Company Blog

Just Say it

by Adam Zack — December 7, 2022

We provide great customer service, but that’s our job.

You know that most times you won’t get what you want unless you verbalize it? I was thinking about that the other day and how important it is to actually say the things that you are thinking that affect other people. It’s so much easier not to say anything, until you start actually saying the things you think and want, then you realize “Why haven’t I done this before? What took me so long?” In my store in San Diego there is a very good customer I see often. She’s the mom of two little kids that seem like a handful, as toddlers usually are. She always has a calm patience about her and constantly expresses appreciation for the grocery shopping experience we provide for her. It’s like we are doing her a huge favor by being here, instead of us showing her our appreciation for her loyalty and kindness. Don’t get me wrong, we do provide great customer service, but that’s our job. So the other day I saw her shopping with the kids and I decided to say something. I told her that I had been meaning to tell her for some time how I felt she was just one of the nicest, kindest customers we have ever had and how I could just tell that she was an amazing mother ...

by Adam Zack — November 30, 2022

Winners remain calm under pressure, even when the pressure is intense.

I think I can speak for the group of us when I say that we all love being in a state of calmness. There’s no emergencies going on. We’re relaxed, focused and content. Calm is organized, aware and productive. It’s not distracted or interrupted. Calm comes after a good night’s sleep and isn’t easily distracted. Winners remain calm under pressure, even when the pressure is intense. We all want to remain calm, and want others around us to do the same. I have learned, however, that staying calm is not a piece of advice that can be easily given. Telling someone to “Just stay calm” or “Calm down” usually has the opposite effect. Something along the lines of “Don’t you tell me to calm down! I am calm! YOU calm down!!!!” Calm doesn’t have exclamation points. Ever. So next time you find someone on your team or your family in an obvious non-calm state, the way to get them to calm the F down is by how you behave in the situation. Leaders stay chill under pressure, and the team follows.

Save Some

by Adam Zack — November 16, 2022

Remember who you love the most, and who loves you the most.

Every night when I get home from work – about 6:40 – my wife and I have what we call our Daily Debriefing. It may or may not include a little sip of bourbon, but it is also our dedicated time to catch up on what went on that day for each of us and any other topics of importance. It lasts about 10-15 minutes usually, and we sit out back, overlooking the small airport, riverbed and hills behind our home. Last night she was telling me about this 5-½ hour online personality test, training and workshop that she was required to do for her job. While it sounded mostly very boring and overly broad to me, she did get one nugget out of it that I really liked. It was something like: “Everyday, save some of your best for the ones you love most.” It made me think that especially over the last couple years, and during the holidays in the grocery business, we go home both physically and mentally exhausted, having expended all our best during the busy day and getting home with no gas left in the tank, so to speak. Every day brings some kind of stress, be it financial, operational, supply related or customer service challenges. It’s hard. (I guess that’s why it’s call...

by Adam Zack — November 9, 2022

Bring value to the table.

Adam’s on vacation this week, so his life-long friend Scott offered up a guest blog.

Hi, this is Adam’s friend Scott. Haven’t filled in for a while but thought I might help him out as he seems to always be helping others out. I am presently living on a small island in Northwest Washington State and my choices for groceries are limited. I usually shop at a chain store at my other home in Reno, Nevada and they usually have 5 or 6 different choices for each item, so when I show up to a smaller market here, my first thoughts are to drive off the island to head to a chain store. Honestly, I’ve done it before but recently I’ve had a different outlook on my local market. In my spoiled attitude of being able to choose 8 different brands of penne pasta in Supermarketland, I wasn’t noticing that the items I was choosing were of a greater quality, and when I shop at our local market, my choice is usually the highest quality item. My interpretation of this comes down to the fact that someone is actually deciding what brand is better and keeping it stocked for me. We’ve become a selfish community and want many choices at very cheap prices, but my local marke...

by Adam Zack — November 2, 2022

Forgiveness is a great personal character trait.

“So word on the street is that ur a really good writer, and I was hoping u could take a look at my world literature essay and proofread it? It’s due tmrw, but it’s only two pages long 😅”. I got this text from my ninth grade nephew this past Sunday afternoon. I wondered what street he had been hanging out on to hear “the word”? Nerd street? Dork alley? He’s definitely not the type to be hanging on the streets looking for hookers and blow, so that was out. And I wondered, and asked him, “Does it have a lot of abbreviations like ur txt?!”. He assured me that it didn’t. “Lmao no wayyyyy 😂😂😂”

Of course I was happy to help him. I sincerely care about my nephews and nieces. Family is important to me. The essay I read was a very well written analysis of Alan Paton’s novel Cry the Beloved Country, and was titled ‘Forgiveness…Amen!” It went on to examine the relationship between two main characters in the book and explained how forgiveness, of both others and themselves, made them grow...

by Adam Zack — October 26, 2022

Signs tell your story, and your story is definitely worth telling.

DW emailed me an article in Supermarket News this week that brought up how important signage is in the seafood department. You can read it here. SN Seafood Sign Article

“Retailers need to communicate and validate the message of freshness at the seafood case,” Jim Wisner, President of Wisner Marketing, an Illinois based retail marketing company, said. For me, smell is the most important thing in any seafood department. If it stinks like fish, then you’re going to lose customers right away, regardless of of the sign. Customers today, more than ever, want to know how fish is raised, where it’s from, what the texture is like, how to cook it and more. That’s a lot to get on a sign, though. Creative signage will have a gr...

by Adam Zack — October 19, 2022

Memories were now a part of the San Diego sewer system.

I’ve long maintained that independent grocers have the best opportunity to entrench themselves into their community by telling their stories. Stories like how the store started with $100 in the bank, personal loans were taken out to buy inventory and owners working seven days a week for the first year. Stories of signature products get people interested. Everyone loves a good story. The story I’m about to tell has nothing to do with the grocery business. It has surprise, joy, love, sadness, tragedy and ultimately redemption. Like all stories that you should tell, it’s absolutely true. It’s a little long, so buckle in.

Last week my wife had a surprise 80th birthday party for her mom. It involved months and months of planning, coordination with all of her brothers and sisters (there are six!), family flying in from other states, special commemorative birthday shirts for everyone, a mobile pizza caterer, custom balloons and much more. In other words, it was a BIG DEAL. I asked my nephew, who is an excellent photographer, to come for the start to memorialize this epic event digitally, offering to pay him and his lovely fiancé in p...

by Adam Zack — October 12, 2022

Suffering the hard lessons takes courage and persistence.

All of us in our lives have seen hard times. There’s been times when we just want to give up. Raise the white flag. Surrender and retreat to happiness and safety. Rainbows, bon bons, puppies and lollipops. We want the smiley face and the star on our homework. The pat on the back and the “well done, old boy!”. I recently read a quote: “Hard lessons are not welcomed, but suffered.” I think hard times, adversity, stress, mistakes, sorrow and most everything that scares us and that would be classified as negative is not necessarily a failure, but a lesson. It’s a lesson that life brings us that eventually (or maybe sooner) makes us stronger and better. Suffering the hard lessons takes courage and persistence, and when a similar hard lesson presents itself, we are ready for it, and quickly get back to those rainbows and bon bons.