Stew Leonard’s – My Story

I live about 300 yards up the hill from  Stew Leonard’s.   A couple on months ago I highlighted the Top 10 reasons the store deserved a marketing ‘attaboy’ on my blog at 9 INCH MARKETING.

Stew’s is a dairy store without peer celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. It holds the distinction of being the most profitable grocery store per square foot in the world.  Add on the fact that it has ranked as ‘One of the Top 100 to Work For’ by Fortune Magazine for the last eight straight years.  It is an institutional icon.

On Friday morning I had the opportunity to attend a breakfast event at the store sponsored by the Norwalk Chamber of Commerce. The occasion was the launch of Stew’s new book entitled, Stew Leonard – My Story.  I highly recommend it as I couldn’t put the book down when reading it.  Co-authored by Scotty Reiss, it’s a great read covering:

• how Stew relocated the Clover Dairy due to eminent domain and the construction of Route 7 in Norwalk
• how Stew’s customercentric focus developed over the years
• it discusses the difficult times he encountered having to serve nearly four years for tax evasion
• great stories about Frank Perdue, Sam Walton, Paul Newman, Disney and Tom Peters
• a ‘how to’ guide on running a family business that’s entering its fourth generation of Leonard’s

I frequently use Stew Leonard’s as an example when I try to explain what a ‘purple goldfish’ or marketing lagniappe is.  Stew’s has a handful of extras the store offers. My favorite is the free ice cream or coffee with a purchase of $100 or more in groceries.  It’s that little extra or ‘WOW’ according to Stew.

It’s for these reasons that I’ve decided to induct Stew Leonard’s as the second inductee into the ‘The Purple Goldfish Project Hall of Fame’.

Lagniappe (a little something extra) – Stew told a great story during the breakfast about the power of ‘word of mouth’.  He talked about being asked by the local elementary school to come out and speak on career day.  The prinicipal asked Stew to talk about the milk business.  As Stew pulled into the parking lot he saw a fire truck parked in front of the school with kids all around it.  When he walked through the door he saw a room about the Air Force playing a movie with jet airplanes.  It was filled with kids.  Across the hall was a police officer and we showing a packed classroom about various police equipment and weapons.  Soon he walked down the hall and found his classroom with a sign on the  door that read ‘THE MILK BUSINESS’.  Stew walked in the room to find 3 kids sitting there . . . 2 of which were the sons of one of his managers.  For the next 30 minutes he talked about the dairy business and running a store.  At the end of the talk he thanked the kids and reached in his pocket and handed them each a coupon for a free ice cream.  The kids left and Stew waited for the second of the two sessions for Career Day.  He waited and waited . . . no kids.  After a while the prinicipal came rushing in, “Stew . . . I don’t know what you told those kids, but we have to move your next session to the school auditorium”.