Company Blog

Don’t use that tone with me

by Adam Zack — November 13, 2024

As you move up in management, tone becomes even more powerful. Show up at work without a warm greeting, and people might think business is tanking, or that jobs could be on the line.

Nonverbal communication always outshines words. Every. Single. Time. You might say the right thing, but your tone and body language can totally flip the message for the person listening. Take this: someone asks you for help, and you respond with, “Sure, what can I help you with?” Sounds helpful, right? But add an eye roll and a sigh, and it’s clear you’re anything but thrilled to help.

Or picture this: “Your hair looks great today.” That’s a solid compliment—unless you say it with a smirk and heavy emphasis on “Your.” Now it’s pure sarcasm. Flip it around, though, and say something blunt, like “You’ve put on a couple pounds, haven’t you?” with a friendly smile and a handshake, and suddenly the other person’s thinking, “Wait, is he serious?”

Most of us learn tone the hard way as kids, when our moms say, “Don’t you use that tone with me!” And we try to argue, “What?? I said ‘Excuse me,’” not admitting that we said, “Excuuuuuse meeee” with the attitude of an 11-year-old.

And tone’s even trickier now, thanks to texting. Does...

by Adam Zack — November 7, 2024

You need to like who you work with and feel appreciated and have a sense of satisfaction with your work output.

I came across the quote last week “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Now I don’t know who said it, but at first I thought “What a crock of $#*!” Loving (or at least strongly liking) what you do is probably the most important thing in your work life. You need to like who you work with (but not all of them) and feel appreciated and have a sense of satisfaction with your work output. You need to look forward to coming to work, but sometimes you dread it. And that’s just fine. It’s normal. That’s why we have vacations and days off. But loving what you do so much that you “never work a day in your life”? I don’t know. Maybe if you were a professional billionaire. Or a rock star. But even rock stars have to really work to become what they are, and there are dozens of days of frustration and times when the “work” becomes too much. Not that I have personal experience being a rock star, but I’ve read plenty of books and articles about the lifestyle, and I know that they all don’t love it every single day. What I think is a more appropriate and realistic quote is: “Love what you do, and you’ll achieve ...

by Adam Zack — October 30, 2024

Make sure your language game is on point, and you’ll see people motivated, customers engaged, and maybe even a few grudges dissolved.

Knives, swords, and guns—yeah, those things are serious business. History’s got a lot of stories where someone showed up with the sharpest or loudest weapon and declared, “I win.” But let’s get real: the most underrated heavy hitters in any showdown? Words and gestures. They’re the stealth ninjas of power moves, capable of starting or ending a conflict before the first cannon even gets polished.

An insult, delivered with the precision of a well-aimed arrow, can start a war. And a well-placed compliment can make someone forget why they were mad in the first place. So, when it comes to influencing people—whether it’s guiding customers to your door or keeping your team fired up—it all starts with the words you choose and how you throw them around.

Picture this: you’re trying to get customers to shop at your store. Spell things wrong, write like you’re still recovering from autocorrect disasters, or use phrases so dry they need a hydration plan, and suddenly your marketing message has all the appeal of yesterday’s sandwich. But drop the right words with the right vibe, and people won�...

by Adam Zack — October 23, 2024

“Hard lessons are not welcomed, but suffered.”

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.

Read More – The Triple Meaning of Logos: From Ancient Greece to Modern Business

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by Adam Zack — October 16, 2024

One way to make things easier for the “freshmen in life” is to be the mentor you wish you had.

I remember right before my freshman year of high school, my friend—who was a seasoned sophomore by then—painted a picture of high school that sounded like a mix between a horror movie and a survival guide for the Hunger Games. Freshmen, according to him, ranked somewhere between roadkill and the stuff stuck to the bottom of your shoe in the high school hierarchy. He warned me never to sit in the sacred “Senior Square,” never make eye contact with an upperclassman, and definitely don’t do anything to stand out unless I wanted to get pummeled by a dude with a patchy mustache. Oh, and forget about talking to girls—they were all way out of my league. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t nearly that bad.

That fear of the unknown creeps in every time we level up—whether it’s moving to a new school, a new job, or a new phase in life. I think we tend to look at college seniors (and high school seniors for those skipping the whole college thing) like they’ve made it. They’ve hit the finish line and are ready to tackle life like they’ve got it all figured out. But let’s be real, graduating is just trading one kind of freshman status...

by Adam Zack — October 9, 2024

Consistent mediocrity is like handing your competitors a VIP pass to steal your customers.

Several years back, I worked with a guy who had a favorite saying: “It is what it is.” He’d drop that phrase with the same nonchalance as someone ordering a plain salad, no dressing. Every time he said it, I quietly winced. I mean, it’s basically code for: “Yeah, this company’s a mess, the people in charge are idiots, and I’m too checked out to care anymore, so I’ll just lob this lazy mantra out there.”

