Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Dr. Sarah: Hello and welcome to the Dr. Random podcast. I'm Dr. Sarah and today I am super stoked because I have Jim Dorie and Jim is the Mr. Dory. He is the President and COO of Inserra Supermarkets. That's correct, yes. And it's a family owned, sounds like of the Wake.
Wake Fern Food Corporation. Is that correct? Information, yes or no?
[00:00:33] Jim Dorey: Wake Fern is a cooperative. There's about 40 different families that operate supermarkets. So Sarah is one of those families. And we operate roughly 30 supermarkets in the New Jersey and New York area.
[00:00:46] Dr. Sarah: Okay.
Yeah. And so Jim, basically the stores. Yeah, Northern New Jersey and Rockland County, N.Y. and. And the key background, we'll kind of let you, if you kind of want to dive into, you know, introduce yourself to everybody and kind of like in the intro.
[00:01:07] Jim Dorey: Appreciate it. Yeah, I'm real excited to be on the show with you and I appreciate the invite and admire the work that you do. You know, we're talking earlier, a lot of people talk about starting a podcast, but to do it and create it and build momentum as you are, is saying a lot. So congrats on that.
Yeah, you're welcome. So in this current role, I've been in the supermarket business for just over 20 years.
I started with the Wake Fern Food Corp, which is, like I said, it's a cooperative. So it's a bunch of families working together. And Collectively we run 350 supermarkets, mostly, you know, in the mid Atlantic.
So through a bunch of different positions, I grew to eventually be the president of PriceRight Marketplace, which is a subsidiary.
Roughly, it was roughly 60 stores at the time that was owned by Wake Fern. And then just about five years ago, I came over to work for the Inserra family. And yeah, we're fortunate. The family's been in the business for almost 75 years. And, you know, very community based. You know, we have roughly, probably 4,500 associates within all of our stores. And it's a really hard work and dedicated team.
You know, it's pretty crazy. The family started. Their grandmother was a butcher with a little corner store in northern New Jersey. And from that they've now grown to, you know, 30 supermarkets and all the associates. And it's just a really cool business to be in. And as much as things change, things stay the same as well.
[00:02:35] Dr. Sarah: Yes.
And that's one thing I love.
I'm so excited to have you is because. And everybody's probably gonna laugh at me, but like, I love grocery shopping, so I love to cook. It's one of my favorite things to do. So I love, like, kind of planning out recipes and cooking and going into the store and getting all the ingredients and, I don't know, it's fun. And so. And I think sometimes we take for granted, like, having grocery stores and access. Cause you think, like, what's something we do all the time that maybe we don't really think about? So what you're doing and everything you do is, like, really crucial. It's important.
[00:03:11] Jim Dorey: So, yeah, listen, it's so funny because you think about as simple as it is, you know, corner markets and supermarkets and corner stores have been around forever, in America at least, and just grew into what they are today. But you go back to Covid, and when everything stopped, you know, our team was still running stores. They were going to work every day when everybody was home. And all of a sudden, they became heroes and critical workers. And, you know, while everyone was able to, you know, stay nestled up in their houses, this team was showing up every day, filling the shelves, taking care of business.
And that's when you realize how critical the business is. And I think even more so, like, in our model, we become so embedded in the communities that we serve. So we often are. The first job that a teenage kid might get is coming into an Ensera supermarket, and then they're learning life skills, and many of them stay with us. You know, we have associates that started, you know, pushing carts or ringing a register, and then 40 and 50 years later, they're still with the family, you know, so that speaks a lot to it. But just also the fundraisers that we do for so many different charities, and just about every organization that comes to our door that's based in the communities we serve, the answer usually is, yes, we can help.
And then obviously, just feeding families and given good options, and it's a cool business. As much as the world goes up and down, the economy goes up and down. And even in the. Even as things like Instacart and doordash and Uber have all grown, people still come to the store. You know, more than 80, 85 of the business happens in the store.
[00:04:46] Dr. Sarah: Yeah, that's awesome. And yes, that's everything you just mentioned. I love it because it's like kind of the history of being an American, how we start businesses and how you said they been around for 75 years.
And, you know, I know we were kind of talking about this before, but my first job was I was a deli girl and I worked for a market. Now, I don't know if people know this more on the east coast, but on the west coast there's a town kind of has a bad rap. But that's why I joke that like, you know, there's a lot of Italians in Stockton, California. And so I grew up actually in Stockton, California. It kind of has a bad rep, but there's a lot of agriculture and farming in Stockton. A lot of them are Italian farmers and there's dairy farmers. And so when I think of like how you're talking, you know, about the market, how long they've been around and like, so the one I worked for was called Podestos and they had an Italian deli and that was my first job. So I used to make this Italian sandwiches. And I swear I can make a mean sandwich now. Like everybody always asks me, can you make our sandwich?
[00:05:49] Jim Dorey: That's great.
And to your point, the farmers, I mean, there's so many still family farms going on that it's, it's pretty amazing. And we'll make partnerships with like in New Jersey, you know, we're called the Garden State, but you don't think of it as farms. But there's one local farmer that grows product specifically for our stores that we work hand in hand with them and you know, we'll take our team down to their farm and show them that, you know, say, hey, you know, you call me for corn, I'm picking it today, it's in your store tomorrow. So it's just so much credit to the farmers, you know, that have built America, that are continue to do it because it is hard work. And yeah, I've been out to some of the California fields and you, you see like, yeah, I went on a trip and you think it's like common knowledge when you're doing it for this long. But yeah, it was one of the lettuce farms and you know, they were literally cutting the lettuce as they were walking behind a tractor. The lettuce was getting handed, being rinsed, packaged, put into cases and built in pallets as they're walking through the field and then ended up in a store. I mean, it's just pretty remarkable all the effort that goes into it. So to your point, the country is, is built on it for sure.
