- Stew Leonard's
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Stew Leonard's 
Type Private Industry Grocery store Founded In 1969 in Norwalk, Connecticut Headquarters Norwalk, Connecticut Key people Stew Leonard, Jr., President and CEO Products Food Revenue $293 million USD (2004) Employees 1,819 Website www.stewleonards.com Stew Leonard's (or, locally, Stew's) is chain of four supermarkets in Connecticut and New York which Ripley's Believe It or Not! deemed "The World's Largest Dairy", with Fortune Magazine listing Stew Leonard's as one of the "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.[1] 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. The store in Norwalk, Connecticut was the first Stew Leonard's store. The previous owner was an elderly woman who had a farm on the property and was selling the land, but under one condition. The buyer must buy the farm and the animals and take care of them. All the buyers were not willing to buy the farm and the animals except Stew. He thought that he could make the farm an attraction at his store. So he purchased the land, farm, and animals and built his store on the land. The store was originally just a dairy store because his previous occupation was being a milkman with his father. The store became more popular because of the farm and the animals because he turned them into a petting zoo for children which still exists today.
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.[2]
Contents
The store
The New York Times called Stew Leonard's the "Disneyland of Dairy Stores." The store has taken tips from educational practices, were they implement visual, auditory, and kinesthetic strategies into their sales. Stew Leonard’s have created animatronics characters called the farm fresh five. These animatronics are life like, which perform songs and dance that entertain the customers from all ages. This has made the shopping experience more engaging and exciting for families. It provides an area for kids to have fun while the parents shop. This new concept of selling has taken away the stress from long lines at the grocery store.[3] 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 business
Stew 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 ten years in a row. It currently has annual sales of around $300 million and has about 2,000 employees. Stew Leonard's also claims "Hello, from over 3,000 cows in Ellington, CT!" (their own farm) on its milk cartons.
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.[1]
Tax fraud
In 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.[4] He was sentenced to 52-months in jail. Court documents indicated that Stew Leonard Jr. played a role in the tax fraud.[5] 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.[5]
References
- ^ a b [1] Hartz-Seeley, Deborah, food writer at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper, "A trip north takes me to Stew Leonard's that reminds me of Penn Dutch", blog entry at her "From the Test Kitchen" blog at the Sun-Sentinel Web site, dated December 17, 2007, accessed December 20, 2007
- ^ http://www.stewleonards.com/html/about.cfm
- ^ www.stewleonards.com
- ^ Fresh milk products and great customer service at Stew Leonard's!
- ^ a b Back From The Brink Everybody knew grocer Stew Leonard as America's king of customer service-crowned by none other than Tom Peters. But Leonard went to jail for tax fraud. Now...
External links
Categories:- Companies based in Fairfield County, Connecticut
- Companies established in 1969
- Family businesses
- Norwalk, Connecticut
- Supermarkets of the United States
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