Company Blog

What’s your guarantee?

by Adam Zack — August 7, 2019

Some grocers look at returns with suspicion.

I guarantee that you guarantee all the food you sell. If a customer is not happy with the quality, taste or freshness of what you sold them, you give them a prompt refund. With a smile and an apology. After all, you really want to know if berries are getting moldy or lettuce is slimy. You need to know if the tuna salad was a little sour, the chicken has a bad smell or the fish tastes fishy. We’d pay to find these things out before our customers got them home, only to have to return to the store to get it replaced. Having to do that is pretty much more irritating than the actual bad product. New Seasons Market in Oregon has one of the best written returns policy I’ve seen:New Seasons Market Product Returns PolicyIf it’s not exactly what you want or if you don’t like it for any reason, bring it back for a no-hassle return. We’ll replace it or refund your money with a smile. We promise.It’s posted at the entrance and I guarantee you don’t have to have your receipt. It’s one of the cornerstones of great service. We unconditionally guarantee everything we sell or your money back. Having said that, there are still some grocers who look at returns with suspicion. They make t...

by Adam Zack — July 31, 2019

It’s hard to feed people.

My brother Moose reads this blog and used to opine regularly that he wanted to write a guest blog on the subject of grocery store bagging, and how the quantity, quality and training of baggers has decreased over the last decade. He had some ideas that sounded relevant. He’s a pretty smart guy and a decent writer, so I welcomed the idea. Over the following year and a half I asked him a few times how the guest blog was coming. Or if it was coming. Finally he gave up and said something along the lines of translating his idea into meaningful prose was harder than he expected, and with his more than full time job didn’t have the time (or patience – it’s a Zack family flaw for sure) to complete the job.So that got me thinking that the food business of feeding people will never be as easy as people think. There are thousands and thousands, who after going to a restaurant (or a market), got the idea that if they owned a restaurant, they’d do things differently. And they invest lots of money in opening their restaurant or market with all their brilliant ideas and soon after, the shine is off the penny and man, it’s a lot more work than I thought! And ooh, all the staffing headaches! And the chef qu...

by Adam Zack — July 24, 2019

Deliciousness!

Yesterday I was sitting on the beach reading and eating a sandwich. I’ve said before that the perfect sandwich is a beautifully balanced work of culinary art. Your favorite flavors and tastes evenly divided then combined into a layered meal. No one ingredient is more important than the other and each bite is as good as the last. It’s teamwork in the form of food, and as you finish, you’re thinking to yourself (or saying out loud if you’re with a companion) “Damn, that was a delicious sandwich!” Each component contributes equally, and if one of them is not up to the quality level as the others, the whole experience can still be good, but never great.So yesterday we had some wheat bread that wasn’t our usual bread. It was a loaf of that squishy type of bread – the kind that if you grip it too tight will leave indents where your fingers squeezed. It was certainly a good sandwich – and I was very hungry – but it wasn’t a great sandwich. Even though all the other contributors in the sandwich show were great – oven roasted turkey, crisp butter lettuce, ripe tomato, fresh sliced provolone, the ho-hum bread brought great to only good. This was the kind of bread I grew up eating as a youngster – Wonder Bread in wheat form – and I was th...

by Adam Zack — July 17, 2019

Treat others the way they want to be treated.

So, I’m re-reading the Editor’s Letter in Food & Wine that I referenced last week, and another blog topic emerges. Bam! He refers to a fantastic chef and restaurateur, Jonathan Waxman. He pretty much created “California Cuisine” (Fresh, innovative, lighter style) at Michael’s in Santa Monica in the late ‘70’s. He has restaurants now in New York, Atlanta, Nashville and San Francisco. He’s been a judge on Top Chef. The guy has street cred and seems like a really good dude. The restaurant industry is notoriously hard on employees. Screaming chefs, moody wait staff, plenty of drama and lots of hard work at low pay. So, in the column he quotes Waxman as saying one of his keys to success is “treat others the way we want to be treated.” Sounds great, right? We want to be treated with respect, kindness, dignity, appreciation. Who doesn’t? You have to be some kind of moron or a-hole to want to be treated different than the basics of being a good person. It’s really too general. It’s a no-brainer. It’s like saying “be nice” or “play fair”.Someone much smarter than me, many years ago, expounded on the “treat others the way you want to be treated” when he sai...

by Adam Zack — July 10, 2019

You can’t manufacture soul, no matter the investment.

I was sitting on the beach in San Diego last Sunday reading food magazines -Food & Wine, Bon Apetit, Milk Street. (OK, I’ll admit it – I was also reading People Magazine – don’t judge). It’s food that brings us together and is what truly I love. My wife was reading the Food & Wine editor’s letter and said “Hey, this is written with a reference toward restaurants, but it really applies to what you blog about regarding grocery stores.”So I read it, and she was right on. The gist of the letter is that he was at this new mall opening in Manhattan – lots of fancy food, glitz, famous chefs. It sounds like it was a really big deal. Getting out of the event turned into quite the fiasco, but he finally made his way to a favorite neighborhood restaurant. “That whiplash evening reinforced my conviction that you can’t manufacture soul, no matter the investment. The best restaurants [think grocers] don’t just serve memorable food; they’re community and neighborhood oases, offering humanity and hospitality that smooth frayed edges at day’s end.” – Hunter Lewis, Editor, Food & Wine, July 2019. That struck me as to what being the loca...

by Adam Zack — July 3, 2019

But they are not dumb and they want the best overall experience for their dough.

