Tips for Store Leaders by Stan Phelps

Empower your team by granting them decision-making authority. When employees have ownership, they contribute innovative ideas and take pride in their work.

Command and Control or Carrot and Stick thinking is outdated. Employees do not enjoy or appreciate being controlled or coerced.

The best managers figure out how to get great outcomes by setting the appropriate context rather than by trying to control their people.

According to Ken and Scott Blanchard, “We are finding that giving people a chance to succeed in their job and setting them free to a certain degree is the key to motivation, as opposed to trying to direct and control people’s energy. It’s really about letting go and connecting people to their work—and each other—rather than channeling, organizing, orchestrating, and focusing behavior.”

Tip: Encourage employees to take initiative and trust their judgment.

Tips for Store Leaders

Foster trust by openly sharing company updates and decisions with employees.

Informed employees are more engaged and committed to store goals.

Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies touched on trust in his bestselling book, Employees First, Customers Second. In the book, he outlined three ways that transparency builds trust:

1. Transparency ensures that every stakeholder knows the company’s vision and understands how their contribution assists the organization in achieving its goals. Working in an environment without transparency is like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle without knowing what the finished picture is supposed to look like.
2. It ensures that every stakeholder has a deep personal commitment to the aims of the organization.
3. Gen Y expects transparency as a given. They post their life stories in public domains; they expect nothing less in their workplaces.

Tip: Holds monthly business update meetings. Share financials with all employees in the spirit of transparency. Prioritize transparent communication to build a cohesive and trusting work environment.

With the end of the legislative session and an election year around the corner, now is the perfect time to regroup and reset agendas ahead of the new year. Join us in Los Angeles on November 9 for the CGA In-Person GR Day as we sum up 2023’s trends, update you on priority policies, and plot the path ahead.

In the morning, we’ll review the 2023 legislative year and takeaways going into the new year. Then, we’ll discuss labor’s impact at the Capitol and project possible mandates on the horizon for employers. We’ll then switch gears to discuss the pending rewrite of the carryout bag state law, and dissect environmental issues including CRV, recycling, and packaging.

Following lunch and a public affairs update, we’ll have the opportunity to meet and greet with 2024 candidates. After, we’ll tackle retail theft and employee safety and chart strategic next steps in the theft and safety arena. Finally, we’ll explore the bipartisan California Problem Solvers Caucus.

Location + Accommodations

The CGA In-Person GR Day will begin with breakfast at 8:30 a.m., followed by our program from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the historic Coca-Cola Bottling Company, located in Downtown Los Angeles.

Coca-Cola Bottling Company
1334 S Central Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90021

We recommend reserving accommodations at the Sheraton Grand Los Angeles.

Sheraton Grand Los Angeles
711 South Hope Street 
Los Angeles, CA, 9001

In late September the California Grocers Association hosted the Golden State’s grocery industry for its annual convention in Palm Springs. The Strategic Conference is where California’s grocery community comes together to make lasting connections and get inspired. We hope all who attended came away from our event with stronger industry bonds and new business leads.

This year we uncovered the grocery industry’s shifting priorities and explored fresh solutions and emerging opportunities for businesses, with help from our inspiring lineup of speakers and moderators.

On Sunday afternoon in partnership with Navigator Lighthouse Foundation, CGA hosted its second Emerging Brands Pitch Contest, where up-and-coming CPG contestants made connections with retail leaders for a chance to grow their business in California. Our event officially opened with a thought-provoking presentation by chef and Social Impact Entrepreneur Mark Brand who inspired attendees with his journey to building business beyond the bottom line. The Opening Experience flowed right into a lively reception where attendees had the opportunity to make connections with top retail executives in attendance.

Monday morning rolled around, and CGA President Ron Fong, Chair Dennis Darling, and Headline of The Illuminators Greg Siegel took the stage for their opening remarks to reflect on the Association’s 125 year anniversary and longstanding partnership with The Illuminators. Afterwards, we were joined by state legislators Senator Rosalicie Ochoa Bough and Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco for a fireside chat with CGA Board Member Michel LeClerc on the latest legislative happenings and hot topics like retail theft. General Session Keynote speaker Rohit Bhargava taught the audience the top five habits of non-obvious thinkers to help you see opportunities that others miss, and practice resilience.

The rest of the day consisted hundreds of pre-scheduled business meetings, plus the Enterprise Risk Protection Executive Summit and the Independent Operators Forum, featuring IGA President John Ross. Attendees unwound from the day at the Illuminators hosted happy hour. Retail expert Michael Klein helped us kick off Tuesday morning with a presentation on keeping up with shifting consumer behaviors. Then, grocery veteran Tom Furphy joined Klein onstage for a fireside chat to give his take on digital, customer-centricity, and other disruptions. Busy business meetings resumed and our final conference speaker left the audience with plenty of laughs. Comedian and entrepreneur Dena Blizzard delivered her stand up routine with relatable tales of motherhood, entrepreneurship, and her own evolving relationship with the grocery store through different phases of her life.

