Why grocery workers should be called first responders
Stew Leonard Jr., CEO of Stew Leonard’s Grocery Stores, joins Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi to discuss how Stew Leonard’s and other grocery chains are faring amid the coronavirus.
Video Transcript
- Residents across the country have been told to shelter in place, people working from home, home schooling, and only living when necessary. One of those necessary outings, though, is to the grocery store. And now the CEO of one grocery chain is calling for these employees to be designated as first responders.
Joining us now is that CEO, Stew Leonard Jr. Of Stew Leonard's. Stew, always good to speak with you here.
STEW LEONARD JR.: Hi.
- So why do you think grocery workers should be classified as first responders?
STEW LEONARD JR.: Well, I think it's tough for us right now. I'm out on the floor right now in the store every single day. I'm trying to set the leadership role up here as-- for our family. But it's very tough, because you have customers, you know, you're dealing with interactively at the deli counter, at the cash registers, you know, at the butcher shops, and the fish departments. And you're asking people to be face to face. And as we know with social distancing, that's the one thing you don't want to do, is be within six feet of somebody.
- Stew, I can see from behind you, you look pretty well stocked there. You got a worker with a mask on stocking up some oranges. But I mean, when I go out to the store-- and this is just my own local grocery store-- it's still really, really hard to get paper goods. There are just some items it's nearly impossible. What are you finding right now? Are you able to get all items to your stores in a timely fashion?
STEW LEONARD JR.: You know, that's one of my biggest jobs every day. And we have four F's that we're focusing on. The first one is full shelves. OK, we are doing everything we can. We're buying direct. You know, we don't go through middlemen or anything. So Stew Leonard's is lucky enough to get supplied.
I just talked to one of our ranchers out in Montana last night on the phone. He said, I got plenty of cattle. You know, so he's assured me we're going to have plenty of beef. You know, chicken, fish, fruits and vegetables, as you can see. So full shelves is number one.
The second thing we're working on is flattening the curve. We have hundreds of thousands of customers shopping in our stores every week. And one of the things we can do through helping social distancing here, keeping everybody six feet away. We limit the number of people coming into the store to half of what we normally would. And we also are requesting each person come alone. So if you'll notice right now, you're not seeing a lot of family shopping, which they usually would do at Stew Leonard.
The third thing we're trying to work on is friendly people. It's really difficult to motivate the front line people today. You know, we're giving them appreciation pay of $2 an hour. We're giving sign-up bonuses of a couple hundred dollars to get other people to work here.
And I just heard you talking about unemployment a little bit. And I think the unemployment option is to attractive. We're actually having a hard time hiring people right now at Stew Leonard's. You'd think with the restaurant business-- all the restaurant workers available, we'd have a flood of people to help us in our kitchens. But that's not happening.
The fourth F that we have to try to feed the first responders and the needy. You know, if any listeners actually-- any communities around Stew Leonard's that any of your listeners feel really need food right now, we'd love to hear from you. You can go to our Facebook page and copy that. So those are the four F's that we're focusing on at Stew's right now.
- That's a great-- you're a great resource for all those folks who are definitely-- and it's a real need, the need for food right now, Stew. You mentioned you talked to a cattle rancher in Montana. You know, you've got Tyson Foods, Smithfield coming out and saying they've had to shut down some factories. Their own workers have gotten the virus. And there was a fear that perhaps we're going to have to start stocking up on meat, because there's not going to be a supply. Do you see that coming down the pike at all, that perhaps we're going to have an issue of getting meat?
STEW LEONARD JR.: You know, we-- we've tried to be out in front of everything that's happening-- Governor Cuomo, Governor Lamont, and Governor Murphy of New Jersey. We've tried to be listening and moving ahead. But the one thing I never anticipated with the COVID-19 is the-- in the supply chain, is the lack of production workers. Like Fred [? Whacker ?] who I talked to last night, a big cattle rancher, 35,000 head of cattle out there-- he said, I can get the beef. But now there's not enough people in the packing plants to cut it, you know, and to package it for me.
So that's where I'm seeing a little hiccup. And it's hard to predict. I think the meat companies probably have to give more incentives to their people to try to work. But the beef's there, you know. It's there. We have the shelves for it here. We just have to make sure everybody in the middle from not only the packers but the truckers end up getting it out here to the stores.
- Stew, bigger picture here. How do you think grocery shopping will change looking beyond the worst of the coronavirus pandemic? We've seen a lot of grocers put up sneeze guards at checkout. You see Walmart putting up one-way aisles. Is that look into the future?
STEW LEONARD JR.: Well, that-- I would love to talk to somebody about that. Because I wonder-- we used to have the big food buffets at the store. We had to close them down. We had a big bagel display where we made fresh bagels and put them out in bins. And you could go pick your own. I don't think that's going to come back for a while right now.
We did a lot of food sampling in the store. That has-- we've stopped all of that. So the complexion of a grocery store has changed. Fortunately, we've always had a one way aisle. It's wider than most stores. And it definitely does help traffic flow and spacing.
The question I wonder-- and we've been through 9/11 here. Right-- we're right near New York City. It is going to take a while for everybody's mood to get done. But I don't think it's going to change until we get a-- there's going to be a vaccination for this.
- And Stew, before I let you go, on a personal level, how has this situation been like? You're-- it's a family business. What has this been like for you to operate a-- operate the family business through this type of situation?
STEW LEONARD JR.: You know, it's something I didn't expect to be as difficult as it is. Just a-- you know, we've always been-- you know, been in the Fortune 100 best companies to work for. And we really love our people. We have a lot of long time people. And I find a tremendous responsibility to educate our people.
We do a deep cleaning here at Stew Leonard's every night. And hand sanitize-- I mean, hospital sanitation and so forth. So the cleanest place our team members can be is here every day. But when they go home, you know, it's the cell phone that they're touching. It might be the car door. There's a lot of other things you're touching.
So these gloves-- the only reason I wear them and every one of our team members has to wear a mask-- and now they're requesting customers to wear masks when they come in-- is so that you don't-- the only reason I wear gloves is so it reminds me not to touch my face. [LAUGHS] Yeah.
- All right, let's leave it there. Stew Leonard's-- Stew Leonard Jr. Stay safe out there. Appreciate you all-- everything you're doing for shoppers.
STEW LEONARD JR.: You know, I appreciate that. And I just want to assure everybody, I wake up every morning. I'm trying to get fresh food out on the shelves. And I want to keep the store looking like this for however long this goes on. So anyway, everybody be--
- [? Good luck, ?] Stew, now. We'll been in touch soon.
STEW LEONARD JR.: Be safe. Thank you.
