Visit to the friendliest store in Portland
I spent all of last week meeting and studying with the great people at New Seasons Market, an amazing values-driven grocery company in Portland, OR. My trip was paid for by Leaderspring, a two-year leadership development program for nonprofit leaders that I’m participating in. The purpose of my visit to New Seasons Market was to learn about their unique business model, how they run their business, how they build their values into the company and how they cultivate both employee and customer loyalty.
New Seasons is quite possibly one of the most innovative and inspiring food retail companies in the country. Almost every good thing that you could imagine a grocery store doing is being done by New Seasons. From the best employee compensation packages in the industry (they give 20% of after-tax profits to the workers) to the greenest waste management practices (they provide 13% of the city’s compost input) to engaging customer education (they have three full-time nutritionists on staff) New Seasons Market holds the highest standard of what a grocery store can do for a community.
I was able to meet with just about everyone in the company from the CEO and CFO to store managers, buyers and clerks. I got to shadow the CEO and sat in on a number of great meetings with him that helped me understand New Seasons’ philosophy and way of doing business. The experience was intimate and special. I got to see the heart and soul of this company and ended my week feeling truly inspired. While I’ve always been passionate about our vision for People’s Grocery’s food retail business, my experience at New Seasons Market gave me confidence that our vision is a real possibility.
My gratitude to everyone at New Seasons Market who generously shared their time, knowledge and hearts with me. And thanks to Leaderspring for supporting this inspiring journey.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Excellent news! Thank you for sharing =)
March 25th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I was just in PDX and visited and loved New Seasons. I LOVED the Stir Fry bar…and would LOVE to see one in OAK!! I’m so glad they are all around good! Love your blog and your work!
How’s the Leaderspring experience? I work at Compasspoint www.compasspoint.org (i heard about you from some of your co-workers attending a class I taught)
May 10th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I loved the New Seasons kudos! They are a great store, and were one of our best customers last year for our fresh wild Alaska salmon. Our company, Naknek Family Fisheries is a small family-owned operation. We essentially harvest, process, and market some of our catch ourselves, instead of just selling it to the large-scale industrial fish processors for pennines.
This summer we intend to do something different - that is to create a biofeedback loop to manage our fish waste. Basically, we want to move our fish waste from the plant (up to 1,000 pounds per day) to another plot of land where we will work on creating compost. If anybody is interested in working with us on this ambitious and experimental project, please contact me at izetta@naknekfish.com.