[00:06:57] Dr. Sarah: Yeah. And what crop is that? Do you mind if I ask that you work with directly?
[00:07:02] Jim Dorey: So in New Jersey it's called Amos Farm, which they're third and fourth generation and you know, it's congested and built up as New Jersey is. There's still a place where, you know, they have like 5600 acres. And that, you know, it's. It's a family. And Jim and his family are out there working all day and night, you know, to bring produce. And yeah, we have obviously some tough seasons, so they have a compressed time to get all of that product.
[00:07:25] Dr. Sarah: Okay.
[00:07:26] Jim Dorey: Yeah. Pretty cool to see.
[00:07:28] Dr. Sarah: Yeah, that is cool. And yeah. And I also, there's, you know, I just. Yeah, I love all that. And to your point, like with, you know, you say how long. I guess I have some ancestry in New York, by the way. You're gonna.
[00:07:46] Jim Dorey: All right.
[00:07:46] Dr. Sarah: Guys are all gonna like shun me and be like. But like. Because I haven't been to New York yet.
[00:07:52] Jim Dorey: Oh, wow. Okay. Well, your ancestors probably want you there.
[00:07:56] Dr. Sarah: Yeah. And they found, I guess my ancestor found in Malta, New York.
[00:08:00] Jim Dorey: Oh, wow.
[00:08:03] Dr. Sarah: More, I guess considered what you guys call upper state.
[00:08:06] Jim Dorey: Yeah, upstate.
[00:08:07] Dr. Sarah: Yeah.
[00:08:07] Jim Dorey: Yeah.
[00:08:07] Dr. Sarah: Like, I guess it's like.
Yeah, I guess it's considered like a horse town or something.
[00:08:13] Jim Dorey: I don't know if your ancestors found it. I think you should at least make a visit there.
[00:08:17] Dr. Sarah: Oh yeah, yeah.
But yeah, so I think, you know, and I think I even saw recently I could have been wrong of social media post with one of the guys at shoprite from Jersey Shore. Did I? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:08:34] Jim Dorey: That was funny. So you know, we, we have all kind, I mean, shop rate, you know, for people who don't know is. Is a big supermarket. We'll have 60, 000 items in a typical store somewhere along that range. And you know, sometimes it'll be like we had Mariano Rivera, you know, that probably the greatest relief pitcher of all time for the Yankees. He's got a hot sauce. So we had him do appearances in a couple of our stores. But more recently there's this hamburger companies just slipping my, My, my head the name of it. But DJ Paulie D from Jersey Shore was somehow involved. So he made an appearance. It was, you know, working on a register. And the same company had Mike Tyson, you know, in the stores a couple weeks prior to that. So it's kind of fun. Like brands as they evolve, there's so many of them where, yeah, celebrities are getting involved in them and you know, kind of, I guess their, their investment is some of their time and making appearances like that. But that's, yeah, pretty funny to say.
[00:09:27] Dr. Sarah: Yeah.
And yeah, I love that. I mean it's so important now, you know, everybody, you know, like help and promote everything. But.
And, and just so the audience knows how Jim and I connected was through behind closed doors, which is like, I guess the connection Sweet Honey Farm with Devin Levesque. Sorry, Devin, if I'm saying your name wrong. Levesque. Levesque. Leve. Okay. I don't know. I feel bad. Devin, if you're listening, you can say
[00:09:58] Jim Dorey: the pro mix and rhythm guy. Everybody will know.
[00:10:00] Dr. Sarah: Yes, okay. Promix Rhythm, Devin.
But yeah, and it's a great group and it's just great to listen to everything. And that's how Jim and I connected through here. And I have a big interest because, you know, like I said, I love grocery shopping in grocery stores because I'm a big cook and I just find it unique and I wanted to kind of address that business on the podcast. So here we are.
[00:10:31] Jim Dorey: I'm glad I get help.
[00:10:33] Dr. Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. And let's kind of.
Is there anything else for like. I'm sure there is business itself, like over the years that maybe you'd want to share with the audience that maybe not the common person would know that you might want to share that maybe people don't think about with running and position for a grocery store chain.
[00:10:52] Jim Dorey: Yeah, it's funny, you know, as. As I said, as much as supermarkets and grocery has changed, like Amazon and Walmart weren't part of the competitive field even 10 years ago, 15 years ago in terms of being like supermarkets.
So it changes so much. But I think what a lot of people don't really realize is all that goes into it. So, like, Technology wise, like AI, obviously everybody's talking about AI today, AI has probably been using supermarkets for 10, 15 years to help with the fulfillment and the ordering and, you know, truck to shelf managing all your inventory.
And then we use, you know, AI and computers or even robots to roam our aisles to scan where we're, you know, there's a hole on the shelf and why is it, what do we need? And then there's electronic shelf labels. And so we try and try and always improve the customer experience, you know, with technology and investment.
And sometimes it's just kind of, you know, keeping up with the times is like, you know, it's the cost of admission. Right. You can't even be in the business if you're not making these big investments. So somebody will say, wow, you know, how could you not have my favorite variety of oat milk today? And it's like, you know, 60,000 items, millions of units coming through. You know, someday, you know, Sarah might walk into the store and feel like buying five Chobani creamers of one variety. And that's not the usual pattern. So for half a day, that item isn't on the shelf, and the customer is like, why can't you have it full? And it's just. It's kind of complex. So it's.
Yeah. As simple as it seems, it's complex to do. And. And I would say also to the hard work that. That the people that run the stores put in. I mean, we are a 247 operation. If we're not open, there's people in there cleaning and filling and keeping it ready for the next day.
And the amount of trucks that just it takes to. To move that product and get it readily available. So you can walk in and either pick it up or order it, and it comes to you.
