Company Blog

You Go, Plato.

by Adam Zack — March 19, 2026

“Being good in all important roles in life is more important than being great in a few…”

We have heard about natural born leaders for what seems like eternity. Guys who seemingly slid straight from the womb and emerged directing their siblings on a divide and conquer plan for their parents, manipulating the kindergarten teacher into increased nap time and ended up as student body president in high school, naturally. Guys like Steve Jobs, Jack Welch and George Patton were born leaders, right? The best leaders in history surely were born to lead. Well recently I came across a whole different view of leadership from good old Plato. The guy who inspired “Let’s just be friends” had a terrific insight on who would make the best leader. Traditional leaders dating back to the beginning of time were motivated by self-interest and the innate need for power. These were the guys who were widely considered tyrants and didn’t really care about their subjects. Fetch me a bucket, and if you don’t like it, off with your head. Plato felt that the most important qualification for a leader is to not want to be a leader. Philosophers (Philisophia; Greek meaning lover of wisdom) are naturally the best and most effective leaders, as true philosoph...

by Adam Zack — March 11, 2026

“Our favorites make us happy and comfortable.“

At the end of the movie The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy was saying goodbye to each of her traveling partners – the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion (talk about a nickname you’d like to shake!). She tells each how she is going to miss them as she heads off back to Kansas. When she gets to the Scarecrow, she tells him she’s going to miss him most of all. Right there in front of the other two! I don’t think her world was the politically correct one where you couldn’t say what you felt because you might hurt someone’s feelings or make them feel left out. She didn’t have to call him aside and whisper “Don’t tell those other two, but YOU are my favorite and I am going to miss you most.” It’s OK to have favorites. My brothers know that I am mom’s favorite. After all, she has great taste and judgement. My daughters know I have two favorites. We have favorite flavors, movies, colors and employees. Our favorites make us happy and comfortable. They bring us joy, amusement and love. It’s OK to express your favoritism. Life is not a sport where everyone who plays gets a participation trophy. Some people are lousy, and some people rule. Just like there can only be one Supe...

by Adam Zack — March 4, 2026

“Sous-chef – the person ranking next after the head chef. “

Sous-chef

[ soo-shef; French soo-shef ] the second in command in a kitchen; the person ranking next after the head chef.

The executive chef gets all the credit. They are the big names – Wolfgang Puck, Thomas Keller, Bobby Flay, Alice Waters, Jose Andres, David Chang. They are the creative face of the brand, the ones ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the restaurant. But it’s the sous-chef who deserves the credit for the prosperity of the restaurant – or deli. They put in the long hours, place the food orders and direct, inspect and ensure that what is going on the plate and into your mouth is delicious and consistent every time. It’s like the executive chef is the car – be it an old Nissan pickup or a new Ferrari – and the sous chef is the driver. We don’t give our sous-chefs enough credit. We need to thank, honor and reward them more, for they are the ones doing the work. In your stores, you as the owner are the executive chef. You are ultimately responsible (and on the hook) for successes and failures. When you have outstanding profits, you reap the rewards. When business is tough and profits ar...

by Adam Zack — February 25, 2026

“We all want to remain calm, and want others around us to do the same.”“We all want to remain calm, and want others around us to do the same.”

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 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 key to get them to calm down is by how you behave in the situation. Leaders stay chill under pressure, and the team follows.

The Cost of a Closed Mind

by Adam Zack — February 18, 2026

“…open-mindedness isn’t a label—it’s a practice.”

It all sounds so simple. You’re either open-minded or closed-minded. Open-minded people welcome change, invite new ideas, and don’t take criticism personally. They empower others, aren’t threatened by success around them, and tend to lead without ego. Closed-minded people, of course, live on the other side of that line. In theory, it feels like a choice—decide to be open-minded and move on.

In practice, it’s rarely that clean. Closed-mindedness doesn’t usually come from stubbornness; it comes from experience. From past encounters that convince us we already know the outcome before we’ve even evaluated what’s in front of us. After more than 30 years immersed in wine as both a job and a hobby, what began as knowledge quietly hardened into bias. I had decided—confidently—that certain regions simply didn’t produce good wine. Southern California and Baja, Mexico topped that list. I’d tasted enough to “know,” or so I told myself.

Then a friend visited with two bottles: a Russian River Pinot Noir and a red blend from Los Angeles. The Pinot was opened first and was, predictably, excellent. The Los Angeles wine sat untouched, mentally reserve...

by Adam Zack — February 11, 2026

“Personal sharpening includes reading and education.”

