{"id":1424,"date":"2015-12-17T08:53:26","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T16:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/?p=1424"},"modified":"2015-12-17T08:53:26","modified_gmt":"2015-12-17T16:53:26","slug":"why-worker-owned-publix-is-walmarts-biggest-nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/?p=1424","title":{"rendered":"Why Worker-owned Publix is Walmart&#8217;s Biggest Nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-header\" class=\"left relative\"><\/div>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container\">\n<div class=\"mashsb-box\"><\/div>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/corporate.publix.com\/-\/media\/images\/corporate\/heroes\/small%20-%20642x340\/store-1419_fortmill_sc.ashx?h=340&amp;w=642\" alt=\"Store #1419 - Fort Mill, SC\" width=\"446\" height=\"236\" \/><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u00a0 \u00a0 You probably haven&#8217;t heard of the fastest-growing grocery chain in America, but it&#8217;s Publix. \u00a0They are mostly on the east coast so haven&#8217;t yet tried cracking the tough market in California.<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0You don&#8217;t hear of many retailers being one of the top companies to work for, but they are. \u00a0They are doing what some other successful companies do (Trader Joes, Costco) and taking care of their employees and even giving them a stake in the company. \u00a0When the employees are happy and engaged in the company&#8217;s success, the stores reflect it, customer service improves and so does the bottom line. \u00a0Most other retailers are too busy worrying about their stock price and how the numbers will look to investors each quarter.<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0What&#8217;s amazing is that they seem to be doing everything right&#8211;even though they have lower prices than Walmart (see chart below) they still have a higher profit margin than most grocery chains and are rapidly increasing in sales and store counts.<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Not surprising either, is that customers surveyed at the big 3 drug chains and Publix rated Publix the most satisfying customer experience. You can&#8217;t force employees to give good service, but they will do if you give them a good reason why&#8211;namely, partial ownership in the company. \u00a0Kudos to Publix for proving that point.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div id=\"tps_slideContainer_3290\" class=\"theiaPostSlider_slides\">\n<div>\n<p><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 Publix, the fastest-growing grocery chain in America, isn\u2019t a corporate giant that exploits workers, but an employee-owned company that\u2019s more profitable than any of its competitors.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Unlike Walmart\u2019s hourly workers, who just got a raise to <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.walmart.com\/in-letter-to-associates-walmart-ceo-doug-mcmillon-announces-higher-pay\" target=\"_blank\">$9 and $10 an hour<\/a>, Publix workers get a piece of the company after putting in 1,000 hours and working for the company for over a year. Each<\/em> <em>employee-owner takes home an additional 8.5 percent of their take-home pay every year in stock options.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/briansolomon\/2013\/07\/24\/the-wal-mart-slayer-how-publixs-people-first-culture-is-winning-the-grocer-war\/\" target=\"_blank\">According to Forbes<\/a>, 58,000 of the company\u2019s 159,000 workers are on track to become owners, and the company makes sure each potential owner gets a broad sense of the business by rotating them through its grocery sector, distribution network, and real estate division.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This year, Publix was ranked as one of FORTUNE\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/corporate.publix.com\/about-publix\/newsroom\/news-releases\/publix-recognized-as-one-of-fortune-100-best-companies-to-work-for-2015\" target=\"_blank\">top 100 companies to work<\/a> based on an anonymous employee survey, which asks questions based on pay and benefits, working conditions, communication with management, and diversity. Publix is only one of 12 companies to be consistently listed by employees as a top place to work every year since the list\u2019s inception in 1998. But\u00a0Publix isn\u2019t dominant in just the grocery industry \u2014 its pharmacies are also consistently outperforming top pharmacies. A <a href=\"http:\/\/retailindustry.about.com\/od\/retailbestpractices\/a\/How-Privately-held-Publix-Supermarkets-Beat-Largest-Publicly-traded-Pharmacies-CVS.htm\" target=\"_blank\">2013 Marketforce survey<\/a> of customers at CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, and Publix rated Publix as providing the most satisfying customer experience.<\/em><\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<em>That high rating by customers is the driving force behind Publix\u2019s success. CEO Todd Jones \u2014 who was a Publix bagger in the late 1960s \u2014 told Forbes the company\u2019s success depends on keeping customers happy. In 2007, Publix <a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/node\/9122287\" target=\"_blank\">ranked first<\/a> in the same American Consumer Satisfaction Index that ranked Walmart last.<\/em><\/div>\n<p><em>\u201cWe believe that there are three ways to differentiate: service, quality and price,\u201d Jones said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be good at two of them, and the best at one. We make service our number one, then quality and then price.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>To take supply-side economists at their word, a company that puts so much time and money into customer service, and shares profits so recklessly with so many workers, would mean they\u2019re going broke, right?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In comparison to the biggest grocery store chains, Publix is the most profitable, posting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/briansolomon\/2013\/07\/24\/the-wal-mart-slayer-how-publixs-people-first-culture-is-winning-the-grocer-war\/\" target=\"_blank\">$27.5 billion in 2012 revenue<\/a>, and profit margins of 5.6 percent that same year. When compared to Walmart\u2019s 3.8 percent margins, along with Kroger, which only made margins of 1.6 percent, Publix is eating its competition for lunch. Even though Walmart pulls 16 times more in annual revenue, the employee-owned chain still has over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailyfinance.com\/2015\/03\/05\/publix-trend-setting-grocery-chain\/\" target=\"_blank\">$100 million more<\/a> in cash and investments on its balance sheet ($6.8 billion)\u00a0than Walmart ($6.7 billion).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And despite the company\u2019s altruistic actions toward workers and customers, it still manages to provide lower prices than Walmart. This 2012 chart shows prices of essential items at Publix and Walmart, and shows how much Publix shoppers save by not spending their money at Walmart:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/3p3mq242g5jc2ki76r3wi6fq.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/walmartvspublix.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3307\" src=\"http:\/\/3p3mq242g5jc2ki76r3wi6fq.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/walmartvspublix.png\" alt=\"walmartvspublix\" width=\"668\" height=\"860\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Whether or not Publix will become the premiere grocery chain in America remains to be seen. But what the company has proven beyond all doubt is that conventional wisdom degrading employee ownership of a company as bad for business is just a myth.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Source: \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/usuncut.com\" target=\"_blank\">usuncut.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 You probably haven&#8217;t heard of the fastest-growing grocery chain in America, but it&#8217;s Publix. \u00a0They are mostly on the east coast so haven&#8217;t yet tried cracking the tough market in California. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0You don&#8217;t hear of many retailers being one of the top companies to work for, but they are. \u00a0They are <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/?p=1424\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retail-companies"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1424"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1482,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions\/1482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}