My dad always read Consumer Reports magazine. Doing his research before a major purchase was passed on to me. We check what their ratings are before any major purchase. New dishwasher? A Consumer Reports Best Buy. Big Screen LED TV? Check the ratings. Time for a new clothes dryer? What CR thinks matters. For those who don’t know, Consumer Reports is the world’s largest non-profit product testing organization. They are 100% funded by members and subscribers and accept no advertising and no free products. It’s about as unbiased opinion as you can get. I’ve been a member for most of my adult life. So I was especially interested in the issue I received yesterday that heralded “96 GROCERS RATED: WHO’S FRESH, HEALTHY & LOW PRICED” Grocers from all over the country were rated on a 100 point scale in 13 categories, ranging from Cleanliness of Store to Variety of International Products. Over 75,000 CR members participated in the survey. Check it out here: Consumer Reports Best Grocers >...

by Adam Zack — June 26, 2019

Non-verbal communication often says way more about you, or someone else, than what is actually said.

Many years ago I was introduced to the owner of a very prolific wine store. I had always heard that this guy was a full-on ass, but I was skeptical that it could be 100% true, as I had great respect for his store and his fantastic employees. As I was introduced I extended my hand to shake his and he barely grasped mine while at the same time looking away, effectively dismissing me as 100% unimportant and forgettable. Turns out he really was an ass, but it made an impression on me that I continue to remember to this day: Non-verbal communication often says way more about you, or someone else, than what is actually said.I was reminded of it again when I had a meeting with DW and some new potential customers. “Did you notice that that guy never made eye contact?’ said DW. Eye contact demonstrates interest and sincerity. It shows that you are listening. It relates honesty. It communicates in ways words can’t. There are many other non-verbal ways that communicate disinterest in a conversation – holding up your hand as if to say “Stop, you have bored me to the limit” or a nice, big yawn or even the circling of your fingers as if to say “Wrap it up, fella!” T...

by Adam Zack — June 19, 2019

But what do I know?

For a very long time I have felt that holding a grudge and never forgiving is one of the biggest contributors to your own personal misery. Just not letting go of the slights and infractions brought against you by some a-hole ultimately just keeps the negativity within your own personal sphere. Like shooting a slingshot inside the Cone of Silence, it only bounces back and keeps hurting you. Contrary to what most people think, I’ve learned that forgiveness is not saying that how you were wronged, or who wronged you, is OK. It’s moving past it – letting it go. So when the theory that having a chip on your shoulder is actually a good thing was told to me, I was conflicted. Chip on your shoulder means you’re holding a grudge. That you’re daring someone to knock it off your shoulder so you can beat the crap out of them, or more eloquently, get your revenge. It’s a negative emotion that motivates you to be better.Some great athletes cite a chip on their shoulder as their motivation to achieve ultimate success. Tom Brady is the one that comes to mind first. He was picked number 199 in the 2000 NFL draft in round six. He felt he was better than that, and he was obviously right, but he used that as personal motiva...

by Adam Zack — June 12, 2019

Now 20% smaller!

Almost anyone in the grocery business knows what shrink is. Not to be confused with Seinfeld era “I was in the pool!” shrinkage or Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!, shrink are products that we pay for and for some reason do not get paid for. It’s foods that go out of date and get thrown in the trash or donated. It’s things that are shoplifted and internally stolen. It’s items that we are charged for on an invoice but we magically do not receive. Like getting charged for 50 pounds of salmon and only receiving 48. It’s a cashier charging for a regular cucumber when the customer actually bought an organic one. It’s a butcher not trimming meat correctly or a baker that burns a batch of cookies. Since we are dealing with so many perishable items, and so many items in general, shrink in the grocery business is notoriously higher that most of the retail sector. Over double that of other retail business, according to a 2013 study by the University of Florida. The best retailers track it and review it regularly. In a business where 2% to 5% net profit is considered pretty darn good, reducing shrink from the industry average of 2.5% to 2% increases profit 20%. It all drops to the bottom line. So ...

by Adam Zack — June 5, 2019

They get what they deserve

What were they thinking? Why are they doing this? Who talks to them? We don’t. It’s like it’s them against us. Those types of comments happen every single day when there’s a communication gap in an organization. Even though I am a store owner, plenty of times I’ve been in a conversation with employees and they say something like “What are they going to do?” And by They, they mean leadership, and that means that They is Me. I’ll often ask the employee “Who are they?” and they’ll respond with something like “You know, you guys.” Especially in times of difficulty and uncertainty, the ‘They-We’ gap widens. It’s great leaders (and great communicators) who in good times and bad have teams that ask questions and make statements in terms of ‘we’ and ‘us’. They is the impersonal entity that makes all the decisions for the business, and when things don’t go right, well, they get what they deserve, don’t they?Back in the 50’s there was a horror movie called Them! about giant ants that ate people. Some of you old timers (Mr. Mayne??) may even have seen it in the...