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

– Abraham Lincoln

One of my favorite teaching stories is the one about the woodcutter who got a new job and really wanted to impress his boss.

Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job with a timber merchant and he got it. The pay was really good and so were the work conditions. He really liked his new boss and the company. For those reasons and as a matter of personal pride, the woodcutter was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work. The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees. “Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!” Very motivated by the boss’ words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he could only bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees. “I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on. “When was...

by Adam Zack — February 4, 2026

“Being good in all important roles in life is more important than being great in a few…”

For some reason I have been thinking a lot about goodness and greatness lately. And my thoughts have even made me think differently. There is a lot of greatness by individuals in the world. Super Bowl MVP. Olympic Gold Medalist. Top Chef. Academy Award Winner. There are great achievers making great accomplishments. Occasionally someone might tell you that you are indeed great. It could be that you are a great boss, or a great parent, or maybe a great friend. But I think there are too many categories of potential greatness to be great in all of them. I’ll hear about a supposedly great person, and while one achievement may indeed be great, that person severely lacks in one of what I consider some of the other major life categories. A Grammy Award winning musician may be a great singer, but he’s a lousy husband. A Top Chef may cook unbelievable dishes, but he’s a terrible father, and so on. So I have decided that for me I don’t want to focus on being great at one thing. Instead I want to be good at many: A good father, a good husband, a good boss, a good friend, a good son, a good brother, a good uncle, a good cook, a good driver and many mor...

by Adam Zack — January 28, 2026

“As leaders, we need to embrace failure like we do success.”

New items, campaigns, programs and initiatives are the keys to growth in our grocery business. To be successful they need great planning, thorough communication, coordinated execution and the patience for it to get established and grow some roots. It’s not easy and it’s not inexpensive. Too often a great product is just put on the shelf with little or no signage, story telling or promotion. No one is surprised when 30 days later very few have sold, or it goes out of code and like that, it’s buh-bye, never to be seen again. If only someone had loved and nurtured it, it could have been rookie of the year, or at least been an alternate on the all-star team. But that’s not what this is about. Let’s assume that we do all the right things. We like the product, promote it, tell its story and to our lament it still just sits there. It doesn’t resonate with the customer and we start feeling bad for it. It’s a failure. The shame. As leaders, we need to embrace failure like we do success. Well over 50% of the new items and programs we try won’t be around to see 2027. And that’s OK, because failure, when executed well, is the result of trying something new. There is no sh...

by Adam Zack — January 21, 2026

Jose came to the scene and promptly went to get a bucket and mop to scoop up the “accident.”

I was talking to one of my managers last week and we talked about how far he has come since I hired him as a janitor over 14 years ago. His name is Jose Avila and he is now the receiving manager and is trusted to check in all deliveries, open the store, close the store, handle money, and supervise some of the team. He pretty much does anything we may need him to do to make the store a lasting success. He’s a big advocate of constant communication and his go-to line is: We take care of business!

He told me the story of how recently an elderly customer had an “accident” in the bathroom, resulting in a gross mess that had to be cleaned up. Jose came to the scene and promptly went to get a bucket and mop and tools to scoop up the “accident.” As he began, a group of young employees questioned him on what he was doing and why he wasn’t calling someone in the janitorial department to clean up the mess. He looked up at them and said “I do this to remind myself where I came from.” From his early days when pretty much all he did was clean up messes to now when he oversees hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory, ...

by Adam Zack — January 14, 2026

“It’s a combination of poor manners and even poorer listening skills.”

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” – Stephen R. Covey

Over the almost 10 years I have been writing blogs for DW the topic that I probably have touched on the most is listening. I wrote about a guy who during any conversation just had to finish the other person’s sentences. It’s one of the most annoying habits (and it really is just a bad habit) that someone can have. I’ve noticed it a lot lately with a young guy and a lady I know. It’s a combination of poor manners and even poorer listening skills. I struggle with the urge to reach out with a quick snap of my fingers to change the behavior. Or just roll my eyes. A good friend of mine actually gets this super irritated look on his face and says “Can I finish talking?” when people cut him off before he’s done talking. So the question here is how can you effectively and tactfully point out the habit and give the lesson that listening is one of the greatest skills and most important tools that a leader needs for success? How can we as managers be better listeners and teache...

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