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Speaker 1: This is Masters in Business with Verry Ridholts on Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Radio this weekend. On the podcast, I have an extra

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Speaker 1: special guest. His name is Cal Turner Jr. He was

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Speaker 1: the CEO of Dollar General. He ran the company for

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Speaker 1: thirty seven years, and he is just full of charm

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Speaker 1: and wisdom and just homespun, down to earth common sense. Uh.

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Speaker 1: He tells wonderful stories about how his father and his

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Speaker 1: grandfather moved into the retail business, the trials and tribulations

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Speaker 1: of that, and of running a family business with all

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Speaker 1: of the riffs and sibling rivalries that creates. He is

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Speaker 1: just a very straightforward, honest person who has a lot

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Speaker 1: of interesting things to share. I think he is not

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Speaker 1: only humble, but knows how to express that in the

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Speaker 1: way that gets the most and best work out of

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Speaker 1: the people who worked for him. So I found this

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Speaker 1: to be a charming conversation, and I expect you will

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Speaker 1: also with no further ado, my conversation with Cal Turner Jr.

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Speaker 1: This week, I have an extra special guest. His name

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Speaker 1: is Cal Turner Jr. And he has been CEO for

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Speaker 1: Dollar General for thirty seven years. Uh. He began in

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Speaker 1: the family business in nineteen sixty five, and after he

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Speaker 1: served a few years in the Navy, he came back

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Speaker 1: to the family business to work in the warehouse sweep

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Speaker 1: the floors, eventually rising to the chief executive position. Dollar

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Speaker 1: General under his reign, expanded from a hundred and fifty

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Speaker 1: stores and sales of forty million dollars to over six

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Speaker 1: thousand stores and sales and access of six billion dollars.

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Speaker 1: He is now retired and is the author of My

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Speaker 1: father's business, The small Town Values that built Dollar General

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Speaker 1: into a billion dollar company. Cal Turner Jr. Welcome to Bloomberg.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Berry. The way you talk makes me interested

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Speaker 1: in hearing what I'm going to say, as I think

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Speaker 1: a lot of people are. So let's let's go back

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Speaker 1: to the beginning. You start in nineteen sixty five, literally

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Speaker 1: sweeping the floor, as I wasn't exaggerating, right you Right,

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Speaker 1: You picked up a broom and that's where you began.

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Speaker 1: I swept floors long before nineteen sixty It was in

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Speaker 1: the early fifties. I was born in nineteen forty. The

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Speaker 1: company was born in January. The company was born three

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Speaker 1: months earlier. So the company and I are about the

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Speaker 1: same age. So um and the company grew up with you.

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Speaker 1: When when you began sweeping floors at that early age,

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Speaker 1: did you know the family business was where you're going

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Speaker 1: to be working the rest of your life. No. I

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Speaker 1: resisted it. I saw how hard my father worked. I

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Speaker 1: knew that he was sweating. He'd wake up in the

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Speaker 1: middle of the night in cold sweat, afraid he couldn't

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Speaker 1: pay off the banks. He was over expanding. The timing

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Speaker 1: happened to be right because it was right after the

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Speaker 1: Second World War and it worked. It did work them. Now,

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Speaker 1: your grandfather started a business, Jail Turner and Son wholesale

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Speaker 1: um before the war. How what happened with that? Well,

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Speaker 1: Luther Turner, my papa was wonderful. He only had a

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Speaker 1: third grade education, Barry, and he had three younger siblings,

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Speaker 1: and his father was tragically killed and Luther was eleven.

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Speaker 1: Now he was the head of the family. The farm

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Speaker 1: was heavily mortgaged, and he had to make it all

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Speaker 1: work out for everybody. Wow, And that's at age eleven,

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Speaker 1: at age eleven with only a third grade education. And

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Speaker 1: what Luther had going for him is that he assumed,

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Speaker 1: since he only had a third grade education, that everybody

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Speaker 1: he met was smarter, and he should learn something from

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Speaker 1: everybody he met. You know, regardless of your education. That

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Speaker 1: sounds like a intelligent, humble approach to dealing with the world. Well,

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Speaker 1: it certainly was his, and I consider Luther Turner to

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Speaker 1: be the smartest person I ever knew. So what gave

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Speaker 1: him the courage to start a company. He's recently married,

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Speaker 1: he's got a newborn baby, he's broke. You mentioned he

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Speaker 1: wasn't you know, all that wealthy when he launched the company.

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Speaker 1: What made him think I could do this? Well, I

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Speaker 1: don't know if he ever thought I could do this.

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Speaker 1: He was hardest working man I ever knew. He tried

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Speaker 1: to learn from everybody, and he tried to learn from

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Speaker 1: life because he was so limited in his education, and

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Speaker 1: he saved something out of every check. Good advice these days.

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Speaker 1: If Luther Turner hadn't done that, he wouldn't have been

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Speaker 1: the financial backing my father needed when both of them

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Speaker 1: started the company. They started the company because they found

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Speaker 1: a big brick building at half price. A Turner will

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Speaker 1: buy anything. Yeah, I can appreciate that deep down inside

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Speaker 1: the turn of family, our value investors, aren't you? Indeed?

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Speaker 1: So so he finds this brick building. Where was it located?

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Speaker 1: And what did he think the potential clients hele for

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Speaker 1: this building could be. Well, the building was in Scottsville, Kentucky.

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Speaker 1: It's a third of the way north of Nashville, Tennessee,

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Speaker 1: on the way to Louisville. And he thought that would

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Speaker 1: be a great place for a wholesale business. Actually it

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Speaker 1: was a terrible place, but it's where he found a

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Speaker 1: building for half price, and and that that was it. J. L.

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Speaker 1: Turner and Son Wholesale Dry Goods. And what became of

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Speaker 1: uh jail Turner and Son Wholesale Dry Goods. Well, it

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Speaker 1: had one employee that was my father. And my dad

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Speaker 1: would take samples of the merchandise as a wholesaler to

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Speaker 1: all the retailers in these little bitty towns in Kentucky

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Speaker 1: and Tennessee. And after the Second World War he found

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Speaker 1: that they were not interested in buying more of the

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Speaker 1: ladies panties that he had. The prices had dropped after

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Speaker 1: the war, and he wanted to sell them some more,

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Speaker 1: and they said, no, cal we're not going to buy

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Speaker 1: anymore until we sell what we've already bought from you.

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Speaker 1: He said, But the market's going down. You need to

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Speaker 1: lower your cost and buy some of my panties. No,

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Speaker 1: they wouldn't do it. So he came home and he

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Speaker 1: said to my grandfather, Daddy, we have to go into retailing.

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Speaker 1: We've got to be directly in touch with the customer.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's a good principle of retailing, stay

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Speaker 1: directly in touch with the customer. So all of this

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Speaker 1: leads to your tenure at the company, which will discuss

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Speaker 1: in a minute. But what motivated you to say I'm retired.

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Speaker 1: I'm kind of board playing golf for tennis or sailing

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Speaker 1: or whatever. I know, I'm gonna sit down and write

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Speaker 1: a book. What was the motivation for that? Well, that's

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Speaker 1: a bit of a long story. The first book I

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Speaker 1: was involved with, the publisher asked the senior pastor of

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Speaker 1: our church and me to write a book on followership

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Speaker 1: from the perspective of the preacher that was his and

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Speaker 1: the practitioner. That was my part book. And in doing

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Speaker 1: that book, uh, I met the ghost writer, Rob Sembec,

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Speaker 1: who became fascinated with parts of my story that couldn't

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Speaker 1: go in that book, and he'd say, we'll put those

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Speaker 1: aside for your book. Well, It took him two years

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Speaker 1: to convince me to do a book, and then it

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Speaker 1: took both of us six years to write it. But

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Speaker 1: that's the result of it is my father's business. Let's

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Speaker 1: talk about this as a family business. Most family businesses

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Speaker 1: don't make it to the second generation. What made Dollar

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Speaker 1: General the exception my loving father. I give him all

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Speaker 1: the credit. I got the affirmation of the real cal Turner.

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Speaker 1: I was junior, but he was the real cal Turner.

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Speaker 1: And he would say things about me, like, well, cal Jr.

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Speaker 1: Is smarter than I am, And that would prove who's

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Speaker 1: really smart. It's the father who says that about his son.

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Speaker 1: Know when he will work the bajeebers out of himself

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Speaker 1: to prove that his father's right. It sounds like your

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Speaker 1: dad was a good manager of people and children. He was.

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Speaker 1: And I would be sweeping one aisle in the warehouse

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Speaker 1: and he would convene his associates in the next stile

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Speaker 1: I had just swept, and he would say, have you

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Speaker 1: ever seen a floor swept as well as this one?

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Speaker 1: And cal Jr. Was in the next ile, just sweeping

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Speaker 1: away and grinning from ear to ear. That's fantastic. That's

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Speaker 1: a good father, and you don't know that he's doing

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Speaker 1: this on purpose. No, and everybody else there was kind

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Speaker 1: of smiling. Look what he's doing here. And and that's

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Speaker 1: the only job I had in the company of the

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Speaker 1: many I had that I know I did well. Well,

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Speaker 1: you did pretty well as CEO. We'll talk about that

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Speaker 1: in a few minutes. Well, thank you. Let's talk a

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Speaker 1: little bit about the whole concept of dollar pricing. What

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Speaker 1: made Cal sr So adamant that we're gonna sell nothing

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Speaker 1: from more than a dollar? And that's that what was

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Speaker 1: the thinking behind that. Cal Senior was a country boy

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Speaker 1: who observed what the city boys did in retailing, and

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Speaker 1: he noticed the Louisville and Nashville, Tennessee department stores would

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Speaker 1: run big, full color ads once a month dollar days sales,

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Speaker 1: everything priced on the even dollar. And he knew those

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Speaker 1: city boards were making money with those sales, or they

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Speaker 1: wouldn't spend that much money on the ad. So he

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Speaker 1: got his group together and said, I have the idea

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Speaker 1: for a new concept, a new kind of store. It

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Speaker 1: can be a dollar store, and the slogan can be

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Speaker 1: every day is dollar Day, and we can make retailing simple.

