I think it’s Tuesday.  Traveling from East to West (or Midwest to West) means that I am awake East Coast Time (normally at 6 a.m.), however the tricky time zone creators play their cosmic joke on me, waking me up at 3 in Monterey, California and 4 here in Salt Lake City.  So, here I am, sleepy, hungry, and writing my blog…

I conducted an Employee Hold’em seminar yesterday at the Food Marketing Institute’s Human Resource Conference. About 100 or so senior h.r. leaders were in attendance, and I was like a kid in a candy store.

I love to grocery shop.  There I said it.  I’m not ashamed, embarrassed, or nervous about what others think.

I love to scour the internet for coupons (I can give you three websites if you are interested).  I buy extra Sunday papers for the inserts.  I put my coupons in alphabetical order in my 4X6 file card box and then put them in expiration date order within the alphabetical sort.  I’ve even bought coupons on eBay. And since I shop at one particular Kroger in my neighborhood (the only Kroger in the country with its own Chippery, that’s right, potato chips made right in the store), I actually have put my coupons in “aisle order”.

Yes, a triple sort.  Wow.  Scary just to write that.  Perhaps I am a “cereal shopper” (O.K. that was hilarious.  Serial/Cereal… even at 4.30 in the morning!)

Being from Cincinnati I am fiercely brand loyal.  My mom used to take me to Kroger when I was little (there is no “S” in the name, just like Cracker Jack, but we all put the “s” on there anyway). Even as a child of 5 I was really good at math, and in the good old days before scanners, UPC codes and computers, I would help her figure out the most economical purchases by calculating (in my head) the cost per ounce, cost per pound, or cost per use.

She once found me counting baloney slices in a pre-packaged container.  “What are you doing, Marc” she asked me.  “Well” I said, “you always put two pieces of baloney on a sandwich.  So, if I find a container with 34 slices instead of 32, we can get an extra sandwich out of the package”.  Even then I showed signs of a serious character defect.  I love to grocery shop.

During the presentation yesterday I mentioned that the lifetime value of a grocery shopper is over $250,000.  Anger one customer and there goes a cool quarter million bucks.  And with grocery stores averaging a 1% margin, any customer that takes his/her food shopping somewhere else takes a little piece of the success of the company with them.

Grocery stores are in an interesting time.  Even though prices are jumping (5% jump in prices last year, 6% this year and next year), more and more Americans are eating meals at home to keep spending under control. So there is an opportunity for grocery stores to grow and prosper during these lean times.

However (you knew there would be one)…

Nearly the same number of retail employees are Unengaged as Fully Engaged (37% vs. 40%).  The same number of employees are pushing against their company as are pulling for it.  There is probably no greater commodity buy that grocery store items.  You can buy what Kroger sells (or Marsh, or Wegmans, or Hy-Vee, or Piggly Wiggly) at various places close to where you live and work.  You can go to pharmacy stores, supermarkets or hypermarkets, even the local gas station or mini-mart to buy what you want or need.

So, if there is little differentiation in the products or prices themselves, you have to rely on people to make the difference. The best grocery stores understand this, and pour a lot of money into customer service, not just for store managers and supervisors, but more importantly for the “kids that work on the floor” and the adults that work behind the counters.  When someone goes out of their way to help you find an important item for a recipe, you’ll remember.  When the fish monger has been there long enough to suggest new items that he feels your family will appreciate, you’ll remember.  When the 16 year old holds a pleasant conversation with you as you she helps you load two full carts of shopping bags into your car, you remember.

And when you hear two baggers complain about their lousy boss, you remember that too.  The baloney cuts both ways.

My son Max just turned 16, and the event filled his head with thoughts of cars and independence.  My lovely bride of 24 years was able to find him a car that we could afford, a 1992 somthing-or-other with 150,000 miles on it.  Best of all?  $850 was all it cost, and CarFax gave us the thumbs up.  Then Max’s head filled with thoughts of finding a job so he could afford the $4.25/gallon price of gas.

We live in a growing neighborhood in be-u-tee-ful Noblesville, Indiana.  Lots of retail, lots of jobs, not enough folks to fill them.  So, where did I suggest he look?

At the same Kroger that I shop at.  The one that treats me so well.  The one where the check-out folks don’t laugh at me when I spend 4 hours shopping.  OK, they laugh, but normally behind my back as they seem me contemplating soup prices/coupons/cost cutter savings.  But I always get the last laugh after my every 8 week marathon shopping session.

Last time I was there, I bought 193 items.  125 were on special through the use of the Plus-card.  I had 88 coupons.  I got 9 things for free.  I saved $31 additional dollars on meats nearing their “sold-by” dates (yea, the woman behind me was furious I took all four packages of cornish game hens).  In all, I saved $288 or 44%.

So perhaps Kroger didn’t make their 1% margin on me.  But they scored a heck of an employee in my son!

BTW, “recook, regrows, retry” is an Anagram for Grocery Workers….. It’s Anagram Tuesday.  And it was much better than “cookery grows terror”.