A favorite, old-school resource I often turn to when scratching out these columns is “The Big Book of Business Quotations,” a gem that I unearthed years ago in a bookstore’s discount bargain bin, of all places.
It’s a pity to have found it there, as it’s a real treasure.
The underlying theme for this column is honesty — business honesty, to be exact. That’s probably because I recently discovered that my plumber I had used for many years had blatantly overcharged me for a job. When I called him out for it, there was no apology. No reaction of, “Oh my gosh, let me correct things.” His response was, “Yeah, well, that’s the way this business is. Take it or leave it.” I cut ties on the spot.
In fact, in the business book mentioned, I found that topics like innovation, ideas and leadership offered volumes of quotes. And honesty? Honesty quotes took up less than a single page.
I recall one year when our 66-store-strong grocery chain had an aggressive run of remodels, about five. Since another produce specialist and I worked closely to plan for and coordinate each remodel, we were very busy as these took months of preparation and weeks of intense execution and follow-up. We were swamped.
What stood out for this run of remodeled stores? Each included installing a fully staffed salad bar kiosk.
Everyone knew salad bars wouldn’t be profitable in our area, mostly due to the high labor-rate base and the fact we were committed to staying under a predetermined, lower price-per-pound. In short, it just didn’t add up. Everyone knew it. We were just being honest.
However, because the salad bar kiosks were the brainchild of our company president, we were tasked with trying to make them work, so we did all we could in the way of operational efficiency to make them profitable. Otherwise, the kiosks were doomed for the scrap heap.
For each kiosk, we carefully tracked sales and gross profit. Over many months of close monitoring, every salad bar was in the red. Each performed poorly.
That is, all but one — one kiosk showed a promising blip in the profit radar.
We were naturally suspicious. Something was amiss. “Larry,” the overly optimistic produce manager at the profitable location, attested that all was well (as in, a nothing-to-see-here type of response). His numbers certainly looked good, but our job was to find out why.
We compared notes closely with the other stores’ salad bar kiosks, and what we discovered was that Larry had obtained most of the nonproduce items (cottage cheese, olives, proteins, eggs, dressings, cheese, pudding, etc.) from various outside departments all right but had not bothered to pay for any of these goodies that customers love to pile onto their salads.
Well, heck. Anyone can show a tidy profit if you don’t include the cost of goods.
When pressed, Larry admitted: “I knew the salad bars were in the spotlight. I thought you guys wanted to see them succeed, no matter what. I was bending some rules to help make it happen.”
Of course, we all wanted a successful outcome. However, we were skeptical from the get-go that salad bars were a losing proposition, and our hypothesis was skewed by one store that wasn’t doing things right.
Larry wasn’t being honest. He reported what he thought we wanted to hear. He wasn’t disciplined for his, um, oversights, though we had every reason to do so. It wasn’t long after that that the kiosks were dismantled, the valuable floor space reclaimed for the produce departments, and in-store salad offerings shifted to the prepackaged category.
Honesty must be the bedrock of business, however uncomfortable it can be. Whether there are enough business quotes to affirm or not, managers should remain truthful and not go along with anything just to curry favor with the boss. Otherwise, we all go down the tubes together.
On a lighter note: This reminds me of the story about a desperate out-of-work teacher who applies for a job. The principal asks the applicant if he believes in creation or evolution. A quick thinker, the applicant blurts out, “Uh, I can teach it either way!” He was hired.
Armand Lobato’s more than 50 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions. He has written a weekly retail column for nearly two decades.