It's a lot, but it's. It's a. It's a people business, as you know from working at that deli counter, you know, all the interactions and the speed of it. And, you know, people. People are working hard, but it's. It's fun. So I think it's probably the technology and. And just keeping up with the times of trying to manage inventory as smartly as a Walmart or. And as an Amazon could do. Because that is your competition.
[00:13:16] Dr. Sarah: Yes. And I can totally see that. Yeah. I remember when I worked in the deli, you know, I was also doing the meat and cheese in the bakery. So I was, like, slicing the meat and cheese in the bakery. Like, I know how to slice prosciutto, which I don't know if people realize that's not easy.
[00:13:33] Jim Dorey: That's an art. You gotta layer that with some paper and make it real light. It's not. It's expensive stuff.
Yeah.
[00:13:39] Dr. Sarah: Yeah. And, you know, it's so funny because.
And I think you probably guys get a lot of regulars in the store, I'm guessing, that come in and that that happens a lot. And people kind of get set in their ways and they expect something. And when they come in and like, you're saying if. If you're out or, you know, if you had to tell, you know, say, I'll use my neighbor. His Last name is Mrs. Giovannoni. Oh, sorry, we're out of the hot salami right now. What? I don't have any hot salami. So, you know, like.
[00:14:09] Jim Dorey: Yeah, well, to your point, it's getting like, it's so convenient to hit a button and have something show up at your door, whether it's an Amazon or doordash or an Uber or whatever. So, you know, we recognize when people make the effort to come to the store, they expect to fill their whole order. So it is we take it real serious. And it's, it's a balancing act for sure. And it is funny. We have just in our stores alone, we'll have a half million customers per week coming through. And you think about all of those transactions and all of those special requests and all those personalities and our team is just like, it's, it amazes me how well they can personally know so many of them. It's, it's pretty cool.
[00:14:49] Dr. Sarah: That is neat. I love that. And like you said, even and, and mentioned, I think before we got on, if you want to tell everybody about how you worked for, where did you worked for Adeli?
[00:15:03] Jim Dorey: You said, yeah, yeah, yeah. Somebody says, you know, how long have you been in the food business? And I literally say my whole life. Because starting in like fifth or sixth grade, you know, here in New Jersey, one of my older brothers, I'm the youngest of five, one of them had a job working in a pizzeria which was connected to a deli. So I started in like fifth grade, like cleaning the pizza pots, you know, with the dough to get stuck in them and on a three bay sink. And then from there, you know, my family ended up with that deli. So, you know, I was working the counter and like you said, I can make a phenomenal sandwich too. I still, I still could do that with a breakfast sandwich, a cheesesteak or a sub. But yeah, you learn it was a little grocery store. But you know, I always say what I learned from that being a young kid and around adults then is like the people that would come in and it was like every walk of life from like, you know, a mechanic to an executive to an entrepreneur to an attorney. And some of them would sit down in the back and we'd have coffee and they'd have, you know, like their social time. And I'd always laugh. As a kid, I'm like, you guys solving the world's problems today, but you learned about taking care of people and listening to people to just gain from their experience.
So it was kind of a world of knowledge. But that's how, yeah, growing up, all the way through college, I was working in that business a lot of times beside my parents and you know, my brothers.
[00:16:23] Dr. Sarah: I love, I love that. And yeah, and you know, I, I had a point. Now I'm like thinking what was my. It'll come to me. I do this a lot. But yeah, one thing, like whenever I go home, back, it's funny and I'm sure you probably have this too. It's like I always have to stop by the deli, like, where I used to work, because they're. They do. They have, like, the best sandwiches and cookies and everything, so.
And I love that part about, you know, these businesses, you know.
[00:16:50] Jim Dorey: Yeah.
It's cool to see, like, you know, a couple generations behind the counter in some of these places, too.
[00:16:57] Dr. Sarah: Yeah.
And.
Yeah, and I was gonna say the it. And let's kind of go into maybe your history a little bit, like, with your education and all that, because I think that's impressive, like, share about your kind of history with all that.
[00:17:13] Jim Dorey: Yeah, no, thank you. So I, you know, grew up in northern New Jersey in West Orange, which is. I always say it's, you know, half hour from New York City and 15 minutes from Nordic Airport just to give people a reference point. But, you know, through public schools, you know, always working, you know, all kinds of jobs. I had to take a paper route with my brother when I was in, like, second or third grade. And we laugh because, you know, West Orange is, like, a lot of hills, and we were on the side of a mountain, and we would take those newspapers up and down the hill, thinking that was the hardest $3 you ever earned, you know.
[00:17:44] Dr. Sarah: Oh, wow.
[00:17:46] Jim Dorey: But, you know, from there, I went to Montclair State, which is a state university here, and had a couple different small businesses. And then I was working in, like, in a. In a sales position, and I met some from going to the gym every morning real early. I met this group of people that were older. Older than me at the time, but one of them ended up being the president of Wakefern Food Corp.
Dean Janeway, who today is still a mentor to me, but after knowing this group socially for, you know, several years, one day he said, hey, we want you to interview at Wakefern. I said, hey, I'm not in the supermarket business.
But he said, listen, we got a lot of executives that are retiring.
We're building up the benchmark. This is just a foot in the door. So fortunately, I took that role, and I went from real estate to dairy to frozen to then into the price right marketplace. And I went through all the positions there to be, eventually become the president.
And then along the way, wakefront sent me to Harvard Business School to the advanced management program, which was pretty awesome. You go live there for two months with, it was 150 executives from, I think, 75 different countries, and you, seven days a week, you're living in the dorms with this group, and you're doing case studies. And that was really great for me at that stage of my career, to have that experience and exposure to just meet other. I mean they had big jobs. So to see if you could, you know, I kind of say you kind of see if you could hang with, with the big dogs, which was like you get thrown in and, you know, kind of just evaluate yourself. So that was awesome. And then, you know, a few years after that, I took the role with the Ensera family, which, you know, I'm very thankful for. And you know, we've been on a great five year run and continuing to do that. And then, you know, I have, my wife and I have two children that are well grown children now and my youngest is at Montclair State like I was. So I'm still involved up there. And my daughter is.
