Smart & Final Stores Inc. Chief Executive Dave Hirz marked the Fourth of July making rotisserie chicken. His culinary endeavors weren’t, however, part of a family cookout.
Hirz, 61, spent Independence Day in the company’s Burbank location helping roast chickens, stock shelves, and decorate sheet cakes alongside the store’s rank and file. The sheet cakes, he said, are not as easy as they look.
“I had no idea how difficult that was,” Hirz said.
The cake-decorating lesson came as part of his initiative to get the corporate team into the Commerce-based company’s stores on Independence Day, the busiest day of the year for Smart & Final. Hirz takes on in-store tasks a few times a year and they are a throwback for the C-suite denizen: He started his career in the grocery business as a stock boy 45 years ago.
He said that while he still enjoys his forays into the brick-and-mortars, his body is less enthusiastic about lugging boxes of wine and cases of beer around the liquor aisle.
“It’s been many years since I was stocking shelves regularly,” Hirz said. “At my age, it’s hard on my back and feet, but it gives us all a new respect for what our store associates do.”
Despite his body’s complaints, he said the experience is both good for employee morale and helps him keep up to speed on the company’s needs.
“I try to spend a lot of time in stores to understand what’s going on and to keep my hand on the pulse of things,” he said. “It’s a great experience.”
Taking Wing
Leah Legler, a senior tax consultant at Ernst & Young, and Christal Shillingford, an EY campus recruiter, recently left the office behind when they embarked on a weeklong trip to Blumenau, Brazil, to participate in the Earthwatch ambassador program.
Sponsored by the Earthwatch Institute, the program connects professionals with scientists and small-business owners across the world. Shillingford and Legler worked in separate groups in the Atlantic Rainforest, studying how weather and climate factors affected the movement patterns of various species of birds.
“Our mornings were spent assisting a local scientist in researching the biodiversity of birds,” said Legler. “Their ultimate goal is to apply that research in order to restore the rainforest.”
The pair captured, cataloged, and released 200 birds from about 35 different species.
In addition to scientific study, the pair spent their evenings working with local businesses and nonprofits to improve their business strategies. Shillingford worked with a local NGO called Puma, an eco-tourism company she consulted with to construct a new business plan. Legler’s group worked with a family-owned restaurant to update their management, marketing, and bookkeeping.
“It’s a great feeling when you can see somebody apply your recommendations that will benefit not only their own business but the community as a whole,” said Shillingford. “You could really see the fruits of your labor, it was life-changing.”
Staff reporters Henry Meier and Carter Stoddard contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Jonathan Diamond. He can be reached at [email protected].
