Company Blog

Nurture vs Nature

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

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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.

Read More – The Disappearance Of Time: Experiencing Your True Nature In Flow

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by Adam Zack — October 29, 2025

“Being late is not cool or fashionable.”

Man, I hate being late. I type that, as I am late in writing this week’s blog. DW’s gentle inquiry “How’s the old blog coming?” spurs some action, but it’s still late and, well, late is not cool. Or fashionable. I hate it when others are late. It’s disrespectful. It’s rude. It wastes time. And it shortens my already shortened version of patience. So why do so many people make an unapologetic habit of being late? I used to carpool with this dude that was NEVER late. Well, except the time he forgot me and by the time I texted him and asked if he was still coming to pick me up, he was halfway to San Diego. I (and most sane people) love the dependability of those persons in our life that are always on time. That person who arrives promptly (or a few minutes early) brings comfort and confidence to a normally chaotic day. Punctuality in business is vital to making deals, because when you’re late you’ve already disrespected someone’s time. And still I know many people who are always late. They know it, laugh it off, and it just gets added to the sum of their personality traits. How many times have you heard “He’s always late, but I respect the hell out of him!”? How about never....

by Adam Zack — October 22, 2025

“Strive to ask interesting questions that often turn into stories and conversations.”

Everyday, as I encounter people I know and strangers, my standard greeting is something along the lines of “Hi, how are you today?” and they respond something like “Good, how are you?” and I say “Great, thanks.” I think it’s “Greeting Small Talk”. And I really dislike small talk. It’s mostly insincere and a silence filler. It’s not engaging and it really doesn’t require you to be “present” or even really care. I think about it a lot, and often vow not to reply the same way, but can’t seem to break the habit. So I was listening to David Sedaris (a terrific observational writer if you’ve never read any of his books) and he talked about how he meets a lot of people on his book tours and speaking engagements. He strives to ask interesting questions that often turn into stories in his essays. One that really made me laugh was when he asked a woman if she had ever touched a monkey. She replied “Oh, can you smell it on me?” Turns out she volunteered with some kind of monkey rescue organization. So I thought of some questions that I will try and ask instead of the small talk “how you doing?”

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