Which was extra awkward because, surprise! I was one of those “idiots” running the company. Ouch.

But honestly, “It is what it is” is such a dumb saying when you think about it. Of course it is what it is. That’s why it is called it! It’s like saying “water is wet” or “Taco Tuesday involves tacos.” No shit, Sherlock.

It got me thinking, though, about a saying that actually holds some weight: “If we keep on doing what we’re doing, we’re going to keep on getting what we’re getting.” Now we’re talking! It’s actionable, it’s motivating, and it doesn’t make you want to roll your eyes into another dimension.

Sure, consistency is important. It’s the backbone of good bu...

by Adam Zack — October 2, 2024

Don’t let your loyal customers feel like they’re just part of the furniture.

So take me down the road

Take me to the show

Something to believe in

No one else knows

But don’t take me for granted

– Mike Ness, Social Distortion

You know the saying: familiarity breeds… forgetfulness? The people we see most often are the ones we tend to take for granted. It’s like the customer who religiously buys a coffee and muffin every morning or your spouse who ensures your work shirt is clean and gives you a final “booger check” before you head out the door. Over time, these everyday moments blur into the background like elevator music. They’re just… there. It’s routine, baby. And we don’t even realize how much we count on that routine—until it disappears faster than a plate of donuts at an office meeting.

The thing is, just like real listening requires focus (I see you, selective hearing), appreciation needs a nudge every now and then too. Otherwise, you find yourself in that classic scenario where your spouse finally snaps after years of brewing your coffee and wonders, “Has this man even thanked me for the past five years? Heck, when’s the last time he made me...
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Captain Know-It-All

by Adam Zack — September 25, 2024

Your wins vastly outnumber your losses.

I’m always preaching about the importance of trying new things. New products, fresh ideas, groundbreaking marketing strategies – basically anything to shake things up and keep things interesting and fresh. And while I’ll go to my grave swearing that the only constant in the grocery biz—or any business, really—is change, we rarely talk about how to deal with the lovely mess that happens when those bold new ideas crash and burn.

Here’s a fun fact: Failure will happen. I used to work with this one guy—let’s call him “Captain Know-It-All.” No matter what I did, the guy would swoop in with his unsolicited advice, like some self-appointed superhero of mediocrity. He had an opinion on everything, and surprise, surprise—it was always negative. Turns out, he had a major inferiority complex, which is apparently contagious because before long, we were having more battles than a game of Battleship. (Spoiler: I hated losing that game too.)

Now, I’m not a sore loser. Well, not that bad. I just hate losing in general. So, when one of my big ideas bombed, it felt like the universe itself had turned against me. Cue the “Why does this bother you so much? It’s just business” comments from well-meaning colleagues. Yeah,...
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Presentation and Punctuation

by Adam Zack — September 18, 2024

Seriously, folks—customers buy with their eyes!

The three most important keys to great sales are:

1. Presentation
2. Presentation
3. Presentation

Seriously, folks—customers buy with their eyes! If your food doesn’t look great, it doesn’t matter how good it tastes; it’s like trying to sell a sunset in a bottle—nobody’s buying that. Sure, you can entice them with a taste of your delicious (but regrettably named) Ugly Rice Salad, but with hundreds of fresh food options out there, you can’t expect people to sample every hideous dish that crosses your path.

Fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, salads, hot foods—they all need to look mouthwatering. That’s why packaging and signage are a billion-dollar industry; they tell the delicious story of your food. But what about the words on that packaging and signage? Since so much of our commerce revolves around food, grammar becomes everyone’s favorite recipe for disaster.

Here are some real signs I’ve spotted in grocery stores:
Banana’s 59¢
Open Sunday’s 11:00-4:00
Jam’s and Jellies
Black Grapeless Grapes $1.48
Pop Tards 2.69
Yumbo Jams 3 lbs/$1
Rot Chicken 7.99

...
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Looking Forward to Failure

by Adam Zack — September 11, 2024

“(Failure) is a top-tier learning tool, and—spoiler alert—your wins far outnumber the losses.”

I’m constantly banging the drum about trying new things. New products, services, relationships, advertising methods—blah, blah, blah. And while I’ll go to my grave believing the grocery industry’s only constant is change, what we don’t talk about enough is how to deal with the inevitable face plants that come with failed change.

Back in the day, I worked with this self-proclaimed expert—you know the type. The guy who thinks he’s smarter than everyone in the room because Google exists. No matter what I did, it was always a bad idea in his eyes. If I’d suggested installing a slide from the break room to the parking lot, he’d claim he could make it longer, faster, and more OSHA-compliant. Turns out, he just had a severe case of “I’m actually not that great, so I’ll bring you down with me” syndrome. Classic.

Naturally, we butted heads, and not in a fun, competitive way like a spirited game of Monopoly (where, let’s be real, I’d still hate losing). Some battles I won, some I lost. And if there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I loathe losing. Someone once asked me why I took every defeat so personally. I mean, come...
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