WEBVTT - Stew Leonard on Grocery Store Space (Audio)

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<v Speaker 1>You're listening to taking Start with Kathleen Hayes and Pim

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<v Speaker 1>Box on Bloomberg Radio. Do you know any retail operation,

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<v Speaker 1>Kathleen that happens to be in the Guinness Book of

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<v Speaker 1>World Records? Well, I do you do? Yes. Stu Leonards

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<v Speaker 1>is in the Guinness Book of World Records that when

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<v Speaker 1>I believe it was, and it had to do with

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<v Speaker 1>having the greatest sales per unit area of any single

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<v Speaker 1>food store in the United States. And here to tell

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<v Speaker 1>us more is Stu Leonard. He is the chief executive

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<v Speaker 1>of Stu Leonards Fresh Food Store and you can of

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<v Speaker 1>course follow him on Twitter at Stu Leonard. Stu Leonard,

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<v Speaker 1>thanks for being here. I love it. It's great being

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<v Speaker 1>with you guys. Tell us about stulet give people the

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<v Speaker 1>sort of thirty second second. Grandfather started delivering milk in twenties.

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<v Speaker 1>My father started retail and built a dairy plant where

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<v Speaker 1>you could watch the milk being bottle. We got it

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<v Speaker 1>all from local farms, and then we added fish meat produce.

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<v Speaker 1>Now we have a big farmer's mark, get it. We

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<v Speaker 1>have five stores around the New York area. UM people

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<v Speaker 1>work for us, UM and UM and we just have fun.

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<v Speaker 1>We sell all fresh, local good food in the store.

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<v Speaker 1>Tell us how that fun part evolved. You know, as

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<v Speaker 1>Pim has noted. New York Times called you the disney

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<v Speaker 1>Landed dairy stores. Are colleague Courtney Donahoe, who loves your

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<v Speaker 1>store hus for years. It looks like a Kia. It's

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<v Speaker 1>just so cool. Describe for our listeners who have never

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<v Speaker 1>been to Stud Leonards what that element is, where it

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<v Speaker 1>came from, what we did. We just had this thing.

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<v Speaker 1>We want to make it fun for families to come

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<v Speaker 1>and shop, and it's sort of InVogue today. But my dad,

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<v Speaker 1>when we were growing up, we used to go to

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<v Speaker 1>Disney in Las Vegas all the time, so it's all

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<v Speaker 1>theatrics and shows. So we tried to bring a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit back to Stud Leonards. So the New York Times

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<v Speaker 1>called is a disney Landed dairy stores once. So we

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<v Speaker 1>try to make it fun. There's animation, and you smile

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<v Speaker 1>and dance when you walk around the store. How can

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<v Speaker 1>you're not smile and dance when you've got a cow,

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<v Speaker 1>uh not a real well, sometimes a cow walking around

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<v Speaker 1>the aisles. It walks around and you can push a

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<v Speaker 1>button here move tell us about the business because I

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<v Speaker 1>know what you're doing maybe about half a billion here

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<v Speaker 1>in sales, and you carry many fewer items than the

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<v Speaker 1>competing grocery store chains. Why is that. Well, one of

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<v Speaker 1>the things we we we just sell the best sellers

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<v Speaker 1>and we're mainly fresh. So if you take the middle

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<v Speaker 1>out of a grocery store and just look at the

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<v Speaker 1>perimeter walls of the meat, fish produced cheese deli, that's

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<v Speaker 1>our main items at stew Letters. So we have two

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<v Speaker 1>thousand items compared to your normal supermarket that might have fifty.

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<v Speaker 1>That's quite a quite a big difference. I want to

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<v Speaker 1>ask you now about something that is maybe more serious side.

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<v Speaker 1>But I'm sure when we talked about smiles on people's faces,

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<v Speaker 1>it has to do with putting smiles on your workers faces.

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<v Speaker 1>And that how has to do with your your health program.

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<v Speaker 1>You've gotten a head start, you've got in store health screenings,

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<v Speaker 1>you've got all kinds of things, and you've been able

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<v Speaker 1>to show excellent results results. Tell us about that. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>one of the things we did was we we um

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<v Speaker 1>we went and we were one of the top one

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<v Speaker 1>companies you know, Fortune magazine rated in in America to

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<v Speaker 1>work at. So we did that for ten years in

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<v Speaker 1>a row. Then we decided we want to be one

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<v Speaker 1>of the best healthcare companies. So we put a big

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<v Speaker 1>initiative on healthcare. And so what we did everybody free physicals.