Works in. Actually she works with the Little Words project, which is a, A jewelry business that was founded in New Jersey.
[00:19:52] Dr. Sarah: Oh, nice. Okay.
[00:19:54] Jim Dorey: Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool jewelry. Okay, I got your attention back. Good.
[00:20:00] Dr. Sarah: Yeah, yeah.
Awesome. Yeah, I'll definitely check it out. That's amazing. And yeah, it sounds like, you know, I got some.
I know I've kind of seen some pictures. It looks like you guys enjoy yourselves. It looks like you probably have a good group of friends. Unless you said you're the youngest of five.
[00:20:20] Jim Dorey: Correct. Yeah.
[00:20:22] Dr. Sarah: Wow. Okay.
[00:20:23] Jim Dorey: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:20:24] Dr. Sarah: Okay.
[00:20:25] Jim Dorey: Yeah.
I always joke that prepares you. Like when I got into my role and you know, wakefearn has a lot of committees and boards and you know, when I first got into it, you know, and I first started showing up to the board to report and you know, one of the older guys grabbed me, said, hey, you know, these meetings can be really rough. You know, it's tough questions and some harsh, you know, feedback. And yeah, after I went through the first, why I started laughing. I said, you're being the youngest of five. I was preparing for this my whole life. There's really no abuse that you could take from them that you haven't already had, so.
[00:20:58] Dr. Sarah: Right.
Yes, yes. Sometimes. Yeah. Our families can do that. People don't realize you're already like dealing with.
Yeah. To prepare you.
[00:21:11] Jim Dorey: Yeah. But to your point, family and friends. Yeah. When I'm not working, listen in our business, because it's always on. Yeah. Even if I'm not there, you're. You're available. There's just things happening constantly. But you know, any time that I have that's free, you know, I like to spend it with my family and a close group of friends and just enjoying, you know, I think you need the clarity once in a while to just enjoy yourself and not be thinking of it, even if it's in the back of your mind a little bit, but just to clear your head because it makes you better at, you know, being a leader and more effective at whatever business you're in.
[00:21:44] Dr. Sarah: Yeah, exactly. And yeah, let's talk about your leadership in this role.
[00:21:49] Jim Dorey: Sure.
[00:21:49] Dr. Sarah: If you don't mind, like, you know, if you could share, I don't know if you have any words of wisdom or you just kind of want to, like, reflect on that for a second with the audience, like being in the leadership role that you're in. Because I'm sure a lot of people would love to strive and be in your role and, you know, probably look up to what you're doing.
You maybe want to.
[00:22:09] Jim Dorey: No, thank you. And I guess watch what you wish for right now. I'm kidding. So, yeah, I mean, to. To be in a position today where, you know, I was selected twice to run billion dollar plus companies is not a position that many people are in.
And you could get overwhelmed with it or you could get full of yourself with it, but for me, and again, I always say my advice is just my perspective. You know, it could be the right advice for one person, but not right for anybody else, but building a team of really solid people around you, getting talented people into the right positions and then giving them the freedom to do what they do best. So when you think you have the answers all the time, sometimes it's hard to sit back and let somebody else make the decision and run with it.
But when you do, it's such growth for them.
They're going to get to where you were hoping to get to, maybe in a different way. So you end up learning something too.
But it builds them up that they can take on even more and more. So I've been fortunate. You know, where I am today. We have a phenomenal team. And, you know, we've done some things. You know, we just recently took a store.
We took a store that was closing in a different supermarket name and we reopened it as the. As a Sarah Shop. Right. And we got the keys to this store on a Tuesday morning and we opened it on a Saturday, which was four days later, which was pretty much impossible. It had not been done before. So when we first looked at it, and my theory was when a store is closed, you're chasing customers to go find another place. So the sooner you could open, the better it is for the community and the better it is for your business.
So when we started talking about it A lot of people laughed and said, you know, this will take, you know, six months. Why do you think you can do it in four days? And I went to my team, the one I called most, and said, hey, this is what I'm thinking. Tell me the part that makes it impossible.
And everybody came around with you as they talked themselves through it, they were like, yeah, we can do this. And we literally, you know, the guy from the other company handed me the keys, and there was a truck with our sign up on a lift ready to be put onto the building. And he said, is that your sign? You're hanging it already? I said, yeah, he said. When he opened, I said, this weekend. He was like, you're crazy. But we got 300 people in there working around the clock. And the transformation was remarkable. But again, I could never do that. I don't even know how to start to do that. But having the team around me to say to just, let's be bold enough to say what we could possibly do and let's find out why we can't, and we weren't able to do it. And, you know, for me, it just.
When it was done, the people involved in it were like, you know what? I didn't know. I didn't think it was possible. Then once we got going, they were, like, excited about it and rightfully proud of what was accomplished. So I think getting the right people around you, having faith in them, building them up, always being honest with your team when something isn't going wrong, giving real feedback, like, if somebody's not performing well, it should never be a surprise to them. So it's real conversations about expectations.
They're agreeing to what's going to get done. You're both agreeing to time frames and then holding each other accountable to it, you know, And I think, like, finding the wins always, you know, there's a lot of people who can find what's wrong, but, you know, you got to find the successes, too, because your team's doing 100 things right. And if you're only pointing out to them the one thing they got wrong every time, you know, I've been in those environments, and it's not usually the. The momentum or the culture that you want.
[00:25:48] Dr. Sarah: Yeah, that's.
You just shared so much that is so key. And I think, yeah, that's so good. I'm gonna be, like, relistening to it a few times.
