NOT a Fan of Christmas or Snow
Looking out over The Compound and down into the valley this morning I see a beautiful, picturesque landscape of white snow which has been glazed over with a thin sheet of glistening ice as we received our first snow of 2025. Wondering what there’s not to like admiring this idyllic scene, I suddenly begin to feel nervous and worried with a sense of dread as it’s now suddenly coming back to me why I’m NOT a fan of Christmas or snow.
Yes, “back in the day”, if you were in the supermarket industry and, in particular, working at Giant Food, Christmas and snow were causes for great concern and opportunity. Please allow me to explain why.
Giant Food, the greatest company I ever worked with, enjoyed close to a 50% market share in the mid-1980’s in the Baltimore/Washington market with only Safeway being a major competitor. Yes, there was a chain called Shopper’s Food Warehouse, and a few Food Lions in the outward suburbs, as well as a number of independents, like Magruder’s, but that was it. Of course, today there’s so much more competition in that market and how they all survive is astonishing to me. “Back in the day”, Giant enjoyed the highest average volume/store and was the second most profitable chain in America.
Increasing market share was priority #1 at Giant even though it was the highest price grocer in the marketplace and proud of it. Its Mission Statement was simple consisting of only three words: Quality, Value, Service. Annually, a tactic Giant incorporated in gaining additional market share was something called “Company’s Coming”. Each week, from late August through late October, on Thursday’s and Friday’s, Giant executives and an inspection team, would visit a group of pre-selected stores whose goal was to have that store in “grand opening” condition. In theory, Giant knew many customers, who wouldn’t normally shop at Giant, did so for the holidays knowing they provided the highest quality items for their family to enjoy even though they paid higher prices. Of course, the hope was through this experience, these new customers would become regular customers after the holidays thus increasing Giant’s market share.
Preparing for a successful “Company’s Coming” was a tense, pressure-packed, extremely stressful time as the expectation for your store was perfection, especially, if you were a General Manager (GM). You can’t imagine all the emotions you experience at the end of the day, after you were visited and inspected–relief, pride, gratitude, and exhaustion to name a few. In the weeks it took to prepare for your visit, you weren’t given any extra payroll and, being a Union market, you weren’t allowed to work “off the clock” so to speak, but almost everyone did! It was virtually impossible to get your store ready unless you worked “off the clock”– just don’t get caught!
Speaking of which, when I was GM at my first store, Giant #24 in Old Town Alexandria, getting ready for my first “Company’s Coming” was extremely challenging. I had an excellent Retail Trainee, who had come to Operations from working in Security, who could become a bit aggressive telling it like it was, at times, being forcefully blunt which could become a bit antagonistic if you happened to be on the other end of the conversation. This associate decided to get back at the Retail Trainee by turning him in for working “off the clock” in preparation for “Company’s Coming”. We were ready for our visit and inspection and received high marks, but upon investigation, we were eliminated from competition for having been found to be working “off the clock”. On top of that adding insult to injury, I was given my first and only written Warning Notice for the offense. I distinctly recall my District Manager (DM), Tom, delivering my Warning Notice by folding it into a paper airplane and flying it towards me. Knowing almost everyone at every store worked “off the clock” for “Company’s Coming”, his antic did alleviate some of the pain, but I was one who got caught and paid the price although never again.
The other key about “Company’s Coming” is how it brought your entire store together as you prepared for your visit as everyone had a common bond and it ended up being a tremendous team building experience. At the end of each “Company’s Coming” it was time for the onslaught of both Thanksgiving and Christimas.
Of the two holidays, Thanksgiving was the easiest to prepare for as one’s menu has remained the same for practically ever–turkey, dressing, green beans, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. We’d receive our distribution of the most popular items at the beginning of November and as Thanksgiving Day approached our District (12-13 stores) would keep an inventory of about twenty items on a daily basis and transfer these items between stores so no one would be out of stock. Business would begin to pick up the weekend prior to Thanksgiving and volume would be strong until you closed Wednesday evening. Yes, you were very busy, but Thanksgiving wasn’t dreaded as it was fairly predictable year to year.
Christmas, on the other hand, could be extremely challenging for a number of reasons. Some of those reasons included what day was Christmas going to fall on, family menus varied widely, weather could be impactful (more on that a bit later), and a much larger number of items came into play which always needed to be in stock. Christmas was, quite frankly, exhausting.
I felt the Christmas holiday was divided into four distinct challenges: 1) receiving, storing, and building the displays of distributed key items; 2) preparing and focusing on keeping in stock items needed through the baking season prior to Christmas, 3) serving the onslaught of shoppers the week of Christmas, and 4) after surviving Christmas, preparing and lasting through New Year’s. Whew!!!!
So, needless to say, when Christmas Day finally rolled around, it was just a day off and usually the during the week of New Year’s, I would get sick being extremely run down. These are the reasons I’ve never really been a fan of Christmas!
“Back in the day”, being in the supermarket industry, snow and snow scares were nerve-racking. I swear the executives of Giant had to call all the news stations and get them to promote a snow scare in order to get everyone to frantically head to the grocery store and in a matter of a few hours they’d destroy it. For someone like me who likes to be in control, snow and snow cares left me completely out of control! It was kinda like “holding on for dear life”!
Usually, we’d get a few days warning which allowed us to receive our distribution of extra milk, eggs, and bread. Once the customers began their onslaught on the day of the predicted storm it was all “hands on deck”. This meant keeping the milk, eggs, and bread full while everyone else was up front serving our customers as every checkout was open with baggers. The lines were long and stayed that way until the store closed. At Giant, we did what we had to in order to serve our customers and we were proud that no matter the circumstances, never ever did any of our stores close.
Now you know why I’m NOT a fan of snow–it was exhausting and so unpredictable!
Thankfully now that I’m retired, I’m beginning to enjoy Christmas a bit more, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Yes, the snow is pretty, that is, for a day or two and then it’s nothing but a mess to deal with so I’m still not “head over heals” when it comes to snow.