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Speaker 1: We can make value popped. For the customer, because we'll

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Speaker 1: sell everything for a dollar. You do know that one

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Speaker 1: dollar is the best price point God ever made, and

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Speaker 1: that will be what will build our store around. What

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Speaker 1: do you think? And they were unanimous call it won't work.

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Speaker 1: Everybody hated it. Yeah, he said, well, I'll tell you

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Speaker 1: what we're gonna do. We're gonna take a store where

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Speaker 1: we have failed operating a junior department store, Springfield, Kentucky.

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Speaker 1: We're going to open a dollar general store. And if

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Speaker 1: that store succeeds where we previously failed, that's a pretty

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Speaker 1: good test. And so we opened in Springfield, Kentucky. He

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Speaker 1: got his friend in Nashville, Tennessee, who was stuck on

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Speaker 1: pink corduroy, to cut that corduroy up into men's pants.

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Speaker 1: Pink corduroys one dollar one dollar. Now, yeah they were pink,

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Speaker 1: but yes, the farmers would buy them at one dollar.

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Speaker 1: Somebody visited Springfield, Kentucky and said, it's amazing. This whole

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Speaker 1: town seems to have a pink you about it. And

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Speaker 1: there's a whole those those brawny farmers were in pink

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Speaker 1: cardiu roy pants for one dollar. So he worked directly

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Speaker 1: with manufacturers to come up with ways to create merchandise

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Speaker 1: that could be sold profitably at a dollar as opposed

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Speaker 1: to what can I go out and buy that? Absolutely,

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Speaker 1: and that was a brilliant merchandizing strategy. Start with the

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Speaker 1: customer in mind, and work with your vendors to create

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Speaker 1: a value the customer needs. Let them be your partner.

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Speaker 1: My dad believed that vendors were great partners and that

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Speaker 1: was an opportunity for development of the company, the partnerships

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Speaker 1: that you form with vendors. Even so, the first store

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Speaker 1: where the previous General store had failed, opens up with

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Speaker 1: the announcement dollar General every day is a dollar sale day. Well,

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Speaker 1: the previous store was probably Turners Department store or something

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Speaker 1: like that, but it it hadn't turned the profit. It

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Speaker 1: hadn't turned the profit. And this new store had the

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Speaker 1: yellow and black sign that said Dollar General Stores the

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Speaker 1: town's most unusual store. And how long was it before

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Speaker 1: everyone realized, hey, this is a really good formula. About

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Speaker 1: four days? That was it. Let's send out how long

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Speaker 1: it took him to open the store. And that's how

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Speaker 1: long he gave me to open a new store when

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Speaker 1: I first came with the company. Four days, not from

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Speaker 1: start to finish from the start, away from you gotta

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Speaker 1: build it absolute start. No, no, you you release an

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Speaker 1: existing but you pay him a dollar a square foot. Right,

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Speaker 1: So you'll take any building they've got, and you'll unload

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Speaker 1: fixtures and merchandise on Monday and Tuesday and start putting

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Speaker 1: it all out on Wednesday and Thursday and have it

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Speaker 1: opened Friday morning. Thank you. And of course my stores

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Speaker 1: looked as if I had opened them in only four days.

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Speaker 1: But nobody they worked. The price was great, and and

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Speaker 1: so the first store that was opened after how long

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Speaker 1: did it take before you have to check your seats?

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Speaker 1: You have to check the was it apparent from day

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Speaker 1: one where their lines out the door? How quickly did

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Speaker 1: everybody realize this is a much better formula than than

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Speaker 1: than the department store. The store when it first opened

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Speaker 1: was so full of customers that they had to close

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Speaker 1: the door. So it was instantaneous, and they as they

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Speaker 1: would let two customers out, they'd let two waiting people in.

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Speaker 1: And that care it's its own buzz and the next thing,

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Speaker 1: you know, So you worked with your dad for a

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Speaker 1: long time, what was it like working with your father?

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Speaker 1: My dad was absolutely wonderful. He was an only child

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Speaker 1: who seemed to be adopting more brothers and sisters all

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Speaker 1: of his life, and he had in mind from the

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Speaker 1: very start that I would be to the one to

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Speaker 1: run the company after him. I didn't have that in mind.

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Speaker 1: You had other siblings, obviously had. There were two boys

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Speaker 1: and two girls when I was the oldest boy, and

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Speaker 1: I was the one who got his name. And so

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Speaker 1: therefore you with a natural person saying yes to take

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Speaker 1: the nancial But I've always referred to him as the

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Speaker 1: real cal Turner because he was. Let's talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit about your role as CEO. What did you like

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Speaker 1: best about doing that job? What brought the most fun

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Speaker 1: to you a CEO? The people's side of the business.

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Speaker 1: I was fascinated with our customers. When I had clerked

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Speaker 1: in our store. I had discovered that hard working farmers,

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Speaker 1: we're smart as they could be. They had to survive,

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Speaker 1: and I was convinced that my dad was right in

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Speaker 1: saying we have the smartest customers of all because they're

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Speaker 1: struggling and they have to be smart. And so my

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Speaker 1: idea was that we could recruit great associates or employees

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Speaker 1: from that customer base and they could help us to

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Speaker 1: build a company that would really succeed because we build

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Speaker 1: with associates who understood the customer. They helped us to

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Speaker 1: understand us they were they were the customers essentially, and

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Speaker 1: I realized that problem solving genius exists where the problem does.

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Speaker 1: Those are the people who can help you figure out

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Speaker 1: answers that you need in a retail company. What was

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Speaker 1: your least favorite part about being CEO? Well, that's um,

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Speaker 1: let me think what my least favorite part was. Oh,

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Speaker 1: I know, my least favorite part was having to fire somebody.

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Speaker 1: Everybody the least favorite part. I like everybody, and I

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Speaker 1: want everybody to like me. And um, every now and

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Speaker 1: then someone doesn't work out. You have to make a

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Speaker 1: tough decision. That's right now. At one point in time,

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Speaker 1: the company was on the verge of some really serious

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Speaker 1: financial problems. Tell us a little and you discussed that

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Speaker 1: in the book. Tell us a little bit about the

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Speaker 1: background to that and how you avoided Chapter eleven and

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Speaker 1: what you had to do. Our company had over expanded

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Speaker 1: and we were actually in trouble as a company, and

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Speaker 1: this large public company had the problem that the CEO

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Speaker 1: and the CEO didn't agree on change that needed to

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Speaker 1: be undertaken fast and tell us exactly who the CEO was.

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Speaker 1: The CEO was my younger brother, Steve Turner, So not

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Speaker 1: just a random person, this is your kid. Oh yes.

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Speaker 1: And in the book I described that as life's toughest decision,

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Speaker 1: and it was for me, the decision to fire my brother.

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Speaker 1: It was hard, and I was aggravated at God for

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Speaker 1: my being in that the decision making dilemma. Absolutely, and

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Speaker 1: and my prayer became very irreverent because I told God

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Speaker 1: exactly what I thought about him or her as I

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Speaker 1: was having to go through. Then. Right now, your church going,

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Speaker 1: god fearing man, you talk about um your revelation in

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Speaker 1: the book and when God first came to you. How

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Speaker 1: do you go from that to being angry at God?

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Speaker 1: That's so inconsistent with everything else I've read about you. Well,

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Speaker 1: the God I worship knows what I'm thinking even before

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Speaker 1: I think it. And if I'm angry, how dare Cal

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Speaker 1: Turner Jr. Speak in in sweet holy language and his

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Speaker 1: prayer when God already knows what I'm thinking? So I

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Speaker 1: have I have to have the integrity even with God,

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Speaker 1: especially with God. Okay, that's fair. So how do you

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Speaker 1: go from that to reaching the decision. Hey, kid, brother,

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Speaker 1: this ain't working. We got to move on. Well, it

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Speaker 1: took our family between six and eight months to process it.

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Speaker 1: Because our whole family processed, that is sure. And they

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Speaker 1: were all hoping Cal Jr. Would get over this and

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Speaker 1: did he? He did not because he read some scripture

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Speaker 1: that said I am the vine and my father's divine dresser.

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Speaker 1: That which is dead, he cuts away, that which is fruitful,

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Speaker 1: he prunes so it'll bear more fruit. And I thought,

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Speaker 1: thank you, Lord, one brother has to be cut away,

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Speaker 1: and this brother has to be pruned and be more fruitful.

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Speaker 1: And I've got my marching orders. Thank you. So how

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Speaker 1: did your brother take this? And did that cause a

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Speaker 1: rift in the family? That didn't heal for a while.

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Speaker 1: Of course it caused a rift, of course it did.

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Speaker 1: It was painful, It was hard on everybody. But my

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Speaker 1: brother actually helped me to do it. And how is that?

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Speaker 1: He said, Now, Cal's Jr. This is my family business too.

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Speaker 1: If if you do this, you're going to deny me

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Speaker 1: my birthright. But brother, you'll have to step up to

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Speaker 1: the plate and fire me and live with that the

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Speaker 1: rest of your life. And I said, I do. Some

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Speaker 1: people use that to get married. I used it to

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Speaker 1: get divorced from my brother in the business. And what's

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Speaker 1: the happy ending at the end of the happy ending

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Speaker 1: is that Steve Turner blossomed in his independence of the

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Speaker 1: family retail business and he proved who he was and

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Speaker 1: what he could do. And I am so proud of him.