[00:25:58] Jim Dorey: Thank you.
[00:26:00] Dr. Sarah: Yeah, no, that's so true. Because it's like, I even think sometimes, you know, you gotta even sometimes remind family or friends it's like, okay, did you not just see everything I just accomplished or did? Right. But you're just focusing on one thing that went wrong.
[00:26:15] Jim Dorey: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:26:16] Dr. Sarah: That's like, you know, that is so true in life because.
Yeah, because then you start to feel kind of like, I don't know, it's like it kind of messes up your momentum. You know, that's.
[00:26:30] Jim Dorey: You want, like, to me, enthusiasm and positive energy. You know my answer. People say, how you doing today? My answer is always fantastic. And then, you know what? And I'm like, because, you know, I'm gonna make today a great day. Yeah. If. If we have our health, everything else is going to work itself out. You know, somebody once told me, you can have a list of problems if you have poor health. You only have one, one, one problem on that list. And. And it's so true. So everything else, there's going to be problems during the day. When you're running any kind of business, you're gonna. If every problem sets you off where you're going to be miserable, every day is going to be miserable. You know, I know there's going to be five fires today, but we're going to just work it out. We're going to figure out the plan, and then when we're done, you say, hey, you know what? This is good. I'm needed to be here because I actually helped get something done today.
[00:27:18] Dr. Sarah: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
All of this is so key, and as a leader, you know, that's so important in leadership. So I would hope that, gosh, the world would be awesome if everybody had your thought process.
Yeah, yeah.
And, you know, it shows because I was kind of looking some of the social media for the markets and different things and checking everything out, and I thought, wow, I could, like, feel the energy that you're just talking about and that. And that's so. It does show that, like, it trickles down, you know, throughout the company. And it looks like you guys were acknowledging everybody from the baker to the fish, you know, in the fish area and the. Yeah. What's the proper word for the fish market? Is it just fish market or what do you guys call the fish?
[00:28:07] Jim Dorey: Yeah, yeah, we call it a seafood department, but, yeah, there's fishmongers and there's. There's all kinds of fancy names, but, yeah, you know, it's funny, like on LinkedIn, more so, because it's professional. Yeah. I'm always posting stuff and there's certain people that I'll run into. Oh, my God. You know, you always got something up there, and they're kind of half joking, but I'm like, you know what? We got so many great things going on, and I love. I love acknowledging our vendors, too. Like you said that. I want to put it out there, and what it does is bring us even more opportunity because I've met so many people who became friends or were doing business with them through that.
And again, when we have the victories, I want to share them because the team just does work so hard for it, and it's cool to be seen, you know. And so I think, to your point, you know, the positive side, you know, if you can reflect that, like, I think sometimes of, like, governments, I'm like, you know, if they could just be a little like the leadership of any. Any country, any government is never going to be perfect. But, you know, sometimes, like, just like, it's always attacking each other, and it's always what the other one's doing wrong or who, you know, it's kind of like, what are we going to do to solve problems? What are we gonna do to make your life better today and make everybody's life better? And if we're always focused on that, it seems like, you know, things get a lot better, you know, yeah, let's
[00:29:22] Dr. Sarah: focus on the good things that are happening.
[00:29:25] Jim Dorey: Yeah.
[00:29:27] Dr. Sarah: Because there is a lot of good in the world. There's still no doubt.
[00:29:31] Jim Dorey: No doubt.
[00:29:33] Dr. Sarah: And, yeah, LinkedIn is a great place. It's a great spot. I use LinkedIn a lot, so.
And kind of a question that I am curious as you running a grocery store, and maybe some of the, you know, you think about people who have products, how does it work with getting a product on the shelf in a grocery store? Is it done like.
Like, come in person approach? Hey, will you carry my product? I don't know. I'm just curious, like, if there's how that kind of works, if you don't mind.
[00:30:03] Jim Dorey: Yeah. And it's funny, it depends, right. There's a lot of different ways. Like, so for us, because we're part of this bigger week Fern, they may bring a company in, and then they. They meet them, they go through a vetting process. They, you know, take it to a committee and say, hey, you know, Sarah's got this new yogurt. There's four varieties. We think it's unique because of these reasons. Here's the price points, here's what we think the size of the market is. So we're going to recommend that we carry it and we're going to distribute it in all these stores. So that's kind of one way in our world. Another way is you could be like Sarah's local bakery and you got some crazy item that everybody loves in our community where we have a couple of our stores. So it doesn't mean much outside of that. But you come to us or we come to you and say, hey, it'd be cool to get your, you know, your three breads into our stores. So we're going to make you like a local supplier just for these stores. So you got to get vetted out to make sure you got the right insurances and you have all the ingredients labeled and all. But it's pretty simple. And then like we, we love giving opportunity to founders and entrepreneurs. But what I always tell them is we can get you in the store.
Ultimately the customer will decide if you stay because if it's not selling really, you know, it's. You can't afford to keep it there because it's going to go stale. I can't afford to keep it there because the space is just too expensive. So those are a couple main ways.
We find things on social media all the time.
Something that's just blowing up on Tick Tock and we'll find out who's sourcing it and bring it in. And yes, it's interesting that way. It keeps it unique, you know, that
[00:31:39] Dr. Sarah: is, yeah, that's good to know. And so for everybody listening, you know, you kind of have a little window in possibly how you can get on
[00:31:47] Jim Dorey: the groceries and listen, I'll help anybody. People reach out all the time, you know, usually through LinkedIn and hey, I have this brand. I'll ask them a few questions and try and steer them in the right direction. And not every one of them is right for us, but I'll try and give them as much of a chance as I can.
[00:32:02] Dr. Sarah: That's so awesome. I love that. Thanks, that's great.
