Company Blog

CRITIC

by Adam Zack — January 7, 2026

“The easiest job in the world is the Amateur Critic.”

The easiest job in the world is the Amateur Critic. You know the guy who goes into a restaurant and complains that his water is too cold or that the music’s too loud. He bitches about not enough (or too much) dressing on the salad and that the grill marks on the steak should be perpendicular to the grain of the meat and not parallel. They post extra long, mean reviews on Yelp that actually help no one. These types of people next lead into “If this were my restaurant, things would be different around here.” And sometimes the rich ones actually DO buy the restaurant or start their own with the intentions to offer just the right temperature water and perfect amount of dressing with 90 degree parallel grill marks on the steak. They soon find out that there are about 1000 other things that are more important that they didn’t consider and before you know it, there’s an available restaurant space on the market. It’s similar with food stores. The deli salads have spilled over, the bread section is wiped and for God’s sake why are there only 3 rotisserie chickens in the warmer? The wastebasket in the men’s room is almost full, the soda cans are not tur...

by Adam Zack — December 30, 2025

How to get an extra cent of profit on a sale and save an extra cent on operating expense is a talent that is becoming rarer and is often unappreciated.

Would you stop to pick up a penny if you saw it on the ground? How about a nickel? Quarter? Everyone I know would stop to pick up a dollar, that is certain. But back to that penny… I was thinking about it when I saw a penny in the parking lot yesterday. I picked it up, put it in my pocket, forgot to take it out when I put my pants in the clothes hamper and now it will probably come out in the washing machine or dryer for my wife to hear clanking around while the dryer turns as she tends to the laundry. You know the clack-clack-clack of copper on the metal dryer drum as it tumbles around. I should have just left that penny on the ground. It struck a nerve, though because grocery success or failure is literally built on pennies. Now it’s 2025 and the US government has ceased production of pennies for the first time in 232 years. In a business where a good net profit is 5 cents on the dollar, that penny that I didn’t pick up reduces my profit margin 20%. My dad is an old school grocer all the way through to his soul. I remember about 40 years ago he saw one o...

by Adam Zack — December 23, 2025

“As leaders, we are tasked with the responsibility of nurturing our employees
to have the basic values and skills required to serve our customers.”

In the documentary movie Three Identical Strangers, identical triplets were separated at birth and adopted by three separate families in New York. None of the adopting families knew that their new baby was one of three triplets, and it was only through a fluke chance that they discovered each other when they were 19 years old. Although they looked exactly the same, they were very different people, and as it turns out, part of an experiment to determine if it is nature or nurture that determines the type of person you ultimately become. It was a very cruel experiment with sad results for the triplets. So despite the cruel experiment, the question remains: Are our basic values of kindness, empathy, generosity, work ethic, honesty and caring learned from our family or were we born with them and they developed as we matured? Most parents strive to instill good traits in their children. No one wants to raise a kid that turns out to be a royal a-hole. Yet there are families with multiple kids, same parenting techniques, where one kid definitely turns out to be that a-hole. As leaders, we are tasked with the...

by Adam Zack — December 17, 2025

We don’t always get what we want…

Christmas time is loaded with lists. What gifts to buy (and for whom). Who’s coming to dinner. What to shop for. What’s on the menu. Who gets a card. Who doesn’t. Who’s naughty. Who’s nice. As kids, we were professional list-makers. We started early—September early—paging through the Sears catalog like it was sacred text. Pages were dog-eared, items circled, then reconsidered, added, removed, and debated as fall slowly marched toward Christmas. Nothing too unrealistic, but always just ambitious enough to feel hopeful. Lofty dreams, within reason.

Grandparents wanted to know what was on the list—and since I had three sets, the odds were pretty good. Between generous family and a birthday a week after Christmas, most lists reached a very satisfying level of cross-outs. It was an exciting season, and I was incredibly lucky, even if I didn’t always recognize it at the time. I cringe now thinking about the occasional disappointment over a missing Hot Wheels set or model airplane. What kind of spoiled kid pouts over that? (Answer: me.) It took a few years, but I eventually learned that we don’t always get what we want—whether it’s business goals, customer feedback, re...

by Adam Zack — December 11, 2025

“Opportunities…have to be sought out.”

So I was talking with my wife about someone she knew who was less than enchanted with her job and the salary she makes. The person has been at her job for many years, still made minimum wage, and felt pretty much taken for granted by her employer. (She is not in the grocery business, we do better than that.) While she lamented her position and where she is in her career, she really didn’t have a path that she could see that would provide a more meaningful and fulfilling career. She asked my wife just how she could do something different? How can she find another opportunity? It struck me that opportunities don’t regularly present themselves with a “Ta Da! Here I am!” They don’t knock loud. Usually they don’t knock at all. Opportunities for advancement and success – in anything – from a new marketing campaign to a job promotion – have to be sought out. The trees have to be shaken. Standing still and waiting will behave endless. Carpe diem.

