Maine and a regional CM role opened up in New England,  I asked for the promotion and relocated to Massachusetts to live in the markets I was developing for. 

 I picked Scituate, MA as my new home- I knew this town from my childhood since my Dad is from Hingham, and it reminded me of Stony Brook.  It's a seaside town tucked on the south shore, about 40 minutes outside of Boston.  It's got criffs and nooks and crannies and get smacked around in storms (we are on the news EVERY time a storm hits.) but I love it.  As I settled in, I developed all of the fresh food and bakery items for New England stores and coached the ops team on foodservice standards and practice, etc.  The partners were unbelievable, and though I knew I had made the right decision to move, today, I am certain- more on that in a bit. 

Anyway, the corporate alignment changed and I wound up in a Division Merchandising role in charge of all non-alc bevs, services, and non-foods categories.  I think I was 3 months into that role when my VP called and promoted me back to Ops as a Market Manager.  I have about 100 stores and a  team of about 12 Field Consultants in each market I ran.  I was "Mop and Bucket Mary" and "fixed" two under-performing New England Markets to become profitable and turn the Boston Market to "Investor-ready."  During this time, I met Jim- we've been together almost 12 years.  he was a single dad with 3 kids, and so we were an instant family.  We bought our house in Scituate about a year and a half after we met, and I've helped him raise our three kids (their mum is not in the picture) as my own. 

We never got around to the wedding and that's ok.  Haley is 25 and engaged, James is 20, and Mia is 17, about to start her senior year.  So.  While I was with SEI, I was getting really burnt out.  It had been 15 years and I left to take a strange opportunity and get back to cooking.  I won a bid on a two year contract to operate the "pub" at Widow's Walk Golf Course in Scituate.  We turned it into the North River Grill and it was way cool, dream come true stuff at the beginning. 

 I was the Executive Chef, and CFO among other things, and quickly became the bar-tender/server one-woman show as I found my partner was the worst decision I ever made.  At the end of the first season, I accepted the Role of Category Manager, Bakery for the Trader Joe's Company and left my partner to steal her own profits and materials from the NRG.  And probably saved my life.  TJ's was pretty cool. 

I developed the Artisan Bread Category and the Sweets/Desserts for all TJ stores in the enterprise.  It was phenomenal learning, crazy cool travel and I made some of the most talented bakers in the world into good friends I still stay in touch with.  The first call I made when I got to TJ was to Jeff, the CEO of Bake Fresh, who owns the Bakery I worked with when I was developing for 7-Eleven.  I asked him if he wanted to get in, and today, TJ is one of Bake Fresh's3rd  largest customer. 

Without sharing the item I intro'd first, I will share that the first total of PO's in 2018 was 18,000 cases.  This year, that same item will ship over 100,000 for one selling season of August-October.  Kinda proud of that.  So with TJ's during a category shift, I found myself with HABA, Household, Cereal/Breakfast, Vitamins and Nutritional Bars as my category responsibilities.  And Covid hit. Hand sanitizer, cleaning products, toilet paper, vitamins- all ME.  It was complete chaos. 

At one point, we couldn't get a single roll of TP.  So I called around until I found the guy who sold TP and soaps to Hilton.  I bought all of the single rolls of hotel TP that they had sitting in warehouses and put it on the shelves of Trader Joe's.  It was a great idea at the time and I can't believe I pulled it off.  Fast forward to an exhausted call to Jeff of Bake Fresh.  "I want back into Bakery.  Where should I look?" He said, "no where.  You're coming with us.  We'll get you an offer in a couple of days." So for the last three years, I have gleefully managed the customer relationships and brought on new business for our group of 5 bakeries. 

Most recently, we made a large deal with Target stores and will begin shipping our first seasonal item in august and four "every day" items to them nationally in Q1 of 2024.  It's busy and chaotic and awesome, and joining the team was like coming home.  Plus, when I'm not traveling, I work from home, usually in my running clothes, with my best girl at my feet.  (Tessie, she is a yellow lab who snores like a drunk old man and she is the BEST.) So that's it.

Interests?  I love to travel, I get to the beach and into the woods as much as I can, I am a long-distance runner (I finished the Boston Marathon in 2018 as my crowning achievement- and while registered for Chicago this October, unfortunately will not make it due to a knee injury I am nursing.  I also still cook constantly and I love to garden. 

It's a fairly quiet world and that's how I prefer it.  My two besties from HS are still my besties- Krista MacPherson (Lapresti) and Michelle Bergin-Hayes(not a WM grad).  One of my regrets has been not getting down to the island as much as I'd like and I'm working on that.  I've been back twice in the last two months and got to catch up with some of our HS friends I haven't seen in way too long which was awesome. I'll be back at the end of July for a quick trip and can't wait. 

 When I look back, I almost have trouble remembering details but they come back.  I remember fondly, debates in English class senior year, CPR with O'Leary and barely making it to home room every day. And then getting the hell out of there by 12:50 to get to West Meadow and to work...I'd love to have my memory revived.