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Speaker 1: And that wouldn't have happened if that really tough decision

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Speaker 1: hadn't been made. But I'm convinced because the decision was

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Speaker 1: based on scripture, it was made well. So everybody loves

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Speaker 1: a happy ending like that. It took a long time,

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Speaker 1: a long time. Your dad was essentially um, your mentor

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Speaker 1: and your teacher. What did you run up What did

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Speaker 1: you learn about running a business from your father? Well,

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Speaker 1: I learned business from my father, Barry, but I learned

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Speaker 1: leadership principles from my mother. Oh really tell us, and

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Speaker 1: from all the women in my life. For example, that's

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Speaker 1: very interesting. When I was a teenager, my mother would

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Speaker 1: often say to me, son, for a good boy, you

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Speaker 1: get into a lot of trouble. My mother taught me

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Speaker 1: to separate the person from the problem, and people can

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Speaker 1: come together to solve the problem better. So when I

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Speaker 1: got into business with my dad and something would go wrong.

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Speaker 1: He was of the old school, and he'd say who

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Speaker 1: did that? And I said, I'm not gonna tell you, Daddy.

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Speaker 1: He said, do you know who did it? Sir? Tell me, no,

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Speaker 1: I'm not, daddy. I threw my mother at my father.

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Speaker 1: I said, now, Daddy, we're not gonna say who did it.

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Speaker 1: When something goes wrong, We're gonna say what happened and

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Speaker 1: who needs help to fix it? Because anytime something goes wrong, Daddy,

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Speaker 1: there is never any one person. Sure, several people were involved.

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Speaker 1: So let's not look for one person to blame. Let's

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Speaker 1: build a company of problem solvers where people established relationships

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Speaker 1: to help each other. And my dad would say hmmmmmm,

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Speaker 1: and I could I could see from the expression on

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Speaker 1: his face that I had not yet made a complete sale.

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Speaker 1: Did he realize you were basically channeling your mother back

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Speaker 1: at him? And oh no, I didn't tell him that.

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Speaker 1: I was young and green, but I knew not to

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Speaker 1: spring my mother on my father. But that was a

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Speaker 1: very pragmatic approach to problem solving, making it about the issue,

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Speaker 1: not the person. Yes, if you have a person problem,

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Speaker 1: well that's a whole different conversation. But if something just

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Speaker 1: happened to go wrong, let's fix it rather than make

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Speaker 1: it about who did what. Well, the personal problems usually

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Speaker 1: result in something going wrong, But you can solve the

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Speaker 1: personal problem better if you all concentrate on the problem,

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Speaker 1: not the person that That makes a lot of sense.

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Speaker 1: So you ran a public company for a long time,

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Speaker 1: do you Let's go back to the day the company

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Speaker 1: went public? When did When did you go? I p

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Speaker 1: O December of nineteen sixty eight because my dad just

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Speaker 1: decided it was time to take Jail Turner and Son public.

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Speaker 1: Oh and by the way, Son, we're going to change

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Speaker 1: the name to Dollar General Corporation. Oh Dad, here, we're

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Speaker 1: taking Turner off of the name. I kind of hate that. Yes,

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Speaker 1: our company needs to be identified with our stores. So

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Speaker 1: Dollar General it was. And he said, you take it,

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Speaker 1: you run with it. So we went public. We had

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Speaker 1: no chief financial officer, we had no consolidated financials in

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Speaker 1: the company, we had no budget. But Cal jr. You've

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Speaker 1: had accounting courses and you can handle Wall Street, so

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Speaker 1: you take it and go public. Well I'm glad I

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Speaker 1: was naive enough to think I could do it, because

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Speaker 1: I had to do it. So we went public and

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Speaker 1: in January somebody said something about an annual report, and

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Speaker 1: I said, what is an annual report? They explained what

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Speaker 1: it was and said, okay, well I'm the only one

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Speaker 1: who can write it. So I went in my office

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Speaker 1: and closed the door and sat down and wrote the

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Speaker 1: first annual report. What about annual meetings with shareholders? How

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Speaker 1: how did that go? Yeah? Well in the early day. Well,

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Speaker 1: we had them in Scottsville, Kentucky, and we invite everybody

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Speaker 1: to come to Scottsville, Kentucky. Not many showed up. Well

382
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:17,520
Speaker 1: that's where the company was headquartered, so why why wouldn't you?

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Speaker 1: We had it in Scottsville, Kentucky. We had to grow

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Speaker 1: up as a public company. We had to grow up

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Speaker 1: as a family business that could learn the best way

386
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Speaker 1: it could be professionally managed. There was a lot of

387
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Speaker 1: trial and era, a lot of hard work. But we

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Speaker 1: had wonderful people to help us figure that company out.

389
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Speaker 1: So you had to get a CFO, you had to

390
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Speaker 1: get ahead of investor relations, you had to get a

391
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 1: marketing What was that process like adding these people or not? No,

392
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Speaker 1: we didn't have to get them my dad. My dad

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Speaker 1: thought I could do whatever needed to be done. That

394
00:27:02,600 --> 00:27:05,960
Speaker 1: shows his overcount for the in his son. And so

395
00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:13,399
Speaker 1: we evolved and those persons were added in time, but

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00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:17,399
Speaker 1: not right away. Normally companies load up with those folks

397
00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:20,280
Speaker 1: before the I p O. It took years and years

398
00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:24,840
Speaker 1: before these people showed up. It did, indeed, it certainly did.

399
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:27,480
Speaker 1: So you were wearing a lot of hats. You were

400
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Speaker 1: acting as CFO liaison to Wall Street investor relations. What

401
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:36,960
Speaker 1: job weren't you doing? I can't think a single job

402
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:39,119
Speaker 1: I wasn't doing, and I think that's why there's no

403
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 1: hair on top of my head now. But who better

404
00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:46,800
Speaker 1: to be CEO than someone who knows literally every aspect

405
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:50,080
Speaker 1: of the company. Well. I had had most of the

406
00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:55,359
Speaker 1: jobs in that retail company myself, and I was not

407
00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:58,760
Speaker 1: good at a single thing I did except sweeping the floor.

408
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Speaker 1: And I developed a respect for the people who do

409
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:06,080
Speaker 1: those jobs well, and I said, look, we all know

410
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Speaker 1: how I got this job. I'm the boss's son, I'm

411
00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:13,440
Speaker 1: over my head and I need your help. I respect

412
00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:18,160
Speaker 1: what you do. I like how you get the work

413
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:22,359
Speaker 1: done in this company. Let's learn together, and you have

414
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Speaker 1: my commitment that we will share the success with you

415
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:31,040
Speaker 1: if you help us build this company. I love the

416
00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:33,879
Speaker 1: philosophy and I have to adopt that that that sounds

417
00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:38,920
Speaker 1: like a very realistic and practical approach to getting the

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Speaker 1: best out of the people who are working for you. Well,

419
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:45,560
Speaker 1: it was my approach at being over my head, So

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Speaker 1: it comes from the place of honesty. But it also

421
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:51,280
Speaker 1: happened to work out well. Yes, and and they believe

422
00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:53,720
Speaker 1: me because I think they knew I was over They

423
00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:55,520
Speaker 1: knew you were telling the truth when you said I

424
00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:59,160
Speaker 1: don't know what I'm Yeah, exactly. That's fantastic. So you

425
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Speaker 1: go public. When you came in as CEO, there were

426
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:07,080
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty stores. What was that expansion process

427
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:10,360
Speaker 1: like up to as many stores as as the company

428
00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:15,840
Speaker 1: has now. Well, we could open a store in less

429
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:19,800
Speaker 1: than a week, and if the store didn't work, we

430
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:23,320
Speaker 1: could close it in a day and move on. So

431
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:27,520
Speaker 1: you're willing to throw stuff up against the wall, see

432
00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:30,800
Speaker 1: what worked, and if it didn't work, shrug and move on.

433
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:33,080
Speaker 1: And if it worked, you could put more resources into

434
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:38,440
Speaker 1: this and we would do the occasional acquisition if we

435
00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:43,800
Speaker 1: could get good store leases in the process, more places

436
00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:46,520
Speaker 1: to open our store. And my dad would always be

437
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:50,360
Speaker 1: the great buyer. He'd buy all the opportunity buys and

438
00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:53,160
Speaker 1: we'd be overstocked with whatever he'd bought. So we had

439
00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:59,040
Speaker 1: to open more stores. Yeah, yeah, And he used to

440
00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:03,160
Speaker 1: laugh about how how bankers, how retailers could pull the

441
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:07,320
Speaker 1: wool over the eyes of bankers by saying, look, if

442
00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:11,360
Speaker 1: I can open more stores, I'll have more places to

443
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:16,040
Speaker 1: sell my merchandise. If it doesn't sell here, I'll sell

444
00:30:16,080 --> 00:30:21,480
Speaker 1: it there. Well, if it doesn't sell here, chance there.

445
00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 1: So you mentioned acquisitions. I'm assuming part of the reasons

446
00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:31,040
Speaker 1: to go public is to use the stock for these acquisitions. Yes,

447
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:34,200
Speaker 1: you get a new group of companies, a new group

448
00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 1: of stores, and new group of managers. So you're also

449
00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 1: hiring talent as well. How did that that acquisition process

450
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:46,360
Speaker 1: work over as many years as you were deploying that. Well,

451
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:52,160
Speaker 1: it was always based on the marketing opportunity afforded by

452
00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:59,600
Speaker 1: an acquisition prospect. Could we get stores where the leases

453
00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:05,800
Speaker 1: would work for us? Yes, and that that was our

454
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:09,560
Speaker 1: entire basis for doing that. Location didn't matter. You didn't

455
00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:14,040
Speaker 1: care like any town, any population. Well, that evolved. My

456
00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:17,760
Speaker 1: dad used to think, our our prices and merchandise are

457
00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:21,320
Speaker 1: so compelling that we can open a store anywhere. And

458
00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:25,880
Speaker 1: some of the buildings, at least you'd say that about them.

459
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:31,480
Speaker 1: They were just in places most retailers wouldn't pick. And

460
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:34,840
Speaker 1: as the company evolved, we got a little more particular

461
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 1: about where we would put our stores. But he still

462
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:41,320
Speaker 1: only wanted us to pay a dollar a square foot

463
00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:44,360
Speaker 1: per year? Did that? How long did that work out?

