Wegmans is a successful,
family-owned food market chain that is loved by customers
and employees alike.
They have won numerous accolades since opening their first food market in 1930
(Lyon, 2016). Wegmans has made it on to Fortunes’ Top 100 list of the “Greatest
Places to Work” since the beginning (Wegmans, 2019). They have even ranked in
the top of 10 on the list for 16 years with this year ranking third (Wegmans,
2019). Moreover, Wegmans was ranked number eight for diversity by Forbes
in 2018 (Danziger, 2018). So, how has Wegmans managed to stay at the top
of the food chain with customers and employees all these years?
The answer is quite simple. Wegmans
takes a counter-intuitive “employees first, customer second”(Hudson, 2005 as
cited in Lyon, 2016) approach to business. According to Wegmans Vice
President of Media Relations Jo Natale, “in order to be a great place to shop,
we must first be a great place to work” (as cited in Danziger, 2018). Wegmans
employees treat each other like family from the top-down, and that sentiment
reaches their customer base.
The Wegman family’s leadership has
created a culture that makes employees well-being and development a top
priority and fosters innovation. Not only does Wegmans provide a traditional
benefits package, they even offer adoption assistance (Walter, 2011 as cited in
Lyon, 2016). They also invested fifty million dollars to help their employees
learn and improve managerial and culinary skills and five million dollars
toward employee scholarships in 2017 (Danziger, 2018). Moreover, Wegmans
recruits employees with diverse backgrounds, which in-turn inspires innovation
and builds credibility with diverse shoppers (Danziger, 2018).
For this blog post, I conducted some
informal research on Wegmans on Indeed.com. I looked at the last 20 reviews by
current and former employees ranging from September 26, 2019, through October
12, 2019. Each reviewer was able to rate Wegmans on a scale of one through
five, with one being the worst and five being the best. I found that the
average rating for the last 20 reviews was 3.85 and the overall average for all
reviews was 4.2. Most reviews gave four and five-star ratings. However, there
were a few that rated the company one and two. A former cashier complained
about the lack of respect, no perks, and bad hours for part-timers, whereas a
former meat team leader described his/ her experience as being terrible due to
bad management and hours, under-staffing, and no advancement opportunities
(Indeed, 2019). Below, I have created a word cloud with the most common words
in the last 20 reviews.
Wegmans business approach could work
for other grocery stores as well as other industries that revolve around
customer service and hospitality (e.g. retail, hotel chains, restaurants,
banks, etc). However, implementing this type of business strategy would take
time, patience, consistency, and the right employees.
References
Danziger, P. (2018). Why
Wegmans Food Market gets the love of customers. Retrieved from Forbes :
https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2018/03/03/why-wegmans-food-markets-gets-the-love-of-customers/#1fc43d174ce5
Indeed. (2019). Wegmans
reviews. Retrieved from Indeed: https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Wegmans/reviews
Lyon, A. (2016). Wegmans food
markets says "employees first, customers second". In Case
studies in courageous orgizational communication (pp. 302-307).
Retrieved from
https://moodle.drury.edu/pluginfile.php/923860/mod_resource/content/1/Case%20study%20Wegmans.pdf
The Buffalo News . (2018). Wegmans
(image). Retrieved from The Buffalo News:
https://buffalonews.com/2018/04/26/two-story-wegmans-with-a-tequila-bar-to-open-in-massachusetts/
Wegmans. (2019). Great Place
to Work® and Fortune Name Wegmans One of the 2019 FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to
Work For®, Ranking #3. Retrieved from Wegmans:
https://www.wegmans.com/news-media/press-releases/2019/great-place-to-work--and-fortune-name-wegmans-one-of-the-2019-fo.html