OCTOBER 2020 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 13
THIS MONTH
MOST UNIQUE SUPERMARKET
the 1980s. Stew Sr’s daughter Jill
Leonard Tavello, Stew Leonard’s executive
vice president of culture and
communication, fosters the family’s
philosophy of “take good care of your
people and they in turn will take good
care of your customers.”
Stew Jr.’s foresight, business savvy, and
unconventional means of enhancing
the shopping experience has brought
on acclaim from The New York Times,
who called his company “A Disneyland
dairy store.” While Stew Sr. might be the
“Walt” in this equation, it is Stew Jr., who
has brought the company to new heights.
“I had the opportunity to speak before
tech leaders in the early 1990s,” said
Stew Leonard Jr., the current president
and CEO of Stew Leonard’s. “I’ll never
forget the experience. I was literally
in a room with some of the brightest
minds in technology who have built the
ever-advancing technological sphere we
are in today. It was there, though, that
I think I made a slight impact on them:
It’s not about what you're selling, so long
as you are passionate about it and value
your customers, you have a winning formula.
It’s picking a strategy that wins,
buckling up, and going with it.”
With Stew Jr. at the helm, the farm-fresh
food store has elevated the retail experience.
Whether it is their trademark
single-aisle shopping experience which
allows shoppers to see each of the 2,200
products on the shelves of their stores,
or the animatronics that keep young
ones entertained with educational,
catchy tunes, Stew Leonard’s has made
shopping just as much about fun as the
fundamental of quality product. This
winning strategy from the past just
might poise them for success in the
future.
Every year, Stew Leonard’s sells more
than 2 million chocolate chip cookies,
2.5 million half-gallons of milk, 1.5 million
pounds of filet mignon, 1.2 million
pounds of lobster, 300,000 pounds of
fresh Mozzarella, 250,000 pumpkins,
and 70,000 Christmas trees. In 2019,
more than 20 million people visited Stew
Leonard’s stores. It’s become a tourist
destination for people who have heard
of the legend of the experience. In an era
where business punditry prognosticates
the end of retail shopping as we know it,
Stew Jr. invests more in the experience,
more in the technology that makes the
experience fun, and most of all, the basic
principles that made the store great in
the first place.
“We cherish the loyalty that has been
displayed by our shoppers,” he said.
“They’ve come to expect a standard of
the finest meats and dairy, the choicest
produce, and the quality products that
we have built our reputation on. But
they also still enjoy the welcoming environment
of our store, the experiences
that they have laughing and smiling
when a dancing avocado lights up a
child’s eyes. At Stew Leonard’s, we are so
much more than a grocery, but a family,
with our employees and staff, and that
we think is irreplaceable.”
So where does Stew Leonard’s go from
here? The stores are on their third generation
of family management, meaning
that Stew Leonard Sr.’s grandchildren
have opened stores that are pushing
the boundaries of the grocery industry.
Their newest store in Paramus, N.J.,
embraces technology to entertain kids,
aiming to teach them valuable lessons
about food and basic life-skills through
fun games on their devices, the first grocery
store in America to use augmented
reality and artificial intelligence in its
stores.
While mom and dad are shopping, they
can be certain that they are not only
leaving with the best products to feed
their young ones, but also education that
could prove lifesaving in the long run.
One particular lesson that strikes a
chord with every parent is water safety.
Drowning is the leading cause of death
among toddlers and children, which
means that this age-old problem is still
existent and is never going away. Stew
Leonard Jr. and his wife, Kim, know this
firsthand, as their son, Stew Leonard
III, was lost in a tragic backyard-pool
drowning accident when he was just 21
months old.
The Leonards have since taken this
tragedy and turned it into advocacy,
launching the Stew Leonard III Water
Safety Foundation and sharing the
importance of water safety to millions
of parents nationally and internationally.
They’ve traveled the world to share
their story, wrote a story that reminds
children of the importance of staying
away from the pool without an adult,
and even published an award-winning
book whose proceeds have brought
critical swimming lessons to hundreds
of thousands of youth in underserved
communities.
“We want to make sure that parents
know it’s not a lack of supervision, but
a lapse in supervision,” said Kim Leonard.
“That tragic day when we lost our
son will stay with us forever, but it is
so important that other families know
that it could happen to them, and that
all it takes is a few seconds for tragedy
to strike.”
“It’s critical that parents put the phone
down, designate a pool watcher, and
make sure that every parent has the
‘water safety’ talk with their children,”
she continued.
The company also gives back. Since 1979,
Stew Leonard’s has donated more than
70,000 turkeys to local churches, senior
centers, and civic centers through our
annual Turkey Brigade to help provide
Thanksgiving Day meals for families in
need.
Stew Leonard’s was named to Fortune
magazine’s “Top 100 Places to Work in
America” for 10 consecutive years. Many
of its Team Members have been with
the company for decades and worked
their way up from cashier to senior
management.
America's top grocer has seen unprecedented
success because it represents
the entire package: a well-run business,
happy and healthy team members who
feel appreciated, quality products that
people enjoy, and shoppers whose experience
keeps them coming back for more.
With challenging times for all businesses
and uncertain economic times
ahead, Stew Leonard’s is ready for what
is beyond the bend.
L. to R.: Kim Leonard and Stew Leonard Jr. with the famous rock on which
“the customer is always right” is written in stone. (Photo by Jennifer Uihlein)
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