464
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:46,880
Speaker 1: How long was that price point able to do well?

465
00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:51,160
Speaker 1: Two or three years? That was that? Eventually the landlord

466
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:56,040
Speaker 1: started raising, uh, study raising, Well, you it's supply and demand.

467
00:31:56,240 --> 00:32:00,360
Speaker 1: There's there's there's no supply of opportunity a ty to

468
00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 1: open store at a dollar or square foot anymore cal sr.

469
00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:08,080
Speaker 1: So you had to actually start paying up for that.

470
00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:12,320
Speaker 1: Was there any methodology too, we want to expand either

471
00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:17,200
Speaker 1: geographically east or west or what was the thought process?

472
00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:20,720
Speaker 1: Where were you looking or was it just traveling around

473
00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:24,800
Speaker 1: the country working with your partners, your vendors. You would say, hey,

474
00:32:24,840 --> 00:32:29,600
Speaker 1: this is an area that looks ripe for acquisition or expansion. Well,

475
00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:33,120
Speaker 1: we wanted to open the stores where we understood the customers.

476
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:38,280
Speaker 1: So they were primarily in Kentucky and Tennessee at the time.

477
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:47,600
Speaker 1: And and yet opportunity to expand elsewhere was compelling, and

478
00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:50,320
Speaker 1: and we would we would go where we could get

479
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:54,880
Speaker 1: the cheap ramps. So who was your competition in those

480
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:58,120
Speaker 1: early days that was around the same period Walmart was

481
00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:05,320
Speaker 1: blowing up. Well, we always considered our competition only to

482
00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:09,280
Speaker 1: be everybody else who was in retailing. The entire retail

483
00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:13,480
Speaker 1: sector was your college. Yes, and and the landscape of

484
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:21,040
Speaker 1: retailing um provided whole kinds of competition. And there's a

485
00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:25,480
Speaker 1: lot There was a lot of carnage among retailers. There

486
00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:29,440
Speaker 1: always has been. If you don't stay connected to the

487
00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:33,000
Speaker 1: customer as a retailer, and if you aren't meeting a

488
00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:37,240
Speaker 1: customer need with your store, your days are numbered. And

489
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:40,719
Speaker 1: that's very sage advice. I have a ton more questions

490
00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:43,360
Speaker 1: for you. Can you stick around a little bit. We

491
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:46,760
Speaker 1: have been speaking with Cal Turner Jr. He's been CEO

492
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:52,200
Speaker 1: of Dollar General for decades. If you enjoy this conversation,

493
00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:54,640
Speaker 1: be sure and check out the podcast extras where we

494
00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:58,720
Speaker 1: keep the tape rolling and continue discussing all things retail.

495
00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:02,960
Speaker 1: You can find that at Bloomberg dot com, Apple iTunes,

496
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:08,000
Speaker 1: or overcast wherever final podcasts are sold. Be sure and

497
00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:10,040
Speaker 1: check out my daily column. You can see that at

498
00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:14,000
Speaker 1: Bloomberg dot com. Follow me on Twitter at rit Holts.

499
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:17,520
Speaker 1: I'm Barry rit Halts. You're listening to Masters in Business

500
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:34,239
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio. Welcome to the podcast. Cal. Thank you

501
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:37,720
Speaker 1: so much for doing this. I am enjoying this tremendously.

502
00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:40,239
Speaker 1: I have a bunch of other questions to get to,

503
00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:47,239
Speaker 1: but I only touched upon something that you spend some

504
00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:50,000
Speaker 1: time talking about in the book, and we really didn't

505
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:54,759
Speaker 1: get to on the broadcast portion. And it's um your

506
00:34:55,440 --> 00:35:00,239
Speaker 1: spirituality and how you had a moment that change your

507
00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:02,640
Speaker 1: whole life, and you spend a lot of time in

508
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:05,560
Speaker 1: the book discussing that. Tell us, I think you were

509
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:08,960
Speaker 1: eleven years older old, So tell us about that a

510
00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:12,400
Speaker 1: little bit that I was intrigued by that. It's interesting

511
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:17,120
Speaker 1: how Luther Turner's life changed at eleven, and how Cal

512
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:21,240
Speaker 1: Turner Jr. How the life of Cal Turner Junior changed

513
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:25,360
Speaker 1: at eleven. It was a summer Sunday evening, and I

514
00:35:25,400 --> 00:35:30,240
Speaker 1: was sitting in the beautiful twilight on my uncle's front

515
00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:34,120
Speaker 1: porch across the street from our church. I was waiting

516
00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:36,920
Speaker 1: for my parents to pick me up, and in that

517
00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:44,560
Speaker 1: still wonderful twilight time, something came over me that I

518
00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:49,279
Speaker 1: cannot explain. It's nothing that I came up with, but

519
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:52,600
Speaker 1: it happened to me. And it was based on the

520
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:57,160
Speaker 1: words of the old Rugged Cross and the conviction that

521
00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:02,360
Speaker 1: while it was wonderful that Christ had died for everyone,

522
00:36:02,520 --> 00:36:06,719
Speaker 1: he had specifically done it for cal Turner Jr. And

523
00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:12,200
Speaker 1: it was a big wow that changed my life. I

524
00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:16,640
Speaker 1: didn't know what that meant, but I knew from that

525
00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:22,120
Speaker 1: time on my life would be different. Now that I'm

526
00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:25,640
Speaker 1: seventy eight and looking back on it, I think it

527
00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:29,239
Speaker 1: meant that I was always supposed to be asking the

528
00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:36,720
Speaker 1: right question of life, and I was forewarned that if

529
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:42,000
Speaker 1: I followed my Lord, I would have a cross to carry,

530
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:46,800
Speaker 1: and so I have to ask what was your cross

531
00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:51,960
Speaker 1: to bear? Well, my cross was splitting the family and

532
00:36:52,040 --> 00:36:57,799
Speaker 1: the company by firing my brother. That was um the

533
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:01,919
Speaker 1: best example of across us. But now that I look

534
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:08,440
Speaker 1: back on those rough times in life, I find myself

535
00:37:08,880 --> 00:37:13,439
Speaker 1: more blessed by them than the times of success. Well,

536
00:37:13,480 --> 00:37:18,319
Speaker 1: success is easy, Failure is hard. Failure is hard, and

537
00:37:19,239 --> 00:37:25,960
Speaker 1: sometimes it takes failure to learn lessons that should be learned,

538
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:31,719
Speaker 1: which only failure can teach, so it's it's biblical, a

539
00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:35,600
Speaker 1: little not quite cane enable, but the fight between brothers

540
00:37:35,719 --> 00:37:41,400
Speaker 1: is fairly biblical. Years later, how did that resolve? Writing

541
00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:45,840
Speaker 1: this book, my father's business has been additional healing to

542
00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:51,360
Speaker 1: the relationship between brothers. My brother loves the book. He does,

543
00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:58,840
Speaker 1: he does, and how I described the dilemma that we

544
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:02,799
Speaker 1: all faced. He had a role in life to live,

545
00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:06,880
Speaker 1: and I had one to live. And when I read

546
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:12,400
Speaker 1: Timothy Keller's book The Prodigal God, I learned about the

547
00:38:12,520 --> 00:38:15,960
Speaker 1: sin of the older brother. In that parable about the

548
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:20,839
Speaker 1: prodigal son, the prodigal son gets forgiven, not the old

549
00:38:21,239 --> 00:38:24,920
Speaker 1: not the older brother. Who is who is self righteous?

550
00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:28,920
Speaker 1: And who's the people pleaser? And that's who I was.

551
00:38:29,400 --> 00:38:32,960
Speaker 1: I was a terrible older brother. And that helped me

552
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:35,960
Speaker 1: to put it all together better in a way that

553
00:38:36,080 --> 00:38:40,880
Speaker 1: gave my younger brother the credit he deserved. Did he

554
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:46,080
Speaker 1: realize how painful the process of firing him was to you?

555
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:50,080
Speaker 1: He obviously knows how he felt. Was he aware? How

556
00:38:50,239 --> 00:38:53,920
Speaker 1: it you sound like? And what I read in the

557
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:57,880
Speaker 1: book it you agonized over this decision, and it haunted

558
00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:00,160
Speaker 1: you for a while, even though you knew it is

559
00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:03,360
Speaker 1: what the camp be two bosses. It had to be done,

560
00:39:03,800 --> 00:39:07,359
Speaker 1: and even still it haunted you for a while. Yes,

561
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:11,040
Speaker 1: but my brother understood how hard it was on his

562
00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:14,440
Speaker 1: older brother. That's why I said, you're gonna have to

563
00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:17,760
Speaker 1: fire me and live with that the rest of your life.

564
00:39:17,960 --> 00:39:24,000
Speaker 1: And I do. I still feel the scar. Sometimes you

565
00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:29,560
Speaker 1: learn more from your scars. So how long was it

566
00:39:29,719 --> 00:39:34,440
Speaker 1: before the family rift began to heal? How long did it?

567
00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:37,359
Speaker 1: And it's always continual healing, But when did you first

568
00:39:37,360 --> 00:39:40,839
Speaker 1: start to say, all right, we'll get by this. Well.

