If you live in the East, there is a good chance you have been to a Wegman's grocery store. To call it a grocery store is to be vastly understate it. A Wegmans recently opened here in Fairfax County, Virginia and to say the least the size and variety of products (many of them wholly organic) shocked me, along with the attractiveness of the store and the customer service attitude that puts a Home Depot to shame. If curious, I wrote a
little entry about Wegmans on my blog.
The most amazing part about Wegmans though is not the store itself, but it's progressive president who realized the key to profitability was in treating its employees decently. Not since Henry Ford has someone worked so tirelessly to provide good wages and benefits for his employees. Alas, the president of Wegmans, Robert B. Wegman, died at age 87 on Thursday in Rochester, New York. Read on.
The
Washington Post obituary has some real insights into the man and his family owned business.
In more than a half-century at the helm of Wegmans Food Markets Inc., Mr. Wegman built an innovative company that combined business success and humanitarian ideals. He pioneered the concept of one-stop shopping and the superstore, with bakeries, imported foods, cafes and photo labs all under one roof. He was a leader in adapting technology to the sale of groceries and helped introduce the Universal Product Code, the identifying computer markings now standard on most packaged goods.
With the success of 70 stores in five states, including Virginia and Maryland, Mr. Wegman helped raise the standards of service in the supermarket industry while instilling an enlightened treatment of his employees. Last year, Fortune magazine named Wegmans the best company in the United States to work for. This year, it was ranked No. 2.
In 1994, supermarket analyst Neil Stern told the Wall Street Journal that he considered Rochester-based Wegmans "the best chain in the country, maybe in the world."
A hallmark of Wegmans is its customer service. The company has been known to send a chef to people's homes to correct a food order and to bake Thanksgiving turkeys for people whose ovens were too small.
...
In 1946, he went to work as a meat cutter. He became a store manager the next year. After the death of his uncle in 1950 -- his father had died in 1936 -- Mr. Wegman became the company president.
He immediately raised the wages of the staff and inaugurated a comprehensive health insurance plan. He broke down the corporate hierarchy so completely that, in one of his first acts, he fired his mother from her position as vice president. She didn't speak to him for three years.
...
The company's worker satisfaction derives from generous wages -- salaried workers make an average of $92,000 -- as well as health programs and $56 million in scholarships to employees since 1984. A youth mentoring program sponsored by the company received the grand prize at a 1991 White House "Points of Light" ceremony.
In recent years, Mr. Wegman gave away about 70 percent of his income, mostly for educational causes. In 1995, he donated $25 million to help Rochester children attend Catholic schools. It is believed to be the largest gift to Catholic elementary education in the United States.
Hopefully Sam Walton is also in heaven now, but I am betting Robert B. Wegman is sitting closer to the right hand of God.
If there is a Wegmans in your community, consider patronizing it. Not only will you find it sells exceptionally high quality products, and is a fun place to shop, but you are helping to maintain the American middle class.
Wal-Mart will never get it. Costco does. Robert Wegman understood and built a highly successful grocery chain through innovation and treating people differently.
Oh, and I found this little tidbit interesting:
Each year, Wegmans receives thousands of requests from the public asking the company to open supermarkets in their communities.
Odd, I never here of a community inviting Wal-Mart in.