What do Market Basket (an 88 store chain of supermarkets across New England, with 25,000 employees) and Vincent’s Country Store in Westminster, with one location and at most 10 employees, have in common? More than you’d expect.
When we do our big shopping trips, we head for Market Basket in Athol. Not only are the prices always lower than anywhere else, but the shelves are always fully stocked and there’s often managers walking around, happy to help if you can’t find something. My general feeling about the store is that it’s almost run like the military. No one is goofing off, managers are always around making sure everything is in order, plus controlling the flow of people through the registers. There’s no ‘self checkout’ at Market Basket, and the managers are adults, not teenagers flirting or goofing off. The managers at Market Basket are professionals, and working there is a career, not a short term gig. There’s even a palpable sense of pride from the employees, keeping their areas clean, stocked, and nicely displayed. Helping matters, the pay is the highest in the area for grocery store management, ensuring a degree of continuity in staff.
Vincent’s Country Store is similar. Brian Vincent runs the store, he takes it seriously, and just like at Market Basket, the shelves are always stocked. Bruce, Brian’s father, was very well known (especially among the employees) for being a stickler about having all products pulled forward at all times. It’s always neat and clean in the store, and it’s amazing how great a variety of food is available in a midsized store located in the growing but still small town of Westminster.
The meat in particular is excellent, as is the wine selection. Brian’s assistant manager has been there a long time too, and everyone working there is professional, helpful, friendly, and courteous. It’s a tightly run operation with a focus on a community feel. And, to be noted is how community involved Vincent’s Country Store is. For years, as long as I can remember, Brian and his father before him have been generous supporters of sports teams, the Westminster Community Food Pantry, Westminster’s Neighbors Helping Neighbors, police/fire/EMS, to name just a few.
What Market Basket and Vincent’s Country Store most importantly have in common is that they are both run by adults who take their jobs seriously. That trickles down to making the store well run, with all employees doing their jobs, and just as important, being friendly. Whenever I go to Vincent’s I’m likely to see someone I know (even if I can’t remember their name). If Jen walks in, and I’m waiting in the car, she’ll see so many people she knows that I bring a book along, just to pass the time waiting for her to exit the store.
Sure, if you are buying $300 worth of groceries, you’ll save money by driving to Athol, but if you’re in need of $30 in groceries, or you need propane, or you need a good steak or high quality ground beef for dinner, or you just don’t feel like driving 20+ minutes to Athol, you will find virtually everything you need at Vincent’s without the drive. And, with the price of gas, you’ll be saving money.
The takeaway here is that it really matters how well a store is run. A lot of places are cutting costs these days, and it’s leading to a decline in service. In business school I learned a few things that have stuck with me, including, “if you pay peanuts, you’ll end up with monkeys”. Consider how annoying it is when you go to the checkout at a big grocery store, and there’s one register open and a big line, while other employees are having a conversation and laughing, instead of opening another register. Or you go to buy meat for dinner and there’s none on the shelves and no one at the meat counter. If it happens too many times, it’s time to go to where adults are running the show.
As an unfortunate counterpoint, what the heck is going on with Hannaford?
Our household consumes a lot of chicken, so when it’s on sale at a good price, we stock up our freezer. For some reason the price for chicken breasts alternates radically, from a low of $1.99lb. to a high of $3.99/lb. So when the new Hannaford flyer came out, and chicken was on sale there for $1.99/lb., I hopped in the car and drove to Hannaford to stock up. Sure enough, chicken was on sale. The big sign over the display said so: $1.99/lb. There was just one huge problem….there was no chicken available. Or to be correct, there were two packages of chicken available, but one was priced at $2.99/lb. and the other was $3.49/lb. Other than that, the chicken shelves were completely bare, so I bought the two packages.
Now the next day, I figured I’d go stock up on chicken at the still advertised price of $1.99/lb.–on the second day of the sale. However, to be sure, I called Hannaford, hit option 4 for the meat department, and listened to it ring and ring, but no answer. So, I figured I’d just drive there. It seemed very unlikely that Hannaford would advertise a special for something which didn’t exist, for two days in a row. Plus, I need a bottle of wine and milk and a few other things.
Unfortunately, this time it was even worse. There were no chicken breasts at all, even at the wrong price. However, the great big sign advertising the tremendous price was still there, in front of empty shelves stocked with nothing. At this point it was more funny than irritating, but it does make me wonder. Why would anyone run a special on a product that’s out of stock, for two days in a row? Why are they out of stock on a staple item like chicken breasts? Is someone not paying the bills? Did the eclipse get it? Did the delivery truck crash? And if you are running a special, and there is some older stock available, why not change the price? I don’t know, but if you are going to advertise a great price on an item that isn’t actually available, why not go all the way? “Free chicken. All you can carry”. That will really attract customers, but not cost anything, since there isn’t any chicken to carry. You might have a riot though.