And what would you say is your favorite part of doing what you do? Like, what would you say is your favorite?
[00:32:13] Jim Dorey: Yeah, I think for me just at this stage in my career is the people you help along the way who are thriving, whether they're somebody who you met like as a part time person, just got started with us and you know, somebody pointed them out and said, hey, Sarah, yeah, she's working as a cashier but she really wants to learn more. And we kind of promote you up through the ranks and you end up making a career with us and doing well. And you know, like you got people who maybe their first one in their family they just came to this country, you know, English isn't their first language. They don't have an education even. And they can make a career with us to buy a house and provide for their family, which, yeah, to me, that's like, awesome. And so when I always say, like, at the end of the day time when your career is ending and, you know, you hopefully you got enough zeros in your checking account, but. But you look at, you know, 100 people and say, you know, I played some small part in their success. They did it all. But I was involved in helping them.
To me, and I think that's the coolest part because, you know, everybody works hard and everybody, you know, not everybody's doing a super job, right? There's. You got your top performers in your middle and you're lower, but the majority of people are coming up and want to do a good job every day.
When you can acknowledge them and, you know, show the real appreciation and they know it, and you get that personal connection. You know, we walk through our stores and like I said, there's a few thousand associates, but there's a lot of them that I know pretty personally, that, you know, how your kids doing, you know, that somebody, you know, they just graduated from a great school or they got their first job or they had their first grandkids.
So just building that community and knowing. Knowing them and making them feel appreciated in. In the store every day is. Is probably my favorite part. And then some of the customers who you just, you know, that our team interacts with and helps them, and I mean, just some of the craziest stories. We had one recently, the daughter reached out through email and said, hey, you know, your store team saved my. My mom's life. And you're like, how could that be? And the woman would order, you know, three times a week, deliveries to her house.
The person who handled deliveries, when they didn't see it, didn't see a delivery. Then the next day came and they didn't see it, and they're like, you know what? We should check in to see if they're okay. It turned out that the woman had some type of health episode at home and was in the house with nobody. And it was a day or two, but because our associate reached out, the police went and checked, and then the person was saved. And I'm like, you know what?
[00:34:50] Dr. Sarah: Some.
[00:34:51] Jim Dorey: Somebody could just not care, right? You just got it in order and that was that.
But just something small like that impacted somebody's life is pretty awesome.
[00:35:01] Dr. Sarah: That's amazing. I Almost got like, oh, my God.
[00:35:05] Jim Dorey: Yeah, no, it is. It's. There's. There's a. There's probably literally dozens, if not hundreds of stories where there's similar things like that, but it's. Yeah, it's pretty cool. That's very fulfilling.
[00:35:16] Dr. Sarah: Yeah.
And, you know, you just made me think of something too. One of my.
I think that, you know, our elder population, I have a big heart and passion for our elders. And sometimes I think there's. You can see a lack of respect for that. And I think that one thing with being in the grocery store business, you are exposed and see more of them in the store. And so I think it's great because, like, you know, you'll see, like you said, when you remember people remember their name, go in there. You know, sometimes people may not realize maybe that's their only interaction for the, like, week or for a few days, you know, and so, like, you can make that difference for somebody.
[00:36:02] Jim Dorey: And to your point, it is. You hear that so many times, Rel say, like, you know, my mother didn't really talk to anybody during the week. And, you know, she'd come into shoprite, you know, because you knew Sarah in the deli department.
It's funny, you do, like, I'll run into you, meet some people. And I remember, you know, somebody was in their late 90s, and they're walking through the. Through the supermarket on their own shopping, and I'm always amazed. And I just say, my question always is to me, what's your secret to being so active and lively? And you just hear their answers from 90 some odd years. It's. It's pretty cool. Yeah. One lady walked in one day, she's like, she stops me at the door, she says, can you help me zip my jacket? And at first you're like, yeah. So I'm like, yeah, okay. So I'm trying to help her zip it. And she's like, yeah. I said, you know, you. I see somewhere, she comes out, she's 97, and I started, did someone bring you here? She goes, no, I drove here and I come once a week to the store.
97, driving to the supermarket and, you know, do your job is pretty wild. But yeah, yeah, you're right. Some kindness to that group, you know? And our team, I'll say, is. Is awesome with that because it's easy to get frustrated because sometimes, you know, there could be some people a little grouchy, but they showed them a lot of grace, and I think that makes a big difference.
[00:37:19] Dr. Sarah: Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. And I think some of my earliest memories, even as a kid, you think you're in the grocery store, you're sitting in the shopping cart with mom. Mom, you know, or you get the free cookie or whatever you do, you know.
[00:37:31] Jim Dorey: No doubt.
[00:37:32] Dr. Sarah: Kind of funny. Yeah.
There was actually a funny story that my mom always tells with my little sister, and they were in the grocery store, and she was little, just learning to talk, and she goes, mom, don't forget the broccoli. And everybody was like, a little kid wants broccoli. It's like the whole, like, everybody shopping in the, like, veggie area kind of like, look like, huh.
My mom said it was, like, this funny reaction of everybody that it was coming out of the mouth of, like, a toddler. Don't forget the broccoli.
[00:38:04] Jim Dorey: Yeah, she was off to a good start. Did she still eat broccoli?
[00:38:07] Dr. Sarah: Probably. Yeah.
[00:38:10] Jim Dorey: That's great.
[00:38:13] Dr. Sarah: But, yeah. And I would just say, you know, I don't know.
Kind of the.
Just the. The family history behind the market. I mean, I know we kind of touched on it. Do. Is there kind of more story behind that you want to share or is there anyone there? I don't know.