With the Strategic Conference in the rear view, we hope you feel more connected than ever to California’s grocery community and equipped to take on shifting priorities and new opportunities on the horizon. To all of our speakers, sponsors, partners, and attendees, thank you for contributing to the success of this year’s conference. View photos from the event below.

Mark your calendars for next year’s Strategic Conference on September 29 — October 1, 2024 in Palm Springs!

Tips for Store Leaders

1. Recognition
Want to boost employee morale? Do it by celebrating small achievements with a heartfelt “thank you” note or public acknowledgment.

TAKE NOTE: THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE

A research study confirmed that the cost of recognition awards has only minimal impact on employee perception of appreciation. Fifty-seven percent reported that the most meaningful recognition was free. Just look at some of these quotes to judge the impact:

“I received a handwritten thank you in the mail from my manager. I smiled like an idiot.” – Bill A.

Tip: Regularly recognize your team’s efforts to show appreciation for their hard work and dedication.

The California Grocers Association and CGA Educational Foundation were thrilled to bring back our popular store leader training seminars to both Northern and Southern California this year. Store leaders from across the state— representing over two dozen grocery retailers— joined us for two day-long training seminars in Costa Mesa and Walnut Creek packed with informative speaker sessions and interactive exercises for store directors, assistant directors, and department managers.

Our training seminars were designed to give store leaders an opportunity to refine their leadership skills and further their professional development. Leaders had the opportunity to collaborate with one another and share ideas and best practices with the group. 

The event was book-ended by author and speaker Stan Phelps who inspired attendees to drive employee engagement by incorporating team building, recognition, and empowerment into their management practices.

Instructors from the WAFC Retail Management Certificate program gave attendees a taste of the curriculum with sessions on the principles of retail management, including marketing, merchandising, and customer service.

Finally, Christopher P. Norris from Wicklander- Zulawski & Associates, led a practical session on deescalation and conflict management to help store leaders peacefully resolve disputes, manage unwanted patron behavior, and maintain safe and profitable operations.

After a full day of training, leaders came away with newfound inspiration and tools to bring back to their staff. View photos from the event below.

Thank you to our sponsors for supporting our seminars!

• Certified Federal Credit Union

• UNFI

• RMS

• C&S Wholesale

• TruGrocer Credit Union

• PepsiCo

The California Grocers Association is ecstatic to announce CGA Radio, our new podcast for grocery and food industry professionals. Together, we’ll explore the people, ideas, and brands shaping California’s grocery community. 

Season 1 introduces listeners to “people you should meet” in the food and grocery business. Our insightful guests lend us their perspective on compelling topics from education to food insecurity, store design, organics, and solving hunger.

Tune into CGA Radio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Android. Subscribe to be notified of new episodes and leave us a rating if you enjoyed!

Thank you to our Season 1 sponsor of CGA Radio:

First-Ever Food Industry Economic Forecast

As the direction of the economy — everything from interest rates and real estate to inflation — continues to garner headlines, it felt like an apt time to gather Southern California’s grocery community for a mid-summer check-in. The first-ever California Grocers Association Food Industry Economic Forecast took place at the GRAMMY Museum in downtown Los Angeles and brought together industry leaders to zero in on macroeconomic factors, such as the supply chain, labor pool, consumer financial health, and opportunities in technology.

In collaboration with The Illuminators, the Food Industry Economic Forecast also served as the front-end of CGA’s strategic planning meeting, which took place the following day and aimed to inspire the organization’s agenda for the next handful of years.

The forecast event paired presentations from Dr. Chris Thornberg and John S. Phillips. Thornberg is the founder of Beacon Economics, a research company which consults with private industry, cities, counties, and public agencies to create economic studies. Phillips is the SVP of Customer Supply Chain and Go-to-Market at PepsiCo.

The PepsiCo executive kicked off the event with an hourlong report on the supply chain and innovation opportunities in the food and beverage industry. His presentation drew plaudits from attendees, especially for its information about smart labels, QR code utilization, and automation. In a world where both consumers and regulators have an insatiable appetite for understanding what’s in food and beverage products and why, smart labels empowered by QR code technology offer the ability for product information to be unconstrained by physical packaging space. Similarly, new advances in automation offers the potential for production to be unbound by human capital.

This last note is important, and it is a central argument in Dr. Thornberg’s work. By the esteemed economist’s thinking labor challenges are not unique to the food industry, and in California, are the product of the persistent housing shortage and demographics. Similar to Phillips, Thornberg believes every business should be pursuing an automation strategy.

Outside of technology and automation, the economist ran through a high volume of key economic indicators, all utilized to illustrate his main contention of the day: The media narratives that focus on the looming recession are misaligned with the data. Instead, data around consumer savings and spending across many discretionary categories leads to a much rosier picture. In fact, the greatest danger to consumers is the doom-loop, recessionary narrative becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

With plenty of food for thought to digest, the forecast was followed by an industry mixer where supplier and wholesale executives had the chance to mix and mingle with some of the region’s sharpest grocery retailers. Thank you to everyone who attended, and to our sponsors RMS and FMS. We hope to see you again at one of the Association’s other events this summer or fall.