569
00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:45,839
Speaker 1: To me, the healing began when my father called me

570
00:39:46,719 --> 00:39:50,000
Speaker 1: about twenty four hours after learning that I had fired

571
00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:53,520
Speaker 1: my brother, and he said, I haven't slept since that call, son,

572
00:39:54,080 --> 00:39:58,720
Speaker 1: But I realized now that just as an animal cannot

573
00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:04,719
Speaker 1: live with two heads, neither can a company. And you

574
00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:09,239
Speaker 1: did what you have to do, had to do, and

575
00:40:09,280 --> 00:40:16,279
Speaker 1: I'm with you. You have my support. That helped the

576
00:40:16,360 --> 00:40:20,080
Speaker 1: healing to begin. Did you reach out to your brother

577
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:22,360
Speaker 1: afterwards and said, here's what we want to do. I

578
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:27,760
Speaker 1: don't want this to cause a permanent A permanent wound

579
00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:30,200
Speaker 1: for the family is how we can heal. I did

580
00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:34,960
Speaker 1: reach out to him. It wasn't immediately done, though, because

581
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:40,200
Speaker 1: more healing in our rapport needed to occur before I

582
00:40:40,239 --> 00:40:42,719
Speaker 1: could even do that. A little time in space has

583
00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:46,960
Speaker 1: to allow. Sometimes sometimes you have to be sensitive to

584
00:40:47,120 --> 00:40:53,200
Speaker 1: the time that's needed to invest in a situation or syndrome.

585
00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:57,839
Speaker 1: Need time time can help that That makes perfect sense.

586
00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:02,040
Speaker 1: By the way the book is filled at these lovely um.

587
00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:05,160
Speaker 1: I don't want to call them stories because they're they're true,

588
00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:12,080
Speaker 1: just it's it's a a lovely set of vignettes well told.

589
00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:16,880
Speaker 1: And it seems like you had a very fascinating career

590
00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:21,759
Speaker 1: running the family's business. Thank you. I've never made anybody

591
00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:26,200
Speaker 1: I consider equally blessed as cal Turner Jr. Well, that

592
00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:29,200
Speaker 1: that's a charming sentiment. Let me get to some of

593
00:41:29,200 --> 00:41:33,239
Speaker 1: the questions I missed during our our conversation. There's a

594
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:37,040
Speaker 1: bunch of things I wanted to UM wanted to ask

595
00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:41,239
Speaker 1: you mentioned UM when I was talking about the time

596
00:41:41,320 --> 00:41:44,520
Speaker 1: the company was on the verge of chapter eleven, that

597
00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:49,759
Speaker 1: the underlying cause of that was overexpansion and rapid expansion.

598
00:41:50,360 --> 00:41:53,719
Speaker 1: So once you came to realize that was what you

599
00:41:54,080 --> 00:41:57,120
Speaker 1: what what had put the company in danger? How did

600
00:41:57,120 --> 00:42:01,880
Speaker 1: you get past it? How did you resolve that challenge. Well,

601
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:06,520
Speaker 1: we had been doing strategic planning for years, but we

602
00:42:06,520 --> 00:42:10,800
Speaker 1: weren't able to implement it very well because we had

603
00:42:11,239 --> 00:42:15,520
Speaker 1: two camps in the company, one for each brother, and

604
00:42:16,600 --> 00:42:22,800
Speaker 1: we couldn't coordinate the implementation. So after the younger brother

605
00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:27,040
Speaker 1: left the company, we could get on with what we

606
00:42:27,080 --> 00:42:29,880
Speaker 1: had said we wanted to do with the company, and

607
00:42:29,920 --> 00:42:33,239
Speaker 1: we could, but we had to move fast. It's a

608
00:42:33,280 --> 00:42:37,920
Speaker 1: good thing that the whole management team had been doing

609
00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 1: planning because I understood our agenda and we could implement

610
00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:49,239
Speaker 1: it faster. So I'm curious about one thing, and I'm

611
00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:53,319
Speaker 1: sure listeners are as well. You said your brother blossomed

612
00:42:53,600 --> 00:42:56,080
Speaker 1: after this event. What did he go on to do.

613
00:42:57,719 --> 00:43:03,560
Speaker 1: My brother developed um the Gulch in Nashville, Tennessee, which

614
00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:10,880
Speaker 1: is an amazing development of the downtown Nashville that we

615
00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:16,520
Speaker 1: all know today and that has Steve Turner and his

616
00:43:16,640 --> 00:43:23,120
Speaker 1: son Jay all over it. They did wonderful things for Nashville,

617
00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:27,160
Speaker 1: and so he became a very successful real estate developer.

618
00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:34,560
Speaker 1: He did, he did, indeed, and he also blossomed in philanthropy.

619
00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:39,880
Speaker 1: He and his wonderful wife, Judy have done amazing things

620
00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:46,399
Speaker 1: for the not for profit community UM for downtown development

621
00:43:47,200 --> 00:43:54,800
Speaker 1: and they are deservedly very loved in the community of Nashville, Tennessee.

622
00:43:55,080 --> 00:43:58,680
Speaker 1: Now you mentioned philanthropy, I'm confusing. I don't remember if

623
00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:02,719
Speaker 1: it was you or your father. Mother began taking a

624
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 1: few shares of Dollar General stock and donating it to

625
00:44:07,600 --> 00:44:12,960
Speaker 1: a foundation each year. Am I misremembering that? I don't

626
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:17,759
Speaker 1: remember that that that he did that my uh, my

627
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:21,080
Speaker 1: dad would would give some of his stock to all

628
00:44:21,239 --> 00:44:26,640
Speaker 1: the cousins year after year after year. Uh. Philanthropy for

629
00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:30,279
Speaker 1: him was more of a family thing I miss from im.

630
00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:33,480
Speaker 1: I might be confusing the two in my haste to

631
00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:36,239
Speaker 1: get the book. Well, I can tell you what my

632
00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:39,920
Speaker 1: dad did in philanthropy. At the end of his life.

633
00:44:40,280 --> 00:44:44,879
Speaker 1: He woke up to the blessing of philanthropy because he

634
00:44:45,160 --> 00:44:51,640
Speaker 1: saw his kids doing it and and he wants conducted

635
00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:55,160
Speaker 1: a census of all of the churches in his hometown

636
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:58,440
Speaker 1: of Allen County, Kentucky. Found that there were ninety one

637
00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:02,680
Speaker 1: of them, and he gave a thousand dollars to each church,

638
00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:07,320
Speaker 1: and they were overwhelmed because more than half of those

639
00:45:07,400 --> 00:45:13,239
Speaker 1: churches had received the largest contribution in their history. And

640
00:45:13,280 --> 00:45:18,640
Speaker 1: he said, son it's amazing. Look how cheap philanthropy is

641
00:45:18,680 --> 00:45:22,120
Speaker 1: in Scottsville. You can't buy that kind of good will

642
00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:27,120
Speaker 1: in Nashville, Tennessee for dollars on. That's amazing. He's a

643
00:45:27,239 --> 00:45:32,760
Speaker 1: value investor even when it comes to indeed, that's charming.

644
00:45:33,280 --> 00:45:38,120
Speaker 1: So you avoid chapter eleven by by taking these two

645
00:45:38,160 --> 00:45:41,719
Speaker 1: camps and creating one camp with it. How long did

646
00:45:41,719 --> 00:45:44,400
Speaker 1: it take to come out of that period of Hey,

647
00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:48,200
Speaker 1: things are really uh, things are really dicey. Okay, now

648
00:45:48,239 --> 00:45:53,360
Speaker 1: we feel like we're on from our financial footing. Well,

649
00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:58,280
Speaker 1: it took a good three years before I could see

650
00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:03,239
Speaker 1: our turnaround. We're working three years. That's a long time.

651
00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:10,040
Speaker 1: Felt like an eternity. Our company had gotten bigger. You

652
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:13,840
Speaker 1: can't turn a bigger company around as fast as you

653
00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:18,320
Speaker 1: can a smaller company. And it's interesting how that happened.

654
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:24,239
Speaker 1: My dad and I had another fight because Um, the

655
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:28,440
Speaker 1: son of his pet flunked a drug test. Um he

656
00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:30,840
Speaker 1: was the only district management the company to flunk a

657
00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:34,280
Speaker 1: drug test. And my dad said, you're not gonna fire

658
00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:37,000
Speaker 1: him because his father has done more for this company

659
00:46:37,040 --> 00:46:40,560
Speaker 1: than your whole management team put together. But I did.

660
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:45,319
Speaker 1: I did fire And what did he say, well, he

661
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:50,919
Speaker 1: was just royally ticked off. And I decided that I

662
00:46:50,960 --> 00:46:55,279
Speaker 1: can't keep going through father and son fights. I know

663
00:46:55,360 --> 00:46:59,440
Speaker 1: how I can control the old man. So I'll go

664
00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:05,440
Speaker 1: to Otsville and I'd say, look, Daddy, my brothers and

665
00:47:05,520 --> 00:47:10,760
Speaker 1: sisters don't want to sell their stock until I sell mine.

666
00:47:11,440 --> 00:47:16,600
Speaker 1: I'm willing for us to get family to come back together.

667
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:19,440
Speaker 1: You and I keep fighting. It's like a dagger to

668
00:47:19,520 --> 00:47:22,920
Speaker 1: my heart every time we have a fight. Let's agree

669
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:29,120
Speaker 1: that all of the turners will sell this company. And

670
00:47:29,160 --> 00:47:31,719
Speaker 1: I knew my dad would say, oh no, and then

671
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:36,680
Speaker 1: I'd say, well, then you behave and did he He said?

672
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:39,400
Speaker 1: I said, so let's sell the company, Daddy, And he

673
00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:45,320
Speaker 1: said okay, And I said okay. So he called your bluff,

674
00:47:45,360 --> 00:47:48,560
Speaker 1: he called my bluff. And I said, well, all right, Daddy.

