Super Market
Defying the trend of chain megastores, independently owned Peppers grocery in Deming does well by doing right.
Story and photos by Marjorie Lilly
It may be a hard thing to measure, but there really seem to be more smiles per cubic foot at Peppers Supermarket in Deming than in other supermarkets and big chain stores.
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Peppers managing partner Mark Schultze, right, takes a turn at bringing
grocery carts in from the parking lot. |
You see high-school-age baggers leaning into a conversation with the bag carriers. Cashiers talk to baggers and customers talk to cashiers. There is a relaxed camaraderie and sense of fun that you don't find in many other stores.
With an exceptionally open-handed policy toward employees, customers and the community, Peppers is a model of what enlightened management can do.
And with a very large chain retail store (whose name begins with W) breathing down its neck, locally owned Peppers still stands, even though two other supermarkets were knocked out of commission soon after the behemoth's arrival in Deming. According to industry publication Progressive Grocer, less than 10 percent of grocery-stores sales nationwide come from independently owned supermarkets.
In what seems a carefully understated remark, store director Kevin Ferraro says, "I would say we're doing very well."
In turn, Peppers is generous toward its employees. "The pay is very competitive for the Deming area—very competitive," says manager Jonathan Delgado. Management is also flexible in terms of hours worked. When check-out clerk Jackie Jones' husband had heart surgery awhile ago, there was no problem getting a few days off, she says. When family members are sick, staff helps out, and the store provides food plates for funerals.
Last but hardly least, Peppers' staff has fun: Workers dress up in outrageous costumes on Halloween for prizes, and lots of snapshots are taken. There is a Pajama Day, and they wear Santa hats at Christmas. Manager Silas Wilson is the semi-official singer for birthdays.
Managing partner Mark Schultze sits in his windowless office upstairs at the supermarket. What you notice right away in his office is a list called "7 Core Ideologies" written in white on a black dry-erase board. Number 1 on the list is "Be people builders." Number 2 is "Everybody that walks through our doors leaves happy." Product quality is only in third place. Number 4 is "Make work fun and enjoyable."
It is clear that Schultze—or Mark, as he is known by all—puts the well-being of his employees as his first priority. "Part of the thing that makes it work, is that you've got to have a good work environment," he says. "It starts with our staff."
In fact, this is the "Mission statement" posted in the office downstairs:
"Peppers wants to be a store where customers enjoy shopping and staff enjoys working. Remember: You cannot have the first without the second."
I worked a few years back at a local chile processing plant that employs mostly Mexicans. The mission statement there, over a hundred words long and engraved on a metal plaque in an office, contains not a single word about employee satisfaction or safety. The Peppers statement is really a breath of fresh air.
Promoting the community has been another priority at Peppers since early on. The store opened its doors in 1996, and a couple of years after it had gotten established, the first community project was for managers and staff to volunteer to be runners for the local senior center's Meals on Wheels program. They found before too long, however, that the store's managers were too busy to be regular volunteers.
But they found another way to give back to the community with a project called, appropriately enough, "Giving Back to the Community." Local schools, churches and civic organizations collect Peppers receipts and then Peppers writes out checks to them for one percent of the total. This program distributes thousands of dollars each year to Deming nonprofits.
In another project, Peppers gives 50-percent discounts to organizations buying food for events that benefit the community. There are few enchilada suppers or fundraising banquets in Deming that don't rely on Peppers' assistance, enabling them to buy their ingredients at half price. The store also helps out with a Christmas dinner in Palomas. Even Pizza Hut got the discount when it sponsored a picnic for the National Guard after they arrived on the border last summer.
A Christmas program called Gifts of Light, set into motion in 2000, was the brainchild of store manager Paul Sanchez. Customers can donate as little as a dollar at the check-out counter, and Peppers matches the total. Each dollar gets represented by a luminaria, which are collectively set out in long lines in the large parking lot a few days before Christmas. Peppers then sponsors a holiday party outside with a DJ, a Santa, free hot chocolate and the soft glow of thousands of lights.
Gifts of Light started out the first year getting about $1,000 in donations and has grown each year to receive $3,500 as of last Christmas. At first the money purchased Christmas meals for indigent people in Deming, and now half the donations go to the local animal shelter.
Sanchez says that the three co-owners of Peppers "care so much about the community. They're really community-oriented."
It's a little disconcerting talking to Mark Schultze, because this man who gives so liberally to the community doesn't talk at all about the poverty in Deming. There are no anecdotes about the misfortunes of homeless people or farmworkers and how he feels their pain. He doesn't talk about Luna County having the highest unemployment rate in the state. Kevin Ferraro, who works closely with Schultze, confirms this observation.
I ask Schultze if he got his ideals from someone at the business department at New Mexico State University, where he got his degree. But he says no. He mentions books he drew on, such as Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by James Collins and Jerry Porras, which inspired his mission statement. I ask him if he is religious, and he says, "I hope so—yes." He is apparently simply an ethical man, with scarcely a trace of ideology.
Peppers Supermarket was originally just a business proposition for Schultze and the two other Deming natives who invested in the supermarket, Rick Patterson and Mike Hofacket. Schultze did commercial insurance and investment banking in Phoenix before returning to Deming to start Peppers.
He is well aware of the mortality rate of independently owned, small supermarkets. "We're a dinosaur, basically," he remarks. But the word "competition" hardly enters into his conversation. "All I worry about is what happens between these four walls," he says, looking me straight in the eye. I'm told he doesn't send staff members to spy out the competition.
"Someone said to me, 'You can't control what others do—you can only control what you do,'" he adds, with his tendency to spout maxims and quote business writers.
Does he use the typical "indie" competitive strategy of creating a niche market? There doesn't seem to be any opportunity for that in a small town like Deming. Does he have a higher standard of customer service to attract customers? "Service is something we always offer, and will continue to offer," he says. "You do the things that are right and continue doing them."
Service is obviously in Schultze's mind and heart. He shakes the hands of customers with a big grin, chats with an elderly lady at the check-out counter and unloads her cart, and personally brings carts in from the parking lot. And store policy reflects this preoccupation.
Jonathan Delgado lists the free services Peppers provides customers: "They don't charge any service fee to cash checks. They have a free delivery program to customers who are elderly or shut-ins. They take returns with no questions asked, without having to show the receipt. With the carry-out people, that's their job, they don't have to ask."
Customers express their appreciation. "I like the way people do the old-school thing where they walk you to your car," says one young man with a family. "There are friendly faces everywhere, and they're quick," says a young woman. An old Mexican man adds, "They have good sales."
Usually a reporter looks for a negative counterpoint or cross-current of opinion to develop in a story for the sake of balance. But no employee or customer I interview is less than effusive, or at least positive, about the place or the man, Mark Schultze.
To Kevin Ferraro, Peppers' community-oriented policies revolve around the strong leadership of Schultze. "Mark would help anybody, and that's how he runs his store."
Schultze in turn credits the 128 people working for him. "I've got great people working for me," he says. "It's just fantastic."
Marjorie Lilly, who lives in Deming, writes the Borderlines column.