Read More – The Juice

...

by Adam Zack — December 3, 2025

You are evolving, offering new products and services.”

Each year in December I hear and read about notable people who have died during the year. Kind of like a “Who’s Who In Memoriam”. Many Actors, musicians, famous people, politicians and high profile people have obituaries. Some are expected (Oh, he was still alive? I thought he died a long time ago!) and some are totally out of the blue. (Malcom Jamal Warner – Theo on the Cosby Show). It makes me reflect on the year and how quickly it passed.Coresight Research reported that 7,600 retail stores closed in the United States through the first half of this year, and projected that the total for 2025 would be 15,000. That’s double 2024’s 7,325 closings. It’s a mournful number. It’s even more closings than during the Great Recession of December 2007 through June 2009.So what are great grocery retailers like you doing to not be a statistic of losers? You are evolving, offering new products and services. You are solving “What’s For Dinner?” and giving lunch options that are nutritious and a good value. You are taking a “Less is more” approach and streamlining operations and maximizing what you offer in limited space. And you’re not giving them a reason to g...

by Adam Zack — November 25, 2025

“Finding great employees is always difficult…”

Music is a big part of my life. I love the live experience and witnessing how the creative and collaborative process of a band comes together during a really great concert. It’s like witnessing and participating in great teamwork. Passion, talent and enthusiasm combined with the drive for success. It isn’t just limited to rock ‘n roll. Great symphonies, plays and sports teams all have to be “on” to succeed. Even family gatherings are better when the family dynamic resembles more of a winning team than a dysfunctional band of individuals. But like most relationships, when it’s on it’s heaven and when it’s bad it’s awful. So, when a great band breaks up because of clashing egos or “creative differences” all you hear about is how the singer was a jerk or the guitarist couldn’t get his act together. But who is the real casualty of the break-up? It’s the fans. The ones who have bought the albums and concert tickets. Who have experienced the joy of the live show and been so supportive.

For fans of Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Smiths or The Beatles any show without the original band members will never be the same. Creedence Clearwater Revisited without ...

by Adam Zack — November 19, 2025

“Turns out my reflexive “I know” was just a shortcut to skipping the knowing part.”

Amid the endless chorus of “I know” (I know! I know, right? Ya, ya, ya, I know), the older I get, the more I realize how much I actually don’t. My wife and I now joke that we’ve evolved from confidently claiming “I know” to shrugging, “What do I know? Nothin’!” Somewhere along the way, I picked up a real appreciation for how much you can learn just by listening instead of racing to sound informed. Every day offers a chance to teach and be taught, and I’m noticing how often I say, “I never knew that,” usually about someone I thought I already understood. Turns out my reflexive “I know” was just a shortcut to skipping the knowing part.These days, I’m aiming to be that old man on the front porch — the observant one who watches life without complaining about every little thing. Not the grumpy guy yelling at pedestrians for walking on his grass, but the cool old man people actually want to have a beer with, eager to hear a few stories he’s collected along the way. Stories like the time he got kicked in the eye at a punk rock show by a crowd-surfing kid in Doc Martens and started bleeding profusely. Good times. Pain...

by Adam Zack — November 12, 2025

“Unseen greatness needs that light of affirmation to grow.”

Most of us aspire to do great things. To leave a mark on the world, or at least on those you know. We all have at least one great quality that defines us and drives us to get out of bed and go to work. There is so much unseen greatness that only requires a little cultivating to bring it above the surface. Think of it like white asparagus. I personally hate asparagus, but pretty much everyone I know loves it, so I am always happy to cook some when I’m grilling. White asparagus never sees the light of day. It looks pale and unnatural. It’s only when it breaks through the soil and into light that it enters the “green vegetable family” and makes all my friends and family who think it’s so great happy. I guarantee that if there was only white asparagus, it would not be nearly as popular as it is. Unseen greatness needs that light of affirmation to grow. One of the best, most affirming statements you can ever say to someone is “That’s a great question.” Successful speakers do it all the time. Especially in a public setting, someone who gets up the nerve to raise their hand to ask a question feels 100% less nervous about it when the validity of their question is acknowledged. The sam...

by Adam Zack — November 5, 2025

“…you taught me to ask myself “Do I need it, or do I just want it.”

Last week I was talking to one of my long-time employees about his job, our culture, our team and what it means to be a responsible, contributing and effective team member. And we just weren’t just talking about work, we were also talking about life lessons. He said to me: “Tio, there’s one thing I will always remember that you taught me many years ago. When I’m thinking about buying something, you taught me to ask myself “Do I need it, or do I just want it?” I preach and practice fiscal responsibility. Don’t charge something to your credit card that you can’t pay off that month. Don’t spend on something you want just because it’s the cool thing to do. Do your research, and be a well informed buyer. It was really gratifying to hear that something we had talked about many years ago still resonated with him today, and has made an impact that resulted in a contented lifestyle for him.