675
00:47:49,640 --> 00:47:52,040
Speaker 1: What I have to do now is to share that

676
00:47:52,160 --> 00:47:55,960
Speaker 1: with the management team. So I'm going to go back

677
00:47:55,960 --> 00:48:00,160
Speaker 1: to them and suggest that they come up with the

678
00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:03,759
Speaker 1: compensation plan to make it worth their while if we

679
00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:10,200
Speaker 1: successfully sell the company, because something needs to be in

680
00:48:10,239 --> 00:48:14,280
Speaker 1: it for them to shore. And so I went back

681
00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:17,479
Speaker 1: and they came up with a plan that I said,

682
00:48:17,560 --> 00:48:21,000
Speaker 1: I don't think the board would ever approve this, but

683
00:48:21,120 --> 00:48:25,000
Speaker 1: we it was taken to the board, the board approved it,

684
00:48:25,160 --> 00:48:29,960
Speaker 1: and somehow the turnaround of that company that wasn't yet

685
00:48:30,080 --> 00:48:36,240
Speaker 1: working started to work when all of senior management got

686
00:48:36,320 --> 00:48:39,520
Speaker 1: that motivated to make it work. So, so what are

687
00:48:39,520 --> 00:48:43,560
Speaker 1: you saying that incentives matter and when employees feel the

688
00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:48,840
Speaker 1: own a company, they perform better. Exactly exactly, That is

689
00:48:48,920 --> 00:48:55,000
Speaker 1: a fundamental that sometimes we miss. It's easy to to overlook,

690
00:48:55,239 --> 00:48:57,920
Speaker 1: especially when things are going well. It's only when things

691
00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:01,239
Speaker 1: start going poorly that we start thinking, what do we

692
00:49:01,360 --> 00:49:05,000
Speaker 1: what do we forget about a good observation good observation?

693
00:49:05,719 --> 00:49:08,719
Speaker 1: So a question I have to ask you, given the

694
00:49:08,840 --> 00:49:12,640
Speaker 1: nature of dollar general and the fact that you're saying

695
00:49:12,800 --> 00:49:18,600
Speaker 1: every retailer is a competitor, there has been an ongoing

696
00:49:19,320 --> 00:49:24,600
Speaker 1: um let's call it income inequality or wealth inequality that

697
00:49:24,680 --> 00:49:28,880
Speaker 1: has ebbed and flowed over the years. During the Great Depression,

698
00:49:28,960 --> 00:49:33,160
Speaker 1: it was a very, very big chasm, and then in

699
00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:37,120
Speaker 1: the post War War two period the middle class flourished

700
00:49:37,160 --> 00:49:40,080
Speaker 1: and did very well. And over the past let's call

701
00:49:40,160 --> 00:49:42,799
Speaker 1: it ten or twenty or maybe even thirty years, that

702
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:47,799
Speaker 1: rift has widened again, and it's bigger today than at

703
00:49:47,880 --> 00:49:50,879
Speaker 1: least according to some data, it's bigger today than it's

704
00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:56,640
Speaker 1: been since the Great Depression. What does that mean to

705
00:49:56,800 --> 00:50:01,720
Speaker 1: you as somebody who worked in retail, and as somebody

706
00:50:01,800 --> 00:50:05,759
Speaker 1: who is spiritual and and is concerned about the welfare

707
00:50:05,960 --> 00:50:13,120
Speaker 1: of his fellow men. Free enterprise needs to be free,

708
00:50:13,719 --> 00:50:18,800
Speaker 1: and there are inequities that occur from time to time.

709
00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:27,759
Speaker 1: And yet if the market can have its influence on

710
00:50:28,760 --> 00:50:36,120
Speaker 1: human activity, it can be self correcting. We found that

711
00:50:36,280 --> 00:50:43,040
Speaker 1: building a business required our offering opportunity to develop to

712
00:50:43,440 --> 00:50:47,680
Speaker 1: our customer base that could become our associates and build

713
00:50:47,719 --> 00:50:51,480
Speaker 1: the company, and they could. They could grow and develop,

714
00:50:51,960 --> 00:50:55,319
Speaker 1: and their financial well being would be enhanced in a

715
00:50:55,360 --> 00:50:59,759
Speaker 1: major way the more productive they became. So if the

716
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:06,560
Speaker 1: money rewards productivity, then it's good to have more wealthy

717
00:51:06,600 --> 00:51:12,200
Speaker 1: people based on their being productive. It works, it does work.

718
00:51:12,800 --> 00:51:16,160
Speaker 1: It gets yes, it gets out of balance. Life is

719
00:51:16,239 --> 00:51:21,440
Speaker 1: always out of balance. A real leader tries to figure

720
00:51:21,440 --> 00:51:25,120
Speaker 1: out the balance that he needs or she needs to

721
00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:29,479
Speaker 1: work on. And this this ebbs and flows. It gets better,

722
00:51:29,560 --> 00:51:32,720
Speaker 1: it gets worse, it goes back into that's the cycle

723
00:51:32,920 --> 00:51:36,399
Speaker 1: of business, of life, of everything. Yes, yes so, and

724
00:51:36,440 --> 00:51:40,360
Speaker 1: if without getting to um clich seven fat years, seven

725
00:51:40,400 --> 00:51:44,080
Speaker 1: lean years. That's what eventually, if you wait long enough,

726
00:51:44,120 --> 00:51:47,000
Speaker 1: it all comes back around, I think. So, So let

727
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:49,520
Speaker 1: me ask you some of my favorite questions. These are

728
00:51:49,600 --> 00:51:53,600
Speaker 1: what I ask all of my guests. A lot of

729
00:51:53,640 --> 00:51:55,839
Speaker 1: these I don't know the answer to one or two.

730
00:51:55,840 --> 00:51:59,719
Speaker 1: I think I could guess the answer to um. Tell

731
00:51:59,800 --> 00:52:05,080
Speaker 1: us the most important thing that people don't know about you, Well,

732
00:52:05,200 --> 00:52:09,080
Speaker 1: they don't know the grounding of my faith and the

733
00:52:09,120 --> 00:52:13,160
Speaker 1: central and importance of that to my life. But we

734
00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:16,319
Speaker 1: we have talked about that. You write about it extensively

735
00:52:16,320 --> 00:52:19,440
Speaker 1: in the book, but you don't wear it on your sleeve.

736
00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:21,880
Speaker 1: It's not you don't be people over the head with it.

737
00:52:22,160 --> 00:52:24,360
Speaker 1: I wear it on my sleeve more in the book

738
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:28,040
Speaker 1: than I ever have. That's one of the nice things

739
00:52:28,160 --> 00:52:33,480
Speaker 1: about retirement. You don't have to be so constrained about

740
00:52:33,520 --> 00:52:40,880
Speaker 1: political correctness. You can share from your heart with the

741
00:52:40,920 --> 00:52:44,520
Speaker 1: hope that you're doing that will help somebody else. And

742
00:52:44,600 --> 00:52:47,279
Speaker 1: my book is an attempt to mentor the reader. I've

743
00:52:47,320 --> 00:52:50,280
Speaker 1: had great mentors throughout my life. That's my next question.

744
00:52:50,320 --> 00:52:53,600
Speaker 1: Tell us about some of your mentors. Your dad, obviously

745
00:52:53,719 --> 00:52:56,200
Speaker 1: is gonna be front and center and we've we've talked

746
00:52:56,239 --> 00:52:59,600
Speaker 1: about them. My dad, my mother didn't know she was

747
00:52:59,680 --> 00:53:02,600
Speaker 1: meant ring me when she was raising me. And let

748
00:53:02,600 --> 00:53:05,920
Speaker 1: me interrupt you a second. Do you really stop and

749
00:53:05,960 --> 00:53:07,919
Speaker 1: think about this for a second, because I'm just thinking

750
00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:11,680
Speaker 1: about my mother. Do you really think she had no

751
00:53:11,760 --> 00:53:14,879
Speaker 1: idea she was mentoring you? Or was she just doing

752
00:53:14,880 --> 00:53:17,160
Speaker 1: in a way that it took you sixty years to

753
00:53:17,200 --> 00:53:21,719
Speaker 1: figure out she was parenting the best way she knew how.

754
00:53:23,239 --> 00:53:27,840
Speaker 1: That's mentoring. And yeah, of course, and the best mentoring,

755
00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:32,759
Speaker 1: I think is to a you get confused about who

756
00:53:32,880 --> 00:53:36,960
Speaker 1: is helping whom because you're helping each other. And I

757
00:53:37,400 --> 00:53:42,360
Speaker 1: love to be in those two way mentoring relationships. That

758
00:53:42,360 --> 00:53:47,120
Speaker 1: that's a lovely sentiment. What retailers out there and and

759
00:53:47,280 --> 00:53:51,600
Speaker 1: people in the retail industry influence the way you looked

760
00:53:51,640 --> 00:53:56,440
Speaker 1: at the business of Dollar General and anybody affect how

761
00:53:56,480 --> 00:54:03,160
Speaker 1: you approached it or was it strictly Calcina there There

762
00:54:03,200 --> 00:54:08,719
Speaker 1: were many of them throughout the history of our company.

763
00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:16,359
Speaker 1: We observed successes among the competition, and um, there were

764
00:54:16,400 --> 00:54:21,359
Speaker 1: some more successful now and others might be more successful later.

765
00:54:22,239 --> 00:54:27,520
Speaker 1: And a good retail leader observes the competition and yet

766
00:54:28,560 --> 00:54:32,160
Speaker 1: does not copy that competition. Is there anything you can

767
00:54:32,280 --> 00:54:36,319
Speaker 1: learn from the competition without copying them? Oh? Yes, But

768
00:54:36,520 --> 00:54:39,520
Speaker 1: you know what you need to do is to learn

769
00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:45,600
Speaker 1: how to apply in your company what that competition seems

770
00:54:45,640 --> 00:54:49,680
Speaker 1: to do well in his or her company. But you've

771
00:54:49,719 --> 00:54:54,160
Speaker 1: got to learn it through the eyes of your own

772
00:54:54,400 --> 00:54:59,720
Speaker 1: employees and customers and apply it in your business model,

773
00:55:00,040 --> 00:55:05,000
Speaker 1: in your business opportunity. It makes perfect sense to me. Uh,

774
00:55:05,040 --> 00:55:08,359
Speaker 1: this is one of everybody's favorite questions because people are

775
00:55:08,360 --> 00:55:11,640
Speaker 1: always looking for new things to read. Tell us about

776
00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:18,000
Speaker 1: some of your favorite books. Well, the book that I

777
00:55:18,080 --> 00:55:22,120
Speaker 1: need the most of any books the Bible. Now. I

778
00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:31,320
Speaker 1: tend to read books that are from really good thinkers

779
00:55:31,360 --> 00:55:34,839
Speaker 1: that are based on the Bible. Earlier, I shared with

780
00:55:34,880 --> 00:55:39,320
Speaker 1: you that Timothy Keller is one of my favorite theologians,

781
00:55:39,880 --> 00:55:42,680
Speaker 1: and when he wrote that book The Prodigal God, helped

782
00:55:42,680 --> 00:55:45,480
Speaker 1: me to figure out the problem I had as an

783
00:55:45,480 --> 00:55:50,520
Speaker 1: older brother, and it helped me to bond with younger

784
00:55:50,560 --> 00:55:56,640
Speaker 1: brother and to understand life better. I like what he writes.