[00:38:30] Jim Dorey: No, there is, like, every family business, right? There's the trials and tribulations and the ups and downs. And so in this particular case, you know, with. With then Sarah's grandmother being the butcher, and, yeah, they took some shots along the way, so they have this huge company now, and it's easy for people. People say, oh, my God, look at. Look at all that you have. But, you know, through the years, they and their family have risked everything sometimes to keep the growth going. And, you know, they do so much behind the scenes for our associates when somebody's struggling, but for the charities. And, you know, Larry and Sarah is our CEO, and I joke, you know, nicest guy in the world. The only time he gets mad is I'll say to him, you know, Larry, you can say no. Sometimes when, you know, when the charitable request comes in and they'll yell at me, say, jim, shut up. And, you know, he wants to just give and give, which is awesome. But it inspires everybody. And, you know, our stores, like, they work so hard just running the store every day, but then they'll do these fundraisers where they go over and above. And we're just finishing one right now. It's called Partners in Caring. And forever, all the shop rates are in this contest with General Mills. And if you raised a certain amount of money, two people from the store get to be on a Cheerios box, that's like the big reward. So our store. Yeah, I mean, just our stores alone raised like, close to $200,000 in like an eight week period. That all goes to fighting hunger, which is just, you know, it's like remarkable because they'll put all these events together on top of running a store, you know, so, yeah, it's. It just is this culture of, you know, people caring, doing the right thing, treating people right. And every time we interview somebody, you know, we promote from within the majority of time, but we'll, you know, we'll bring outside talent in. And every time I talk to him, I spend the first few minutes of the interview just talking about the culture. And, you know, my example always is this family's been building this beautiful recipe for 75 years, and we got it perfect. But one bad ingredient could throw off the whole recipe, you know, so, you know, we're always trying to protect that culture to make sure it's only something that makes us better, you know?
[00:40:36] Dr. Sarah: Yeah.
Wow, that's awesome. And did you say Cheerios box?
[00:40:41] Jim Dorey: Yes. Yeah.
[00:40:42] Dr. Sarah: Oh, that's okay. That's so funny because my dad, civilian job, worked at General Mills.
[00:40:48] Jim Dorey: There you go.
[00:40:49] Dr. Sarah: In Northern California.
[00:40:51] Jim Dorey: Oh, yeah. It's awesome.
[00:40:52] Dr. Sarah: Yeah, he worked in the control room. He was the.
I forget his exact position, but I grew up where we used to get boxes of cereal and everything that General Mills made. So we had like the Betty Crocker mix and all that stuff.
[00:41:11] Jim Dorey: You're eating cereals whether you like them or not.
[00:41:14] Dr. Sarah: Yes. And like, what were they called? Kicks.
[00:41:16] Jim Dorey: I think Kicks was another cereal.
[00:41:18] Dr. Sarah: Yeah, they were Kicks. And like, I forget there was one that was really Cocoa Puffs.
[00:41:24] Jim Dorey: Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny, some of those iconic ones have stayed around, you know, some come and go, but yeah, yeah. So I mean, General Mills, same thing. They have great philanthropy, I think, within their culture, as you saw.
[00:41:38] Dr. Sarah: And I love all that you were saying.
Just all they do and like, kind of, you know, how hard working they've been. And that's the biggest thing. Right. Sometimes people just look at when all of a sudden you're successful and they don't. It's like, no, there's so much behind that or what's going on. Like, you know, like when all of a sudden, you know, it's like, oh, you're Dr. Sarah Lavaroni. Well, that just didn't happen. There's so much behind that.
[00:42:04] Jim Dorey: Yeah. You're so lucky. It's like, really?
[00:42:07] Dr. Sarah: Yeah.
Oh, my God. If you Only knew like everything I've been doing for years and.
But like.
Yeah, so that's so true, you know, and then I think, kind of an interesting story. So my family in the LA area, they. They kind of went from the Midwest and Nebraska to Texas to California, but supposedly this is the word. I don't know, but they had the first garbage business in la.
[00:42:37] Jim Dorey: Really?
[00:42:38] Dr. Sarah: But they called it a rubbish business.
[00:42:40] Jim Dorey: Okay.
[00:42:41] Dr. Sarah: And my great grandfather kind of spread speaking when I think so he used to go around and he. I guess what happened is during the Depression, he went around with a donkey and a wagon and started picking up people's trash.
And then when they moved to la, they made. It was like a whole rubbish business, they called it. And like, they used to say he had a hay field and he would take the food scraps that they would pick up, which now is like compost, and he would feed the pigs and then they fertilize the hay and then he'd sell the hay.
[00:43:12] Jim Dorey: But, yeah, ahead of his time for sure, because they're still trying to figure that loop out.
[00:43:18] Dr. Sarah: I know. And it's like, maybe if we started thinking more of the earth and the natural components, we might have more solutions. Maybe. I don't know.
[00:43:27] Jim Dorey: No, I agree. You know, it's funny, like, like growing food indoors, you know, there's a lot of companies trying to perfect it. And to me, I think the ultimate thing is how do we get more food produced where the people are rather than, you know, we buy a truck of produce from California to get it to New Jersey. The transportation and the fuel and the trucking is sometimes more than the cost of the product on there. So how do you serve and not have to ship it so far? And, you know, I think there's a lot of people working on good solutions with that. And I think we get better and better because it's, you know, listen, in our country that people go hungry and kids go hungry is really crazy because there's so much wasted food. So it's just the right people putting the pieces together.
And like, you know, we're always trying to have no waste. So, you know, we want, we obviously want to order the right amount that we're selling exactly what we order.
[00:44:23] Dr. Sarah: Yeah.
[00:44:23] Jim Dorey: But even the stuff that we don't, it's always going to either a food bank or a pantry. You know, we, we don't want anything in the garbage is the ultimate goal.
So I think a lot more companies are getting smarter that way. And just realizing, yeah, I always say the right thing to do is usually right for your business also.
[00:44:41] Dr. Sarah: Yeah.