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<v Speaker 1>We give everybody thousand dollars to go get a physical

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<v Speaker 1>because what we want to do is have you get

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<v Speaker 1>a dashboard to find out what your blood pressure is,

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<v Speaker 1>your sugar level for diabetes, do you need lipatore, any drugs.

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<v Speaker 1>So what we've done is be able to get our people.

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<v Speaker 1>We had twenty two percent of our population that went

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<v Speaker 1>to the doctors. Now it's almost ninety so almost everybody

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<v Speaker 1>he's getting a physical now every year. And then we

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<v Speaker 1>add some of the programs you mentioned, which is, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>ways to reduce stress, ways to control your weight, stop smoking,

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<v Speaker 1>um and and all sorts of programs to try to

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<v Speaker 1>help you get healthier. Well, I noticed that you're wearing

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<v Speaker 1>a fitbit. Yeah, we've got a fit Bit challenge in

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<v Speaker 1>the stores, that's right. Yeah, we we gave out three

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<v Speaker 1>hundred of these to everybody at at St. Leonards, and

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<v Speaker 1>you know, we have it where they can come into

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<v Speaker 1>program and get into contest. And today I gotta get

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<v Speaker 1>my ten thousand steps in and I'm way behind because

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<v Speaker 1>I'm sitting here. You can run up and down some

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<v Speaker 1>of those stairs here at Blue they've got many floors topid.

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<v Speaker 1>What kind of healthcare plan do you offer to your employees.

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<v Speaker 1>I think there's you know, as the as big companies

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<v Speaker 1>are dropping out of the the Obamacare exchanges is people

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<v Speaker 1>have their kids growing up and maybe they got to

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<v Speaker 1>buy insurance. People are beating to see it's it's not

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<v Speaker 1>such a great deal necessarily for everybody was cracked up

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<v Speaker 1>to be. One of the things we've been able to

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<v Speaker 1>do over the last you know, five six years, is

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<v Speaker 1>we have not had an increase in our healthcare costs.

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<v Speaker 1>We've been able to control it. And one of the

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<v Speaker 1>things we're doing is we're creating these value centers at

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<v Speaker 1>the store. So if you need as an example, says,

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<v Speaker 1>I had to get my rotator cuff shoulder surgery. I

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<v Speaker 1>went around was twelve thousand dollars to get it at

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<v Speaker 1>the local hospital, and I found I could go to

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<v Speaker 1>one of these you know, physician clinics and it was

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<v Speaker 1>only gonna be Now we're able to offer if one

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<v Speaker 1>of our team members it stews gets will give them

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<v Speaker 1>like to bonus for doing that, So we're incentivizing everybody

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<v Speaker 1>to shop healthcare. Next time you go to the doctor,

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<v Speaker 1>ask them how much that procedure costs, and of the

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<v Speaker 1>time they have no idea. It's like we're buying food.

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<v Speaker 1>You know how much a Porterhouse steak costs or lobster

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<v Speaker 1>right now, but you won't know how much healthcare costs.

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<v Speaker 1>So we're educating our population of people at Stews on

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<v Speaker 1>costs to get these procedures done, and it's helped us

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<v Speaker 1>lower our costs. Last point to you, because we gotta run.

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<v Speaker 1>You're still doing the free ice cream. As a matter

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<v Speaker 1>of fact, I gave you my business card. Look on

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<v Speaker 1>the back of it. You'll see you can come into Stews. Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>you get a free ice cream cone. Pim, you spend

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<v Speaker 1>a hundred dollars to get a free cone. Favor you'll

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<v Speaker 1>get not only any flavor, will bring you back and

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<v Speaker 1>let you make your own con St. Leonard and he's

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<v Speaker 1>going to wear the cow outfit too. He's the CEO

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<v Speaker 1>of Stu Leonards, a fresh food store. We thank him

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<v Speaker 1>so much for joining us in studio today. I'm Kathleen

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<v Speaker 1>Hayes along with Pim Fox taking stock this is Boomberg,