|
|
|
|
Stew Leonard's
|
| |
|
| |
Stew Leonard's (Stew's as it is known locally) is a small chain of supermarkets in Connecticut and New York that Ripley's Believe It or Not! has deemed "The World's Largest Dairy" and that Fortune Magazine has deemed one of the top "100 Best Companies to Work For!"
"Anyone who comes from Connecticut or thereabouts knows this landmark chain of grocery stores where mechanized cows sing and roosters crow," according to a writer for the Sun-Sentinel of Florida. A typical Stew Leonard's store will attract customers from a wider geographic area than a typical supermarket because customers are willing to drive longer distances. The store's fame comes from its innovative in-store marketing, which includes a barnlike wood decor, a winding path for shoppers instead of straight, parallel aisles, and animatronic singing animals perched above the shelving.
Founded in 1969 with seven employees in Norwalk, Connecticut, there currently are also stores in Danbury, Connecticut; Yonkers, New York; and Newington, Connecticut. The latter opened on May 5, 2007. There are also plans to open stores in Orange, Connecticut, and in Farmingdale, New York. The Farmingdale store technically exists, but its current zoning permit has only allowed the wine shop portion to be open and the opening of the rest is pending in court.
In 2004, Tom Leonard, son of the founder, also opened a spinoff store, Tom Leonard's Farmer's Market, in the Short Pump section of Henrico County, Virginia (suburban Richmond).
The store is also known for its customer-service policy, which greets shoppers at each store's entrance etched into a three-ton rock:
- The customer is always right.
- If the customer is ever wrong, re-read rule #1.
The Store The New York Times called Stew Leonard's the "Disneyland of Dairy Stores." The stores are not set up like traditional grocery stores; one must walk through the entire store (though there are short cuts). As customers walk through a path of aisles, they are greeted by different employees dressed up in costumes and by animatronic favorites such as Twinkie the Kid, the Chiquita banana, and Clover, a cow's head that moos when one pulls its rope. The stores also feature petting zoos and outdoor cafes in the warmer months and sell a variety of prepared meals year round. Customers are also offered an unusually large number of food samples for a supermarket, as well as free drink samples.
The BusinessStew Leonard's is not only the world's largest dairy store; it is also in the Guinness Book of World Records for having "the greatest sales per unit area of any single food store in the United States." It has been listed as one of Fortune Magazine's top 100 businesses to work for seven years in a row. It currently has annual sales of around $300 million and has about 2,000 employees.
The store has a clone in South Florida called Penn Dutch with locations in Hollywood and Margate. The owners of Penn Dutch visited Stew Leonard's to get merchandising ideas.
Tax FraudIn 1993, Stew Leonard Sr. was convicted of committing a $17 million tax fraud through an elaborate scheme to divert more than $17 million in cash register receipts over a ten-year period. He was sentenced to 52-months in jail. Court documents indicated that Stew Leonard Jr. played a role in the tax fraud. However, in the interest of protecting his son and the store, Stew Leonard Sr. pleaded guilty in exchange for an agreement from the prosecutors to not bring charges against Stew Leonard Jr.
External links
|
| |
|
|
