two hundred fifty seven

 Fry's Food and Drug Val Vista Lakes

Gilbert Arizona

The store is no longer open but a little over 30 years ago I was transferred there to work the grand opening.  I worked there seven years, in that time a lot of things happened. I got sober, started riding bikes, got this crazy bicycle touring bug and fell in love. That's a story for another time.

The store manager was the most irritating human being I have ever met. He had a rude style, ruled the store by his moods, always focused on business, had impossible standards, never socialized at a personal level, at times a complete asshole but he was a management genius. It took sometime and a lot of frustration for me to see but there was a method to his madness. 

There are many styles of management some are more effective than others. The one I hate the most is the cart and carrot. Tell me what you want, set a goal and don't move the carrot. Unfortunately they always move the damn carrot. 

Working in a grocery store is an honorable blue collar career but it can be monotonous and boring. It pays enough to get by, has benefits and if you hang around long enough you get a pension. The union in my experience over 39 years is a joke. Unions have served a vital purpose in the past but they have turned into a giant corporation themselves. The individual members are the least of their concern, I saw that demonstrated many many times.

My long career in the meat business has no real legacy. The stores I worked in are closed or owned by a different company. Everything has changed dozens and dozens of times. I can't drive past anything I have built, no award shows or fanfare. My clients long ago ate what I produced and forgot in a few weeks after I moved on that I had ever worked there. The reality of selling food is that everything I did turned to shit (literally). 

I am buy far not alone in this type of career, in fact the majority of careers are like this. Our self-esteem usually comes from things in our lives other than what we do to make money. Blue collar jobs are sometimes mocked or looked down on but if you have had a job you need to shower before and after work you know what I mean. Blue collar workers keep our country fed, clothed, housed, warm and safe. Producing, transporting, selling, building, repairing and maintaining are vital careers that are at times ignored or taken for granted.

It is tough enough doing the drill day after day month after month year after year. Then to have some jerk giving you grief every day can really piss you off. Well that was my original position on Steve the store manager. He walked by each department with a front end manager in tow to critique every detail of your counter. He didn't stop until he found a flaw, he criticized, had his staff make a note of it and then moved on to the next department. 

I asked him what he wanted, he said perfection, you will know when you get there. This went on through the grand opening, we all thought it was a pissing contest to impress upper management and it would end soon but it continued. Day after day I strived to meet his standards but he continued to find flaws. 

One day he came by on a particularly intense search and destroy mission, he had just thrown a tantrum in the produce department. As he stood in front of my counter for the longest time, then he said now that is what I want and walked on. I was both relieved and confused. Thinking back I realized each thing he had asked for I had done, he saw this and let me have the carrot. 

His style was by no means warm and fuzzy he was all business. He was focused on exactly what he wanted and expected us to follow through. He was direct but clear, he wasn't doing it for fun there was a specific purpose. He continued to find flaws and set what felt like unreasonable standards but I kept achieving his high standards. After a while his standards that once seemed impossible were now my own standards. 

I watched new department heads go through this same process, some got it and some failed. I would tell them what was happening and that this guy was actually easy to work for once you understood him. After a year or so we were never friends, it was always business. I had managed long enough to realize managing an employee and being friends can have some issues. Steve and I did have respect for each other. I kept my department conditions and numbers high but I did keep him at a distance because he thought I was a little nuts with good reason.

It was simple, have no customer complains, no returns, no bad health department reports, no out of stocks particularly ad items, no repairs that weren't repaired, every one in dress code, clean spotless conditions and no quarter punches.  The District Manager once brought the Chairmen of the Kroger Board directly from the corporate jet to our store because we were the store that would have grand opening conditions. Usually they spend a week getting ready for a dog and pony show. 

The one thing Steve demanded was honesty. He never asked a question he didn't know the answer to. He was asking to test your honesty. I watched a few people fail this test, it was not pretty. If you told him the truth and it was bad like running out of an ad item he would simply say "fix it". You knew to get ad product by hook or by crook because he would be following up.

One strange thing he did was never ever walk through the back stock room, he didn't even use the cameras to spy on us. We got used to this and spoke freely about him, many times negatively. The yearly store inventory was the only time I saw him walk through the stock room but that was announced days before his visit. I once asked him why he did this, he said you guys have to have a place to talk about me. He also said I know what is going on I have Hank. 

Hank had worked for him before so he no doubt had been tested for his truthfulness. Hank ran the back stock room, checked in trucks and maintained general conditions. It was our place, there was a relaxed atmosphere, a little playfulness but mostly all business. Even Hank would have a smart remark to say as Steve was barking for him to pick up the intercom. 

Business was Steves priority, customer service, conditions, profit and loss numbers, but customer loyalty was his first priority. No questions asked return policy, empowering his department managers with the ability to give product away to keep a customer and using overtime if we need it. A quarter punch is sloppy and you would get a call but a half hour or an hour he assumed was necessary. 

I grew to love working for him and taught me a great deal as to how I managed my department. I was never impressed with his style but one thing I knew exactly what he expected. I learned to be direct and clear with my crews. I expected my crew to be truthful no matter what. I used Steves line "fix it" which worked much better than scolding or finding fault. I had fun at work and was much more light hearted than Steve but I did expect high standards. I counseled people in private to go behind their pride and gave them permission to make decisions. 

Working with the public, tolerating low wages and  enduring the foolishness of upper management is bad enough. I tried to give people some area of autonomy and responsibility. Some didn't respond to this but most did. I privately counseled only the people that needed it I never sent a mass ass chewing e-mail  or yelled at everyone which is another of my pet peeves. 

I was told to manage people like you would like to be managed. I remember how Steve responded to weak upper management and how much he respected the yellers and screamers. I chose my own much different style but I did learn a great deal from Steve.

I recently heard Steve has passed on from a heart attack. I knew he was no longer a District Manager because of his heart. The last I talked with him he was on a heart transplant list. I think he knew how much I (eventually) respected him.

Steve gave me an opportunity to flex my creativity. This is a 6 foot poster board submarine.