785
00:55:56,960 --> 00:56:00,359
Speaker 1: I read a lot of Richard Roar of hen Now

786
00:56:00,400 --> 00:56:05,600
Speaker 1: and I like Richard Rore's book Falling Upward. It talks

787
00:56:05,640 --> 00:56:12,360
Speaker 1: about life having two basic dynamics. You start off building

788
00:56:12,440 --> 00:56:18,120
Speaker 1: your container, you try to accomplish, achieve, succeed. You build

789
00:56:18,160 --> 00:56:21,440
Speaker 1: the container, and the last half of your life you

790
00:56:21,520 --> 00:56:27,760
Speaker 1: try to fill it with meaning and he he surmises

791
00:56:28,640 --> 00:56:34,640
Speaker 1: that the person who works on that second half dynamic

792
00:56:35,719 --> 00:56:40,279
Speaker 1: early is more blessed in life. Try to get the

793
00:56:40,400 --> 00:56:44,480
Speaker 1: meaning in the container as you're building it, and he

794
00:56:44,920 --> 00:56:50,960
Speaker 1: he talks about uh, dualistic thinking and non dualistic thinking

795
00:56:51,080 --> 00:56:53,600
Speaker 1: in a way that was a real aha to me.

796
00:56:54,640 --> 00:56:59,360
Speaker 1: So much of life is compare and contrast. Put a

797
00:56:59,440 --> 00:57:04,480
Speaker 1: label on this, put a label on that, And God,

798
00:57:04,520 --> 00:57:08,280
Speaker 1: who made all of us, says, there's more to life

799
00:57:08,320 --> 00:57:11,840
Speaker 1: than a label. There's more to life than a comparison.

800
00:57:12,600 --> 00:57:16,200
Speaker 1: When when I pray to God about something, should I

801
00:57:16,280 --> 00:57:20,400
Speaker 1: do this or that? God would say yes, and it

802
00:57:20,480 --> 00:57:27,160
Speaker 1: would tick me off. But you've said that several times,

803
00:57:27,720 --> 00:57:32,920
Speaker 1: And I recall so I come from a fairly religious family,

804
00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:36,880
Speaker 1: and I would have similar discussions with my father, and

805
00:57:37,080 --> 00:57:39,800
Speaker 1: every now and then I get a headshake and say,

806
00:57:40,000 --> 00:57:43,840
Speaker 1: you know, Lilisie on the blasphemy boy settled down, But

807
00:57:44,120 --> 00:57:50,240
Speaker 1: you and I'm remembering conversations I've had you kind of

808
00:57:50,520 --> 00:57:53,760
Speaker 1: make me think along the same lines of Hey, that's

809
00:57:53,800 --> 00:57:56,400
Speaker 1: getting a little close to the edge, being ticked off

810
00:57:56,440 --> 00:58:03,080
Speaker 1: at God or being somehow unwilling to accept your lot

811
00:58:03,840 --> 00:58:07,200
Speaker 1: as part of a bigger plan and and shaking your

812
00:58:07,240 --> 00:58:10,560
Speaker 1: fist angrily at the skies. That's not the sort of

813
00:58:10,560 --> 00:58:14,040
Speaker 1: person you are today? Or are you? Am? I am?

814
00:58:14,080 --> 00:58:18,680
Speaker 1: I am? I miss reading your genteel southern charms as

815
00:58:18,760 --> 00:58:22,720
Speaker 1: something else. Well, I'm still a person trying to get

816
00:58:22,840 --> 00:58:26,880
Speaker 1: over himself and get out of God's way. Okay, but

817
00:58:26,960 --> 00:58:30,800
Speaker 1: you didn't sound like you that way when you were younger. Well,

818
00:58:31,280 --> 00:58:33,520
Speaker 1: and I don't mean as a teenager, I mean as

819
00:58:33,560 --> 00:58:38,160
Speaker 1: a forty or fifty something person running a business. Well,

820
00:58:38,240 --> 00:58:42,880
Speaker 1: I guess um, I may have exuded more confidence than

821
00:58:42,920 --> 00:58:48,960
Speaker 1: I really should have had. Um, certainly when we went

822
00:58:49,040 --> 00:58:51,800
Speaker 1: public and I didn't know what in the heck I

823
00:58:51,840 --> 00:58:57,240
Speaker 1: was doing. I had to project confidence while I was

824
00:58:57,360 --> 00:59:00,880
Speaker 1: quaking in my boots. But what does that have to

825
00:59:01,400 --> 00:59:07,439
Speaker 1: So take that to the next step. You're ticked off

826
00:59:07,480 --> 00:59:13,000
Speaker 1: at God? You said, how does that square with um?

827
00:59:13,040 --> 00:59:17,800
Speaker 1: Your your basic religious upbringing? I was always told that, Hey,

828
00:59:17,920 --> 00:59:20,120
Speaker 1: it's not for you to be mad at God. Who

829
00:59:20,160 --> 00:59:23,200
Speaker 1: do you think you are? So that's kind of my background.

830
00:59:23,680 --> 00:59:27,160
Speaker 1: How did how did you deal with that? Well? Well,

831
00:59:27,200 --> 00:59:30,760
Speaker 1: then then I realized God was saying back to me.

832
00:59:30,960 --> 00:59:33,600
Speaker 1: You know you were converted based on the Cross, and

833
00:59:33,680 --> 00:59:35,720
Speaker 1: I told you you were going to have a cross

834
00:59:35,800 --> 00:59:39,840
Speaker 1: to carry. I'll help you carry it, get with it,

835
00:59:40,120 --> 00:59:46,200
Speaker 1: get over being piste off with me on life, and

836
00:59:46,240 --> 00:59:49,919
Speaker 1: I'll help you get on with it in a deeper way.

837
00:59:50,080 --> 00:59:54,120
Speaker 1: So yeah, I've sensed that God was saying, thank you

838
00:59:54,200 --> 00:59:57,480
Speaker 1: for being honest with me. I already know you're you're

839
00:59:57,600 --> 01:00:01,560
Speaker 1: upset with me, but thank you for being honest. So

840
01:00:01,640 --> 01:00:04,520
Speaker 1: you eventually came full circle and was able to to

841
01:00:05,640 --> 01:00:09,040
Speaker 1: get beyond your anger and manage what had to be managed.

842
01:00:09,080 --> 01:00:13,360
Speaker 1: But I had some real irreverent prayer life. And I've

843
01:00:13,360 --> 01:00:18,000
Speaker 1: always called myself a backsliding methodist, but that that means

844
01:00:18,640 --> 01:00:21,840
Speaker 1: I own my backslide in a way that helps me

845
01:00:22,400 --> 01:00:26,280
Speaker 1: to bond with other backsliders, And that makes perfect sense

846
01:00:26,320 --> 01:00:30,000
Speaker 1: to me. So you, if anybody I can talk to

847
01:00:30,120 --> 01:00:36,200
Speaker 1: about the sort of disrupted state of retail these days,

848
01:00:36,760 --> 01:00:40,680
Speaker 1: you certainly have an interesting perspective. What do you think

849
01:00:41,600 --> 01:00:44,440
Speaker 1: about the changes that are taking place with the Internet

850
01:00:44,440 --> 01:00:47,960
Speaker 1: and Amazon and the new generation not really shopping the

851
01:00:48,000 --> 01:00:51,360
Speaker 1: way their parents did. What do you think retail looks

852
01:00:51,440 --> 01:00:56,440
Speaker 1: like going forward? Well, I've seen a lot of change

853
01:00:56,480 --> 01:00:59,920
Speaker 1: in retailing in my thirty seven and a half years

854
01:01:00,040 --> 01:01:04,160
Speaker 1: in the Saddle, and there will always be challenged. There

855
01:01:04,160 --> 01:01:08,200
Speaker 1: will always be retailers making it and others not making it.

856
01:01:08,680 --> 01:01:12,120
Speaker 1: The ones that stay closer connected with the customer are

857
01:01:12,240 --> 01:01:19,560
Speaker 1: going to survive. And for example, when Dollar General changed

858
01:01:19,720 --> 01:01:25,760
Speaker 1: its mindset by saying we're not a retailer where customer

859
01:01:25,880 --> 01:01:33,800
Speaker 1: driven distributor, that really got the company going. So you

860
01:01:33,920 --> 01:01:40,480
Speaker 1: need to redefine yourself in almost any organization based on

861
01:01:40,800 --> 01:01:45,560
Speaker 1: what your people can help you figure out would work.

862
01:01:46,240 --> 01:01:50,720
Speaker 1: They can help you figure out the next iteration of

863
01:01:50,760 --> 01:01:55,680
Speaker 1: your company that you will all pursue together. When they

864
01:01:55,720 --> 01:01:59,640
Speaker 1: give you the answer, they'll implement it for you very well.

865
01:02:01,000 --> 01:02:04,160
Speaker 1: So tell us about and I You've talked about a

866
01:02:04,160 --> 01:02:06,080
Speaker 1: few things with this, but I want to ask a

867
01:02:06,120 --> 01:02:10,560
Speaker 1: specific example. Tell us about the time you you failed

868
01:02:11,000 --> 01:02:16,440
Speaker 1: and what you learned from the experience. Oh well, I

869
01:02:16,560 --> 01:02:20,280
Speaker 1: wish I could tell you about a time that I failed.