[00:44:42] Jim Dorey: So in that case, specifically, it's funny, the garbage business gets. Gets a bad rap in some places, so.
[00:44:49] Dr. Sarah: It does. And it's kind of interesting story because one day I was at my mom's and there's an old logbook of my great grandmother doing all the accounting. It's really interesting to look at because it talks about the trucks and the gas and the hay. But when she passed, suddenly, I think kind of at a very young age, my grandfather was so in love with her. This is like the story. He was so brokenhearted, he couldn't even do the business anymore because she did all the books, she did the accounting.
[00:45:12] Jim Dorey: Yeah.
[00:45:13] Dr. Sarah: And he just ended up selling it. So that's.
[00:45:16] Jim Dorey: Yeah, I guess, you know, beautiful and tragic all together. I don't know. That's, you know. Yeah, it's hard. They lived through some tough times, I'm sure. In different times.
[00:45:26] Dr. Sarah: Yeah, yeah.
And I think that that's the beauty of something like this business. And so it's like, great. It's still going and standing for what you said, 75 years or.
[00:45:37] Jim Dorey: Yeah, yeah.
[00:45:38] Dr. Sarah: Okay.
[00:45:38] Jim Dorey: That's funny. I spent a short time when I was in college, I was working with, like, a landscaper and one of the houses we did, the guy owned a garbage company in New Jersey. And he said, hey, do you want to make some money, extra money? And I said, yeah, I was like, 19.
So he said, come to my yard where all our trucks are and overnight, just walk around the yard every 15 minutes. And he was like, at the time, paying me, like, a lot of money. And so after a few weeks to say, I appreciate the work. Can I ask you, you know, what do you need me to do that for? He said, well, we took somebody else account a couple months ago, and they came and they firebombed our trucks. So I said. I said, well, listen, if they show up when I'm here, I said, I'll give them the match. I'm not stopping anybody from,
[00:46:23] Dr. Sarah: oh, my God.
[00:46:24] Jim Dorey: I didn't work that much longer after that.
[00:46:26] Dr. Sarah: Oh, my God.
Sounds like that reminds me of a movie.
[00:46:31] Jim Dorey: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
[00:46:34] Dr. Sarah: Yeah.
And. Yeah. So this, I don't know, is there. This has been a great conversation, I think, just about, you know, business, you as a leader and, like, giving advice and words of wisdom. And I hope everybody will tell you. Take it to heart and listen and get something from this conversation. Is there anything else you kind of want to share or spill with audience on anything either personal or with the business? Or anything.
[00:47:00] Jim Dorey: Yeah, listen, I, I, I think, you know, again, just my perspective, you know, early on in your career, you have a lot to prove, so you got to show that you're how smart you are and what you know, more and more, you start to realize it's, that's not as important. You know, you're in the room already, so let's assume you earned your way in so we know you're smart. It's. Do people want to work with you and they want to go the extra mile for you? And I share with you that, that one book that I had written, and that one was just like, I had always been journaling, and I had all of these notes, and one day I said, you know what? I think some of what I have maybe, and they're more like anecdotes, like small stuff. And I was like, for my kids, you know, at the time, I said, maybe there's something in here that gives them. If it took me to 50 to learn this and they could pick something at 20, you know, what an advantage that is. So I put it all together and, you know, I said, if it helped one person, you know, get a good idea or discover something, then it was a success. And, you know, some people that were really close to me that were very successful, you know, came back with feedback that something that they got out of it, and it's just very cool. But, you know, be a good person is easy. You know, surround yourself with good people, try and help people for no reason, you know, nothing in it for you.
And then that's the thing. If you're looking to put together your career, your business, I think those are the things that just cumulatively add up and then have good habits and just keep stacking on those. And, you know, like you said, it's overnight, somebody's gonna say, oh, my God, you're so lucky you're in that role. And it took, you know, 45 years of sacrifice to get there.
I don't know if there's quicker answers, you know, I mean, and be open to learning from everybody in the room, even the most inexperienced young people have some perspective that you're not aware of.
[00:48:46] Dr. Sarah: That's so true.
Yes. And yeah, your book, oh, my gosh, yeah. The name of your book, let's tell the audience again, is Keep.
[00:48:55] Jim Dorey: Just Keep Swimming.
[00:48:56] Dr. Sarah: Just Keep Swimming. And I actually, yeah, it's, you can get it on Amazon. Just Keep swimming and I'll share a link when I'm promoting and sharing the podcast for people to have a link to the book, of course. And yeah, so everybody check it out.
And yeah, and then if, of course, if you're in the New Jersey, New York area, go. I'm sure you're very aware of the stores, but if you're gonna.
[00:49:24] Jim Dorey: Yeah, we've got my stores everywhere. If you're near New York City, too. Hoboken, Jersey City. We're actually this week opening up in Jersey City, which is, you know, right across the Hudson from Manhattan.
We're in a 63 story building. Our supermarket, a brand new supermarket, will be on the second floor. It's pretty cool project, so we got a lot of fun stuff coming. And Sarah, thanks for the work that you do and thanks for the invite. And it's always fun to share ideas with someone like yourself, so wish you continued success, too.
[00:49:56] Dr. Sarah: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. I'm hoping to land that amazing role myself soon. I'm in that market, so. Yeah.
[00:50:06] Jim Dorey: Yeah, I think, yeah, you're well on your way. They'll be lucky to have you.
[00:50:10] Dr. Sarah: Ah, thank you so much.
[00:50:11] Jim Dorey: My pleasure.
[00:50:13] Dr. Sarah: All right. And so. Yeah. So everybody listening. Thank you so much for just listening to the Dr. Random podcast and. And as always, here on the Dr. Random podcast, I'm going to say ciao.
[00:50:27] Jim Dorey: Perfect.
[00:50:28] Dr. Sarah: All right.