870
01:02:21,400 --> 01:02:27,600
Speaker 1: There were many times that I failed, and um it

871
01:02:27,720 --> 01:02:35,440
Speaker 1: was every failure was an opportunity for me to apply

872
01:02:35,600 --> 01:02:37,840
Speaker 1: what my mother said, for a good boy, you get

873
01:02:37,880 --> 01:02:41,080
Speaker 1: into a lot of trouble. We have good people who

874
01:02:41,240 --> 01:02:47,400
Speaker 1: who mess up, and the key to getting it right

875
01:02:47,800 --> 01:02:51,120
Speaker 1: is to acknowledge that we have messed up in a

876
01:02:51,200 --> 01:02:55,040
Speaker 1: way that helps us all to fix it. And from

877
01:02:55,080 --> 01:03:00,360
Speaker 1: every every failure was my best opportunity. It seems as

878
01:03:00,360 --> 01:03:05,520
Speaker 1: I look back on life for for improvement, for to

879
01:03:05,640 --> 01:03:08,680
Speaker 1: grow and to develop, and to reach out to other

880
01:03:08,760 --> 01:03:12,800
Speaker 1: people and say, I really need your help here again,

881
01:03:13,040 --> 01:03:15,680
Speaker 1: I'm a boss's son who's over his head and I

882
01:03:15,800 --> 01:03:19,160
Speaker 1: need your help. I love. I love that approach. So

883
01:03:19,360 --> 01:03:24,160
Speaker 1: outside of work, what do you do for fun? Well,

884
01:03:25,040 --> 01:03:33,800
Speaker 1: Studying people is a delight for me. Everybody is one

885
01:03:33,840 --> 01:03:38,200
Speaker 1: of a kind, and I get a kick out of

886
01:03:38,320 --> 01:03:44,280
Speaker 1: getting acquainted with somebody on a ten second elevator ruck. There.

887
01:03:44,320 --> 01:03:48,960
Speaker 1: People are fascinating and if there's a way for me

888
01:03:49,040 --> 01:03:53,760
Speaker 1: to make a connection with them that says you're special,

889
01:03:55,320 --> 01:03:58,680
Speaker 1: I am blessed if I make that connection. Now, I

890
01:03:59,000 --> 01:04:05,640
Speaker 1: enjoy I enjoy physical activity, so I work out regularly.

891
01:04:06,240 --> 01:04:09,440
Speaker 1: I enjoy being outside. The turners came from the farm.

892
01:04:09,560 --> 01:04:13,640
Speaker 1: I like getting out on the land. I like just

893
01:04:13,880 --> 01:04:18,360
Speaker 1: seeing whatever is going on out there in God's creation. Um,

894
01:04:18,520 --> 01:04:23,600
Speaker 1: I've I've played tennis, I've played golf, I've I've done skiing,

895
01:04:24,360 --> 01:04:29,680
Speaker 1: water and snow. All of these things I enjoy. But

896
01:04:30,040 --> 01:04:35,560
Speaker 1: it is the activity that connects me with others that

897
01:04:35,560 --> 01:04:39,400
Speaker 1: that is fulfilling. And life gives a lot of opportunity

898
01:04:39,880 --> 01:04:42,880
Speaker 1: to be in partnership with other people. I am not

899
01:04:43,000 --> 01:04:46,560
Speaker 1: surprised about that answer from you. That is pretty much

900
01:04:46,600 --> 01:04:50,400
Speaker 1: exactly what I imagined you were quite revealing in the book.

901
01:04:50,440 --> 01:04:52,640
Speaker 1: You know, it's why why didn't you just go on

902
01:04:52,720 --> 01:04:56,120
Speaker 1: and answer the question? Because sometimes I don't know, but

903
01:04:56,480 --> 01:05:00,200
Speaker 1: I kinda I kind of read that into you. Um.

904
01:05:00,240 --> 01:05:04,280
Speaker 1: So if a recent college graduate came to you and said,

905
01:05:04,440 --> 01:05:07,800
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about a career in retail, what sort of advice,

906
01:05:08,120 --> 01:05:11,440
Speaker 1: what sort of career advice would you give them? Well,

907
01:05:11,480 --> 01:05:15,800
Speaker 1: I don't have any pet advice to give anybody. Um.

908
01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:19,280
Speaker 1: I like to get inside of the person and and

909
01:05:19,400 --> 01:05:23,120
Speaker 1: figure out what turns that person on, what turns that

910
01:05:23,240 --> 01:05:27,560
Speaker 1: person off? And let's let's talk about that and and

911
01:05:27,800 --> 01:05:31,439
Speaker 1: how much of a turn on might retailing be for you?

912
01:05:31,560 --> 01:05:34,360
Speaker 1: How much of a turnoff might it be? Are you

913
01:05:34,440 --> 01:05:39,240
Speaker 1: a people person? Um? You mind hard work? How about

914
01:05:39,320 --> 01:05:43,840
Speaker 1: long hours. What do you think about that? Can you

915
01:05:43,920 --> 01:05:47,919
Speaker 1: have enough fun in retailing that you'll enjoy the long

916
01:05:48,000 --> 01:05:51,800
Speaker 1: hours and the hard work, because that's what it is.

917
01:05:51,840 --> 01:05:55,120
Speaker 1: We found in recruiting employees to our store where we

918
01:05:55,160 --> 01:05:59,200
Speaker 1: could often find the best employees by talking people out

919
01:05:59,240 --> 01:06:02,400
Speaker 1: of coming to work for us, meaning you don't want

920
01:06:02,400 --> 01:06:04,440
Speaker 1: to work here is let me let me, let me

921
01:06:04,520 --> 01:06:07,080
Speaker 1: tell you what's Let me tell you what's what's hard

922
01:06:07,160 --> 01:06:10,400
Speaker 1: about this job you're applying for. You have to work

923
01:06:10,440 --> 01:06:13,920
Speaker 1: a long hours, You get the merchandise straight and the

924
01:06:14,040 --> 01:06:18,600
Speaker 1: customer messes it up and you have to straighten it again. However,

925
01:06:19,360 --> 01:06:23,520
Speaker 1: if you want to be a part of this company

926
01:06:24,760 --> 01:06:28,280
Speaker 1: where we give a better life to struggling people, you

927
01:06:28,320 --> 01:06:32,560
Speaker 1: can feel good about the hard work you do. And

928
01:06:32,600 --> 01:06:35,920
Speaker 1: then some people would be honest enough to say to themselves,

929
01:06:36,040 --> 01:06:38,600
Speaker 1: I don't want to work that hard. Well, they're they're

930
01:06:38,640 --> 01:06:42,240
Speaker 1: not a candidate for dollar General. If that be the case,

931
01:06:43,360 --> 01:06:46,800
Speaker 1: that that seems to work. Was it that you know

932
01:06:47,000 --> 01:06:51,320
Speaker 1: today about retelling that you wish you knew thirty seven

933
01:06:51,400 --> 01:06:55,400
Speaker 1: years ago or so when you were first getting into

934
01:06:55,440 --> 01:06:59,000
Speaker 1: the business of managing a fast growing retailer. I can't

935
01:06:59,040 --> 01:07:03,320
Speaker 1: give you a good aunt her because I'm glad I

936
01:07:03,360 --> 01:07:06,360
Speaker 1: didn't know much about retailing when I went into it,

937
01:07:07,840 --> 01:07:11,760
Speaker 1: because I knew I needed to get others to help

938
01:07:11,760 --> 01:07:16,440
Speaker 1: me learn and we could learn together. So retailing is

939
01:07:17,120 --> 01:07:21,640
Speaker 1: a dynamic that you have to be figuring out together

940
01:07:21,800 --> 01:07:26,640
Speaker 1: all the time. I love that answer. That's terrific. We

941
01:07:26,760 --> 01:07:30,880
Speaker 1: have been speaking with Cal Turner Jr. He was the

942
01:07:30,920 --> 01:07:35,360
Speaker 1: CEO of Dollar General and his new book is out

943
01:07:35,480 --> 01:07:39,920
Speaker 1: and it's titled My Father's Business, The small town Values

944
01:07:39,960 --> 01:07:44,080
Speaker 1: that built Dollar General into a billion dollar company. We

945
01:07:44,200 --> 01:07:48,320
Speaker 1: love your comments, feedback and suggestions right to us at

946
01:07:48,920 --> 01:07:52,840
Speaker 1: m IB podcast at Bloomberg dot net. If you enjoy

947
01:07:52,920 --> 01:07:55,400
Speaker 1: this conversation well, then be sure to check out the

948
01:07:55,440 --> 01:07:59,080
Speaker 1: two hundred or so other such conversations we've had previously.

949
01:07:59,400 --> 01:08:01,400
Speaker 1: Just look up an Inch Down an Inch on Apple

950
01:08:01,480 --> 01:08:05,360
Speaker 1: iTunes or overcast or Bloomberg dot com and you can

951
01:08:05,400 --> 01:08:09,160
Speaker 1: see all the rest of the conversations we have had.

952
01:08:09,720 --> 01:08:11,840
Speaker 1: I would be remiss if I did not thank the

953
01:08:11,920 --> 01:08:15,680
Speaker 1: Cracks staff, my team that helps put together these podcasts

954
01:08:15,720 --> 01:08:20,800
Speaker 1: each week. Medina Partwana is our audio engineer slash producer.

955
01:08:21,520 --> 01:08:25,840
Speaker 1: Taylor Riggs is our booker slash producer. Michael bat Nick

956
01:08:26,000 --> 01:08:29,400
Speaker 1: is my head of research. I'm Barry Results. You've been

957
01:08:29,439 --> 01:08:32,559
Speaker 1: listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio